I write in response to your interview with Longshot director, Tim Edwards (Full steam ahead say Cherkley Court developers, May 13).
The challenge to the grant of planning permission was based on the objections raised by conservation bodies, including the Surrey Hills AONB Board, National Trust, Friends of Box Hill and CPRE. Mickleham Parish Council together with local residents, including the Leatherhead Residents Association, who also put in strong objections to Longshot's proposals for a golf course.
The concerns and, indeed grounds, of the legal challenge focused on the landscape, greenbelt policy and questions of the whether there was a need for another golf course which overrode the environmental considerations.
Cherkley Estate is a particularly vulnerable, visible and sensitive site in terms of its habitat and richness in biodiversity.
The Surrey Botanical Society and Surrey Wildlife Trust urged the council to tread with care and conduct habitat surveys before contemplating the grant of planning permission.
Many wrote to the Secretary of State urging him to call in this planning application, including the president of the European Centre for Nature Conservation and Keith Taylor MEP.
I have never understood why the council considered it necessary to sacrifice the farmland to construct yet another golf course (having turned down two applications in the past) and place it in separate ownership to Cherkley Court, which has been immaculately restored and will be converted into a hotel and spa.
The Beaverbrook Golf Course Ltd has been granted a 999 years lease over the farmland.
The ownership of one of the last surviving country house estates in the area has been split between two companies - Longshot Cherkley Court Limited and the Beaverbrook Golf Club Limited. Instead of a single family owning and cherishing the house and its estate we have a variety of private individuals and offshore companies who now control the future of our countryside and a Grade II listed historical home.
I find it hard to understand how these new arrangements will safeguard and protect a local asset for the public benefit as Mr Edward suggests.
Perhaps he would also care to address why he chose to imply that the scheme had the blessing of the council environmentalists or ecologists as I understand MVDC do not employ anyone of either discipline on the council staff.
Perhaps the council should take a leaf out of Sutton Council's book and employ a permanent specialist team to evaluate these sensitive planning applications considering how much of Mole Valley lies within the greenbelt and the number of Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the area including Box Hill which lies adjacent to the Cherkley Estate.
The 40 Acre Field, referred to in your article, is an area of rare chalk grassland that took over 6,000 years to develop into a unique habitat and this will be destroyed in a matter of days.
It is a shame that developers, who could make a difference by conserving our ecology, do not value our rare natural heritage.
Mell Fraser
Ashtead
A member of the Cherkley Campaign Ltd.
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