Development of Blackwell Farm and Manor Farm will be at a huge cost to the environment

• The site  is great amenity for the people of Guildford –  it is used by walkers, joggers and cyclists, as well as by microlite and acrobatic-aircraft enthusiasts.

• There are beautiful hedgerows with a variety of plants, old trees, ponds supporting all forms of wildlife.  There are rare species of wild flowers, including pyramid orchids.

• There are deer, foxes, rabbits and snakes (adders, grass snakes and slow worms). There are badgers, stoats and weasels, and field mice. There are buzzards, kestrels, owls, pheasants and woodpeckers. There are also skylarks, yellow hammers and little owls, which are all endangered.

• The ancient woodland, which won’t be built on under the proposals, will be completely surrounded on all sides by development and will change in character as the inhabitants of 1,800 homes will cut through the woods as a shortcut to Tesco.

• Blackwell Farm is prime farmland – the UK is placing ever more reliance on imported food and every  field concreted over will be another field of food to be imported at greater environmental cost.