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Betchworth & Buckland are in Surrey, England. The Society is a managed by a voluntary committee to carry out four goals:
Goals
1.
To protect the natural and built environment
in our villages. 2.
To provide financial support and advice
for projects that enhance village life 3.
To encourage interest in the local history, culture and personalities of
our villages 4. To promote social events to bring together residents of Betchworth and Buckland and raise funds
Activities
to support our goals 1
To protect the environment in
our villages
We
aim to protect the village pro-actively by acting as a representative body for
residents’ views. In addition to
bringing issues to your attention, we gain expert professional representation
residing in our villages and from personal networks, to generate compelling case
views and (where appropriate) legal representation on issues such as: ·
Minimising the disturbance of
sand and chalk pit-mining and landfill (e.g. Nionisle, Hanson, Franks) ·
Protection of local facilities
(post offices & postal services, village shops, inns, bus & rail
services, policing, etc) ·
Controlling air, noise &
light pollution (e.g. Capel incinerator, Gatwick expansion, helicopter noise,
unwanted streetlights) ·
Traffic & motor bike
speeding, parking and cycling ·
Footpaths and bridleways ·
Refuse collection and recycling ·
Responding with formal
representations to Planning applications (e.g. individual housing proposals,
mineral rights extensions or potential major housing-estate or commercial
developments). Our
Society offers a powerful additional channel to the local Parish Councils, in
supporting member-villagers to give a direct input to Planning Enquiries and
Hearings. As an independent,
recognised community group, membership of our Society helps to command a direct
influence. 2.
To provide financial support and advice for projects that enhance village
life For
projects that enhance our mission, the Society may elect to award a grant toward
the cost of the project. This is at
the discretion of the Committee, and subject to funds being available from our
subscriptions. Activities
include: ·
Direct grants to improve the
‘quality of life’ in our villages. We have
supported floodlighting the Church
of ·
Advice to villagers on grant
availability for conservation of our ancient buildings, farm, ecology and rural
development projects 3.
To encourage interest in the local history, culture and personalities of
our villages ·
We have two public meetings per
year with guest speakers that are of interest to our membership, usually
concerning our local area or immediate surroundings.
·
Organised meetings and lectures
on local history, ecology, conservation, building restoration, local family
genealogy, archaeology, etc, usually related to our villages and surrounding
areas. ·
Promotion of local events in
collaboration with other bodies (e.g. Civic Trust Open Days, Dorking Local
History Group). 4.
To promote social events to bring together residents of Betchworth and
Buckland and raise funds It
is always good to socialise with people locally, especially those sharing a love
of our villages, and appreciate the privilege of enjoying our local countryside.
We will particularly welcome those who have recently moved to our
villages to introduce them to our neighbours.
Some social events have an open invitation to all members and villagers.
This will also help the Society to raise funds to meet our other goals. ·
Social events – such as open gardens, barbeques,
local guided walks, lectures, etc, are announced as a published programme of events at the start of the year - with local publicity
through posters, the Parish Magazines, and email reminders shortly before event ·
A web site stating our mission,
goals, events and member activities. History
of the Betchworth & Buckland Society The
Betchworth & Buckland Society was founded in 1971 to look after the
interests of Betchworth and Buckland and the surrounding areas.
Over the years, the Society has been instrumental in a number struggles
against developers and others to preserve the environment, the natural beauty
and the lifestyle that we all enjoy in our villages. The
Society has evaluated practically every Planning Application submitted to the
Local Authority, and where the Society considers that the application may
detract from the aesthetics or structure of our villages, a representation to
the Council has been made. This has
meant that over the years, new housing has been limited, and that which has been
developed is largely built in the local building style, and so the character of
our villages remains intact. Many
who have lived in the villages for a long time will remember the powerful cases
we have put forward to control activities at Betchworth Quarry and Tapwood Pit.
This has been achieved through co-ordinating powerful ad-hoc action
groups supported by professional advisors – including many local professionals
who have provided their expert time voluntarily to support our cause.
We, in Betchworth and Buckland, live in a very talented society and
the experience of the Society when dealing with the problems at Betchworth
Quarry was that there was a huge resource of talent within the village that was
readily available to us. In
recent years, the Society has been increasingly involved with the protection of
the village environment and quality of lifestyle.
Recent support has been given to a new nursery facility for Acorns
School
and also for the floodlighting of
St Mary's Buckland. The
Society has been a ready supporter of commemorative events in the villages with
both help and advice where requested and also with contributions towards costs,
including both Jubilees. As
time goes on, the nature of the threats to our surroundings and lifestyle
changes. Our Society is adopting to
challenge these changes. One
of the great strengths of the Society has been its knowledge of the local area
and of the people that live in it.
The
independent position of our Society can consider long-term, holistic and
surrounding effects – especially if it affects our environment.
The Capel incinerator, Gatwick runway extensions, M25 widening are just
some examples of developments in our surrounding parishes that may affect our
‘quality of life’. Such
perspectives may be supplementary or broader than the view of our Parish
Councils. Within
our parishes, we face less immediate planning threats since, in 2001, the Mole
Valley District Council has determined that no new housing should be built in
Buckland, so there will be fewer such planning applications for the Society to
consider. We are, however, now
concerned with more environmental issues, traffic problems, protection of local
services, air pollution, maintaining and restoring our landscape and access
rights. Our ‘quality
of life’ also involves protecting local shops, ensuring that schools, public
transport, and policing standards are maintained.
It is for these reasons that the Committee of the Society has revised the
goals of the Society – as presented above. The
Betchworth & Buckland Society is not a Charity.
The Committee give their time freely, and the funding helps support the
award of grants to the community and expert advice, communication and publicity
to support representations. Our funds come entirely from subscriptions and
donations.
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