After inspecting the wildlife surveys carried out on the West Cranleigh Nurseries site, the Cranleigh Society has written to Waverley Borough Council pointing out that at present the survey information is skewed towards the end of the active season for the majority of the protected species. This means that the full impact on species such as Bats, Dormice, Water Voles and Great Crested Newts has not been fully assessed.

The government website www.gov.uk provides standing advice for protected species including when surveys should be carried out.

The Bat survey was carried out on the 9 and 28 Sept 2014, which is the sub optimal time for emergence, swarming and activity surveys.

It is recommended that the Reptile survey (great crested newts) should be carried out between mid-March and mid-June with at least 2 visits between mid-April and mid-May. The visits for this site took place between 13 September and 3 October 2014.

With regard to the presence of Water Vole in accordance with guidelines surveys are meant to take place between April and October. This survey took place on 3 October 2014.

With regard to the Dormice Survey this was only started in September and is outside the recommended time to observe dormice activity which is from April to October.

If you want to save Cranleigh’s wildlife then please write and object to the Knowle Park Initiative, you can find further details here.