Save the Hog’s Back Campaign Calls For Legal Help

Published on: 15 Oct, 2013
Updated on: 15 Oct, 2013

Karen Stevens looks out over the threatened fields that border her garden.

A leading campaigner for the Save the Hog’s Back campaign is appealing for legal help.

Karen Stevens, who lives on the edge of the area under threat said: “Frankly we need all the help we can get. We really need a lawyer with some expertise on planning. This might easily become a legal battle and we need to be fully prepared to fight in every way we can.

“We are determined to do everything in our power to stop this unbelievable plan to build on these beautiful green belt fields.

“I am sure that the people of Guildford when they welcomed the University of Surrey to the town never envisaged that they would extend their campus so extensively, let alone become housing developers.

A view from higher on the Hog’s Back across the site, parts of which are designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

“I know that there is a need for houses but the council must be able to find less sensitive sites. They should try harder to ensure that all the brown field sites are developed first.

“As Cllr Richard Billington from Shere correctly said recently, in the debate over another 400 houses in Ash: ‘You can only build on a green field sites once. Then they are gone forever.'”

The Save the Hog’s Back campaign was launched after the University of Surrey confirmed that the land has been made available for a residential development of up to 2,000 homes.

Karen at work on the campaign which is largely web based and includes an e-petition.

Campaign organisers have already launched a website www.savehogsback.co.uk, a Facebook page www.facebook.com/savehogsback and a Twitter account @savehogsback as well as an e-petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/54573 that has collected over 700 signatures within just five weeks since September 10.

The whole site falls with the green belt, with parts designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and as an Area of Great Landscape Value.

A spokesperson for the University of Surrey is on record to have said: “It is our intention that any future development of this site would have principles of sustainable development and a focus on high architectural standards at its core, ensuring this land is used in a way in which future generations can be proud.”

The distant Surrey Sports Park, built on a green field site, is the current extent of university expansion.

Guildford Borough Council’s Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment describes the area around Blackwell Farm as having the potential for 1,933 homes, up to 300 of which could be developed within the next five years on the most sensitive part of the site.

The council is under pressure to come up with a Local Plan that includes enough new houses to satisfy the Planning Inspectorate. If the number of houses included in the plan is too low it is likely to be rejected, as has happened with Waverley Borough Council’s plan recently.

The problem is particularly difficult for Guildford Borough Council because of the high percentage of green belt land in the borough.

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