Trees in Cranleigh, preserving our Heritage

Trees in Cranleigh, preserving our Heritage

Preserving our tree heritage

We’ve had quite a few residents contact us and the Parish Council with concerns about the trees in and around Village Way Cranleigh. One of our committee members raised the matter at the Parish Council meeting of 23rd June. Simultaneously we have applied for a Tree Preservation Order on the magnificent oak tree by the tennis courts.

Many of us are concerned that the proposed new leisure centre and the ensuing enlargement of the car park, will create harm to this splendid specimen. Concern and of course, rumour, has been swirling around the trees besides the Band Room and the Parish Council offices.

We have been assured by the Parish Council officer and councillor that there is no threat to any of these trees and that the area around the oak will not be covered in hardstanding in any way.  As we all know the tree roots extend out generally to the same area as the tree canopy covers above, so we will be watching carefully to see what transpires.

We are waiting a response from Waverley tree preservation team, but it is likely our plea will be rejected because they do not believe the tree to be under direct threat. Incidentally the tree in question is on Waverley Borough Council land.

Watch this space!

In the meantime if you are concerned about particular trees you may find this – here – link helpful https://www.waverley.gov.uk/Services/Planning-and-building/Heritage-trees-and-design/Tree-Preservation-Orders-TPOs-and-Trees-in-Conservation-Areas  

Our Parish Councillors are on the case

At a recent meeting of Cranleigh Parish Council they discussed Surrey County Council and the Forestry commission’s project to plant around 34,000 in Surrey!

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/local-authority-treescapes-fund – click here to read more.  Defra has opened round two of the Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF) to increase tree planting and natural regeneration in non-woodland areas. The fund is part of the government’s Nature for Climate Fund and will directly contribute to achieving our ambitious tree planting targets. £5.4 million will be available through LATF this year (2022/23) for planting trees outside woodlands. We expect that up to 100 grants worth £50,000 to £300,000 will be available for local authorities, working together with community groups, volunteers and NGOs.

Trevor Dale

Chair, Cranleigh Civic Society

Beryl Harvey Field working party this Sunday 9th April, 10-12am

Beryl Harvey Field working party this Sunday 9th April, 10-12am

This Sunday 9th April (10-12am) there is another working party at the Beryl Harvey Conservation Field. This is a really worthwhile cause and a good excuse to get out in the fresh air this weekend.  The field is located next to the football fields and the allotments. Children are welcome, but sorry no dogs are allowed.

See the note below from Julia Reed, who is organising the working party.

Hi Everyone

Just a quick reminder that we have our usual monthly task at BHF this Sunday 9th April. The woodland flowers are beginning to look lovely, with wood anemones, celandine, primroses and the bluebells are starting to flower in the woods, but not showing any colour yet in the field.

There is an incredible difference between the fenced patches of field and the grass & flowers in the rest of the field, showing how much damage the rabbits do, particularly to certain plants, so this task we are going to try and fence some more areas to see what flowers we can encourage . The cowslips are particularly suffering & we already know that Ox Eye daisies have failed to establish due to rabbits.

We are also going to fence around the new willow tunnel,  started last month , as the rabbits have started on that. Alongside the  usual tasks we will also try & get through the brambles to clear around the entrance to the artificial badger sett, which was constructed using spoil from the pond,  to see if we can encourage use of that . A new artificial sett has just been created on the Berkeley homes site as they discovered one ( not currently in use) in the woodland they have sadly cleared.

We also had a lot of frogspawn in the pond this year and a moorhen is nesting again.

Theo of NaturdayZ  made a successful presentation to the Parish Council in March & we have had preliminary discussions this evening about the possibility of having an open day at the field, with him offering some activities, to publicise the field and encourage it’s use by the local community including local children. He will then hopefully offer a monthly activity morning to local children. It would be wonderful to see more children learning about nature and enjoying being outside and making good use of the field.

Best wishes,

Julia.

Windy Way, The Common Application Refused

Windy Way, The Common Application Refused

Waverley Borough Council refused the application WA/2016/1544 on 29 September 2016 for the demolition of Windy Way on Cranleigh Common and the building of a block of 6 flats and two semi detached dwellings on the site.

The reasons given were in summary:

  • Harm to the Conservation Area.
  • Harm to neighbouring properties.
  • Over development of the site.
  • Proposed buildings out of keeping.
  • Not a good use of the space.

You can read the refusal reasons in full here:

windy-way-refusal-29-09-16

Existing Bungalow

windy-way-bungalow-front-elevation

Replacement Block flats and Houses

Flats Side elevation (over 13m in height):

windy-way-flats

Houses (x2) Side Elevation (over 13m in height):

windy-way-semi-detached

Position on plot:

windy-way-block-plan

High Street Conservation Area Extended

High Street Conservation Area Extended

Waverley Borough Council formally adopted the extension of the Cranleigh High Street Conservation Area on the 19 July 2016.

Cranleigh Civic Society took part in the review and consultation, alongside local historians, representatives of Surrey Archaeological Society and representatives of Cranleigh History Society.

There were several changes made, the main ones being the extension of the Conservation Area to include the south side of the High Street and Cranleigh Common.

Previous Conservation Area (blue line):

Map of Cranleigh Conservation Area in High Street

New Conservation Area (blue line):

map of the Cranleigh High Street conservation area

This extension of the area will ultimately help to safeguard the heritage and design assets of Cranleigh village centre.

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

WALK ON THE WILD SIDE

A brief history of Cranleigh’s conservation area – known as Beryl Harvey Field. It was originally part of Coldharbour Farm and given to Cranleigh Parish Council in 1970 by Mr Gordon Harvey, in memory of his wife, for the use and enjoyment of the people of Cranleigh and District, as an open space and/or allotments.

Initially, the whole field was used as allotments but by 1986 many were neglected. The remaining plots were consolidated in the lower part of the field. At the suggestion of John Hill, who founded the Cranleigh and District Conservation Volunteers, the Parish council agreed to support the creation of a wildlife conservation area on the upper part of the field. This is entirely consistent with Mr Harvey’s wishes.

At a time when Cranleigh is under huge pressure to develop surrounding green fields, this conservation area is very precious.

The list of wild flowers which can now flourish on the field throughout the year number almost one hundred. In July, betony, lady’s bedstraw, bird’sfoot trefoil, meadow vetchling, wood avens, perforate St John’s wort, gypsywort, sneezewort, agrimony, purple loosestrife and musk mallow can be found.

2015-06-14 11.39.09

Common Spotted Orchid

The ending ‘wort’ which is pronounced wert and not wart, is old English for ‘root’ (wyrt) and is generally used for the names of plants which were thought to have medicinal properties.

Bird’s foot trefoil particularly attracts butterflies – look out for meadow brown, gatekeeper and red admiral. Eighteen varieties of butterfly have been recorded on the site.

2015-08-09 11.32.04

Gatekeeper Butterfly

Try and make time to Walk on the Wild side this month.

Written by: Miki Marks

Help out with the Conservation Group the next dates for your diary for 2016 are:

  •  12 June
  •  10 July
  •  14 August
  •  11 September
  •  9 October
  •  13 November
  •  11 December

The Group meets at 10am on the Beryl Harvey Field and usually work for a couple of hours.  You can stay for as long as you can.

Position of Beryl Harvey Field in Cranleigh

Read more about the Beryl Harvey Conservation Field:

BERYL HARVEY FIELD WORKING PARTY 10 MAY 2015

CRANLEIGH CONSERVATION GROUP

BERYL HARVEY WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS