Further to the rather dubious claims made on the Sondes Place Farm website about how environmentally friendly they are the following information has come to light about the building of 'silage mounds' on the Sondes Place Farm site and the dumping of copious amounts of waste from house building sites in and around the south east of England, all for profit. This is the contents of an email sent by a resident of West Dorking.
"Hello,
I would like to highlight and hopefully gain your support with regards to an ongoing problem for the whole community of Dorking in Surrey, but specifically the elderly residents of Hanover Court and vulnerable adult residents of Pound House.
In April this year large lorries from a company called PJ Browns started travelling through Dorking, creating a huge increase in traffic and pollution in an already gridlocked town centre, and onto Sondes Place Farm via Milton Court Lane, past Milton Pound, a Grade II listed structure for which the vibrations and pollution can only have a detrimental effect. As such the lorries are also travelling within a couple of metres of the residents of both Hanover Court and Pound House and are causing a terrible noise and dust pollution as they drive past. It is not an exaggeration to say that it has been ruining the lives of the residents of Hanover Court retirement village at a time when they should be enjoying their twilight years.
The full effect this that this ongoing disruption is having on the residents of Hanover Court, both individually and as a community is nothing short of devastating. I spoke to an 88 year old woman who broke down crying, she is on her own, lonely and has been unable to sit on the bench outside her house to interact with other people, hang her washing out, or even open her bedroom window since April. She believes that she may have less than a year to live and that this is ruining her final days. This is just one of numerous similar stories from residents that I can relay.
Having looked into it as a concerned member of the community I now know that the planning approval MO/2021/0170 on Sondes Place Farm for two silage mounds was agreed in March this year. Shortly after huge lorries full of mud started arriving at Sondes Place Farm every 3 - 10mins, 8am - 4.30pm, Monday – Saturday and they are still arriving all these months later. It is also widely known within the community that Mr Broom, who is the farmer at Sondes Place Farm, is being paid a huge amount of money from construction sites all over the South of England to dump their unwanted mud on his land – under the guise of building the silage mounds and other projects.
My current understanding is that as the permission for the silage mounds was given for ‘agricultural purposes’ no objections by the community were able to be logged or even taken into consideration. It is also clear in all of the correspondence that I have had with the council regarding this that they are either unable or unwilling to stop this blatant money grabbing scheme, despite the negative effect it is having on the people of Dorking. The planning department are also unable or unwilling to give any assurance about potential disruptions going forward and it would seem at this point that this could be going on indefinitely which is nothing short of terrifying.
Further to this the lorries are driving along Milton Court Lane, onto the track that joins bridleway 110 before turning off onto Sondes Place Farm. This means that they are travelling along a cycle lane intended to provide a safe route for children living in Westcott to get to and from school in Dorking by bike. They are then driving through Sondes Place Farm and along and across Bridleway 112, which is a popular and picturesque route to Ranmore from both Westcott and Dorking. The Surrey County Council website states ‘There is no public right of way for any vehicles on a footpath or bridleway (except pedal cyclists, who may use a bridleway)’ and yet the council allows this ongoing danger not only to children, but also to walkers, dog walkers and cyclists and it is a matter of time until someone is seriously hurt. Quite frankly it beggar’s belief that the council are even allowing such dangerous traffic to use this route, yet alone at the volumes we’re seeing. It’s also worth noting that in the planning permission for the silage mounds it states that there would be no increase in traffic, which is just ridiculous.
I want to stress that I have absolutely no objections to a local farmer making money and I support all efforts to keep Sondes Place Farm a working farm. However I only offer this support if the local community, specifically vulnerable members of it and the environment aren’t negatively affected by it – especially in such a harmful manner.
Thank you"
It is interesting to note the dual standards being applied to this potential planning application by the Trustees of Sondes Place Farm.
From the Sondes Place Farm website;
"Since 2002, much of the farm has been part of The Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Currently the farm is part of the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS). As result of both schemes we have been carried out a number of major conservation projects on the farm."
How does this fit with selling off their land to developers to enable them to build 128 new homes? What happened to enabling bio diversity?
"In 2003, in conjunction with a local coppice-worker, who was just starting his business, we set about restoring some of the farms 60 acres of woodland. We have, so far, coppiced 10 acres. This is the first time the woods have been coppiced for over 70 years. In 2014 we applied for a 10 year management plan for our woodland that should see further restoration work done over the next decade."
Land sold off for development will decimate the existing wildlife habitats. It will take decades to re-establish anything on a similar scale. The habitats will be lost forever.
"Preserving, and improving, the habitats and natural environments on our farm for future generations to enjoy, is very important to us. Since 2002, much of the farm has been part of The Countryside Stewardship Scheme. Currently the farm is part of the Higher Level Stewardship Scheme (HLS). As result of both schemes we have been carried out a number of major conservation projects on the farm.
These include:
- Re-introduction of over 2500 metres of new hedgerows
- Laid (with the help of both The Surrey and The South of England hedge-laying Societies) over 3000 metres of existing hedgrerows
- Created 3 wildlife ponds in Long Meadow
- Maintained over 5Km of 6 metre wide field margins, which act as wildlife corridors.
- Pollarded over 100 waterside trees, in order to open up the area around the PippBrook stream. This has created a much lighter environment, allowing a greater variety of plant and animal species to thrive.
- Maintain 40 acres of conservation-grade grassland. These are managed without the use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals."
All of this very laudible work is being done in the full knowledge that the reality is that this very land is being sold off to developers for house building purposes for financial gain without a second thought for the massive environmental costs and the disasterous increases in environmental, noise and light pollution we will have to pay and live with for future generations.