Michael Dnes

The twist in the snail The snails are on the move - in a good way

The snails are on the move - in a good way
michaeldnes1.substack.com/p/the-twist-...

And the way you make that happen is you email surreyhillsaonbboundaryreview@naturalengland.org.uk .

Normally, these consultations get a few hundred respondents. More people will read this thread and its friends.

Let’s make the M25 ugly again.

2) Actually review the impact of the motorway. And where land is no longer beautiful, free it up for development.

Because it includes places that are half-way between Heathrow and Gatwick. Vacant fields that would make great European headquarters for global companies.

I’d politely suggest she send it back, and ask for two things before saying yes:

1) No new AONB designation within 500m of a train station, so the government policy of ‘yes’ really means yes.

Fortunately, there is one person who can change this – Emma Reynolds, the Defra secretary of state.

There is one last consultation, and in January she gets to decide whether or not to sign off Natural England’s plan.

She’s within her rights to say ‘try again’.

Otherwise, you end up with the Orwellian situation of designating a motorway for natural beauty, while also saying they’re unthinkable desecration.

And if you do that, you’re not the kind of person who should be standing in the way of the govt’s housing plans.

I don’t want to come across as hostile to the environment. I get the case for protecting good landscapes.

There’s an argument you shouldn’t have a motorway in an AONB. There’s also an argument that you could.

But you have to pick one.

That’s right. We’re going to designate huge areas as beautiful and protected. But we will give nothing back. Even if it has a motorway in the middle of it.

Like any true romance, the M25 only grows more beautiful with age.

But this isn’t just a local problem. It goes back to the core of the review.

Because when Natural England started out on project to reassess the natural beauty of this area they set a very important rule.

We’re going to ignore the motorways.

There _is_ an oblique reference in a section marked ‘marginal areas’ that accepts existing transport infrastructure “may undermine perceptions of tranquillity”.

Which, on balance, I would agree with.

And if that report says it’s beautiful, it’s in.

Though, oddly, this report misses the fact that they are designating an 8-lane motorway.

Which I take to be a triumph of good highway design.

You might ask, how did they justify that?

Well, to create an AONB you have to prove the land is beautiful. And, unsurprisingly, there is a requirement for much paperwork

They send out a consultant who judges the beauty of the area, and writes a report

This bit kind of has to be in. Because without taking a chunk of M25, the AONB cannot acquire a 7 sq mile area to the south.

So we’re going to overlook that motorway.

To be fair, there are already motorways in AONBs. Sizeable chunks of the M4 go through protected landscapes.

But the M25 is a bit extreme. It’s not so much that the motorway goes through the AONB; more like the AONB is retraining as a hard shoulder

This is the stretch in question.

It’s a winter shot, so it doesn’t really do justice. In Spring, I imagine the blossom on the trees beautifully complements the bright orange of the emergency refuge area.

Not many people think of the M25 as an example of outstanding natural beauty. But actually, from junctions 3-8 it almost all AONB. See the s*b***k for why.

But there’s a gap. And this expansion fixes that.

Please don’t get me wrong – there are good reasons to protect beautiful landscapes.

But it does pose the question ‘what is beauty?’

And in this particular situation, we also have to ask ‘and why does Natural England think the answer is ‘the M25’’?

You might ask whether a general election, a change of government and a substantially different set of policy objectives might prompt a rethink.

Evidently not. Because they published the final plans 72 hours after the train station announcement

You might think that this seems at odds with the policies of this government – given they wish for 1.5 million homes, and do not consider green belt to be sacred.

And you would be right. Because this policy was started in 2021, under the last government.

Nor is it alone. I see similar stories at Oxted and Chipstead, Coulsdon, Betchworth and Ockley. In Dorking, next to the industrial estate. In Milford, next to the solar farm.

I’m sure I’ve missed others.

Take Woldingham for example – currently on the boundary of the AONB (dark green), soon to be fully encircled (light green).

The station has a train every 30 minutes to London Victoria.

The red line shows the land govt wants to unlock.

And around London, Natural England is consulting on taking the AONB nearest to London – Surrey Hills – and expanding it.

Which means that there are quite a few train stations around London, in open fields, where development will shortly be made extremely difficult.

The government calls this a ‘default yes’. But there are things that will turn this into a default no

One of those things is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB/National Landscape). Planning policy says building here should be avoided if possible – which seems reasonable

Housebuilding around train stations will be given default “yes” Housebuilding near well-connected train stations will receive a default “yes” in future if they meet certain rules, ensuring more homes are built

Part of government’s plan to get houses built involves allowing more building near train stations.

www.gov.uk/government/n...

It’s a big YIMBY cause worldwide to make it easier to build homes near train stations, so the people living there can get to work without driving.

Whenever I write one of these, I make sure there are footnotes. You can find them over on the substack, plus some extra detail on how this all came about

michaeldnes1.substack.com/p/motorway-o...

This week the government announced that it wanted to ensure development next to train stations gets an automatic yes.

There’s one area near London where that won’t be happening.

And it’s home to a motorway that will soon be – by law – beautiful.

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Going faster, higher and further in greater comfort feels like a core mission for abundance.

So yes to the trains; but it’s time to start talking seriously about the other stuff too.

These things can make tangible improvements to peoples’ lives, and can demonstrate the value of progress in real terms.

Just the way other improvements in transport used to do for hundreds of years.

Autonomous vehicles could spare Americans from 93 billion hours of drudgery a year.

E-bikes, with the right infrastructure, could turn summertime commutes into joy rides.

Planes that can outrun Concorde would halve the size of oceans.