We attended the Surrey Wildlife Trust (SWT) AGM at the University of Surrey on 12 November.
We asked what SWT’s plans are for generating more income or cutting costs, if parking charges do not go ahead at Newlands Corner due to the Planning Inspectorate?
Roger Wild, Finance Director, said that SWT would have to go back to Surrey County Council (SCC) about how things will be managed in the future.
Later Nigel Davenport, Chief Executive, said that there will be parking charges at Newlands Corner next year, and some improvement to the facilities. [Save Newlands Corner: Interestingly that is what SWT and SCC said would happen this year but clearly they had not considered the level of public opposition to their plans.]
His explanation for supporting the proposals to commercialise Newlands Corner was that SCC had to reduce payments due to financial constraints and SWT could have walked away or had a fight with SCC or worked with them. They chose the last, and said he is absolutely sure it was the right decision. [Save Newlands Corner: However, this financial argument is not supported by SWT’s own annual accounts (Click link here). These show that, despite a reduction in the SCC grant, SWT still made a surplus of over £1M last year and currently have reserves in excess of £5M.]
Save Newlands Corner 
November 17, 2016 at 11:38 am
What an Absolute disgrace ..!
I’d like to see Surrey Wildlife Trust have all involvement with Newlands Corner withdrawn from them.
What exactly do they do ?
.. it seems the sole purpose of Surrey Wildlife Trust, is to gather money from SWT members
(from ordinary folk who genuinely committed to protecting the Surrey Wildlife)
and the Surrey County Council .. where does these enormous sums of money end up .. ?
It seems into Surrey Wildlife Trust’s Bank Account .
Truly appalling ..£1 million surplus from last year.
and £5 million in Reserves ..
Have they No shame ? How can the SWT still ask for more from SCC, ~and yes and STILL want to impose Car Parking Charges..
Well .. the Friends, and everyone who wants Newlands Corner to be free from charges, free to all,
we will continue to oppose these proposals with the utmost vigour ..
Thanks SNC team ..
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November 17, 2016 at 12:03 pm
That would save a lot of dormice.
What do the Charity Commission have to say I wonder?
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November 17, 2016 at 6:47 pm
Let’s see what the Planning Inspector say next year?????
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November 18, 2016 at 12:37 pm
I will be stopping my 20 year membership of SWT this year if these parking charges go ahead.This saving will then enable me to pay these iniquitous parking charges when I frequently visit Newlands Corner.
I was at the Trinity Chuch Meeting in Guildford when this idiot Davenport sat at the front sulking because so many people were against his dreadful plans for Newlands Corner.
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December 11, 2016 at 2:10 pm
I see in this week’s Surrey Advertiser that Surrey Wildlife Trust has quickly voiced its concerns about the proposals for a new M25/A3 interchange. It says “SWT is concerned about the potential ecological impact on the Ockham and Wisley Commons”. It is concerned about “the survival of protected species of ground nesting birds”. So, why isn’t it concerned about the Small Blue butterfly, the protected bats, the threatened hazel dormice, the protected Roman snails and the protected ancient yews at Newlands Corner. Could it be that it’s harder to make money out of Ockham and Wisley Commons, whereas Newlands Corner is an easy monetary target. Double standards.
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