Transcript

Okay. Good morning, everybody. This is the cabinet member's decision for the environment. And I'm standing in for Marissa Heef. And it's Tuesday, the 28th of May. That's what I'm going to formally do. So if I can quickly go to the agenda. Item one, I'm taking there's no declarations of interest. No procedural matters. So we'll go straight to item three. Hello, David. So this is the high wheeled area of outstanding natural beauty management plan. The floor is yours just to give a very quick summary of what the plan is so we can make a decision. Thank you. Thank you very much. The high wheeled area of outstanding natural beauty AONB is one of two AONBs in Surrey. It's the largest one in the southeast and is one of 46 areas designated AONB across England. The high wheeled AONB was designated in 1983. And its landscape is characterized by dispersed settlements, historic farmlands, and over 60% of the area of the high wheeled AONB is farmland. The high wheeled AONB is run by the high wheeled AONB unit, which is responsible for preparing the management plan and carrying out the review. The unit is largely a strategic body influencing policy across the area and running a series of projects to manage the landscape. Under part four of the countryside and rights of way act 2000, all local authorities with an area in the AONB have a duty to produce a management plan and to review that plan every five years. The county council along with other local authorities have a delegated have delegated that task to the joint advisory committee of the high wheeled AONB. The JAC comprises representatives from the 15 local authorities across the area. The management plan was originally developed in consultation with the county council and other local authorities plus other partners in 2004. So the management plan when adopted is used to inform policies and actions across the partner councils to help meet their statutory duties to conserve and enhance the AONB. As part of the development of this management plan, extensive consultation with partners and the public across the high wheeled AONB area has taken place. In terms of risk management and implications, if the county council does not adopt the plan, then it would be in breach of the countryside and rights of way act 2000 and would be expected to produce its own review and management plan to cover the AONB in Surrey. The county council contributed a small amount per annum towards the partnership costs of the high wheeled AONB and section 151 and legal implications are included within the report. Thank you very much, David. So really this is a statutory responsibility because otherwise there are statutory consequences. I'm not sure actually when I introduced myself I've actually said who I was. So my apologies for anybody watching. I'm sure there's loads of people watching. I'm Kevin Deenis, I'm one of the cabinet members and one of my portfolio responsibilities is fire and resilience and I think this does actually fit within resilience by having the past being the cabinet member or deputy for environment. So I'm really, really pleased to see this. I don't have any questions as I've looked through these papers. I think we've really got just one recommendation today. So it's recommended that the cabinet member, that's me today, agree to adopt the high wheeled AONB management plan for 2024 to 2029, which I do. And can you thank all the people who have worked on this plan to bring it to the cabinet member decisions today. And I think as probably we don't need anything else. So thank you everybody for this meeting and I'll conclude it.