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Thames Basin Heath
(TBH) Special Protection Area (SPA) Avoidance Strategy
Apologies for the long
indecipherable words. This Strategy is a set of
rules that Guildford Borough Council was required to
draw up by the Government and Natural England in order
to protect heathlands like WHITMOOR COMMON.
The rules prevent new
residential housing being built within 400m of Whitmoor
Common, and require developers to pay quantities of
money if they build within 5km, which goes towards
development and care of other recreational space that is
supposed to be more attractive to dog walkers and others
users that might otherwise damage the common. In
the case of housing built in Stoughton and Westborough,
money would pay for the Riverside Nature Reserve in
Burpham!
SCA supported the
protection of the common which is a vital "green lung"
for Stoughton, but campaigned with other North Guildford
organisations for the council to accept the strategy was
flawed; that new and old dog owners would never swap the
delights of the common for a park on the other side of
Guildford; and money should pay towards improving local
facilities that residents would actually use.
These rules are up for
review. We all have from 22nd June to 5pm on
10th September 2009 to submit our comments.
>> CLICK HERE
- for more information about the
TBHSPA
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