FAQS
Background
Dunsfold Park comprises Dunsfold Aerodrome and the adjoining business park.
86% of Dunsfold Park is categorised as Brownfield (Previously Developed Land).
Trinity College Cambridge has owned Dunsfold Park since December 2013.
These proposals are being brought forward by the Rutland Group, a property development, management and investment company. The Rutland Group owned Dunsfold Park between 2000 and 2013 and, in partnership with TCC, continues to manage the site.
The site was developed as a Second World War aerodrome by the Royal Canadian Engineers in 1942. After the war the aerodrome was leased by a charter airline until 1950, when it was acquired by the Hawker Aircraft Company. Hawker Aircraft Company eventually became a part of BAE Systems, who continued to own the airfield until 2000.
Today the aerodrome is designated as a private unlicensed airfield with an underlying planning permission for the erection, repair and flight testing of aircraft.
Alongside the aerodrome, 500,000 sq. ft of redundant buildings left behind by BAE have been transformed and rejuvenated to provide a home to over 100 local businesses, employing around 1,000 people. It is the largest employment site in Waverley. The business park is unique in being able to offer large open spaces, various different sized buildings and roadways and runways ideal for car testing and filming.
The vision
Dunsfold Park will be a new Surrey village, the first planned village to be built in the county for more than 100 years. It offers a new concept in rural living, surrounded by parkland, inspired by its aviation history and landscape context.
Like a traditional village Dunsfold Park will combine working and living and will offer a degree of self-containment in its provision of local services. It will be integrated with the surrounding landscape, dedicated to recreation and biodiversity.
Our ten-point vision statement summarises what is special about Dunsfold Park and continues to be refined and expanded, it is as follows:
- An active centre at the heart of the village
- A wide range of homes for all
- A walkable place
- Promoting jobs alongside homes
- Encouraging sustainable travel
- A parkland setting
- A healthy place to live and work
- Innovative technologies for energy and waste
- Celebrating Dunsfold Park’s heritage
- Beautiful modern homes inspired by their context
The masterplan for the new village has been evolving since the grant of outline planning permission in 2018. There are four main changes which are:
- The main access on the A281 has moved to the east. It now lines up with the main runway and provides a more direct route into both the business park and the new residential village. This is an opportunity, made possible by DAL’s recent purchase of land to the east of the previous site boundary. A stand-alone planning application for the new access was submitted in August 2019 and planning permission granted in October 2019.
- In April 2019 Gordon Murray Design obtained planning approval for a new headquarters and automotive research & development campus at Dunsfold Park, which will expand the business park towards the new access road.
- The aerodrome perimeter track (peri-track) is a five-kilometre road, built to service the runways. We now propose to retain the whole of this loop and transform it into a recreational route for running, cycling and offering the opportunity for events.
- The Market Square has moved up on to the line of Runway Park, strengthening its connections with the business park and the new main access. We are thinking about building an aviation museum on one side of the square.
Yes. The combination of a new residential community and existing business park will provide enough customers and visitors to enable Dunsfold Park to offer a good range of community and commercial facilities to meet every-day needs such as:
A new two form entry primary school, a nursery, and new premises for Jigsaw CABAS® School, an independent day school for children and young people with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
A wellness centre offering facilities such as a surgery, gym, sports hall and health club – also a sacred space for worship
A Market Square containing places to shop, eat, meet friends and spaces for community gatherings, classes and clubs.
Business hub and retail spaces offering employment and business start-up opportunities For bigger or specialist shops, secondary schools and other major services, people will travel to Cranleigh, Godalming, Guildford and Horsham.
Yes. The existing business park will remain and be expanded, adding over 30,000 sq. m. to the existing employment space.
Expansion of the business park progressed substantially in 2015 with planning consent for 9,966 sq. m. of new industrial buildings. This development of 25 warehouse and production units was completed in 2017 and named the Simpson Buildings, after the late Duncan Simpson OBE, fighter pilot and Hawker’s Chief Test Pilot from 1970 to 1978. The units are now over 85% let to a variety of businesses.
In April 2019 Gordon Murray Design obtained planning approval for a new headquarters and automotive research & development campus at Dunsfold Park, which will expand the business park towards the new access road. This is a great example of the kind of advanced engineering business we plan to attract to Dunsfold Park.
Only a small number of the jobs at Dunsfold Park are connected to aviation. The business park, Waverley’s largest employment site, is home to over 100 businesses, employing around 1,000 people across a range of sectors. We plan to expand the business park, creating room for businesses to grow and employ more people.
The 1,800 homes on offer will include village centre apartments with one or two bedrooms, terraced, mews, semi-detached and detached houses. House sizes will range from two-bedrooms to six-bedrooms, with some plots for large self-build homes. 30% will be affordable homes delivered through housing association partners.
Pricing would be speculative at this stage and the price of each home will ultimately be determined by local market conditions.
Yes. We want to offer homes to buy and for shared ownership, and homes at market rents and subsidised rents. 30% will be affordable homes delivered through housing association partners.
The existing solar farm and anaerobic digester will be joined by a new surface water attenuation system – all helping to reduce reliance on mains utilities. New homes will have an option of producing their own renewable electricity with solar panels to further reduce energy bills and impact on the national grid. The new homes will aim to use as much clean, renewable electricity as possible as their energy source instead of gas or oil.
No, not immediately. Top Gear and other similar programmes use parts of the airfield runways during filming and we will be keeping these active for as long as possible. Eventually though aviation and motoring uses will cease and the existing runways will be removed and re-used during the construction process.
The 747 will remain at Dunsfold Park for the foreseeable future. We are keen to hear people’s ideas on how we re-purpose the aircraft and, potentially, incorporate it into the new village.
Traffic and access
The main access point to Dunsfold Park will be from the A281 to the east, with business park traffic bypassing the village centre and residential neighbourhoods. The new road lines up with the main runway and provides a more direct route into both the business park and the new residential village creating a grand entrance to the site.
The new village is designed to make it easy and pleasurable to walk or cycle everywhere within and between the residential village, business park and country park. All roads will be calmed and landscaped and residential streets will prioritise pedestrians and cyclists. There will be dedicated cycle routes connecting Dunsfold Park with Cranleigh and Dunsfold villages. The canal towpath will be upgraded. Short distances and attractive routes mean that there will be no need to use a car for journeys within Dunsfold Park.
The consented proposals encourage sustainable movement and travel – walking, cycling and public transport. Dunsfold Park will promote electric vehicles, car clubs, ride-sharing, cycle hire and subsidised cycle purchase. The need for wider travel, especially by car at peak hours, will be reduced through internet services, home-working and the clustering of jobs and services at Dunsfold Park.
A package of off-site highway improvements and local bus services will reduce the impact on the highway network. Dunsfold Park is committed to investing in enhanced bus services to Cranleigh, Godalming, Guildford, Horsham and local villages. Every home will be within about 5 minutes’ walk of a bus stop.
We currently propose the following off-site highway improvements:
- Modifications to the A281 / Kings Road and A281 / Broadford Road junctions in Shalford
- Modifications to the A281 / Station Road / Snowdenham Lane junction in Bramley
- Modifications to the A281 / Barrihurst Lane junction
- Modifications to the A281 / Elmbridge Road junction.
We will also be making a contribution to other highway improvement funds.
Environment
No.
No.
Existing woodland, fragments of hedgerow and trees will be preserved as far as possible with tree and woodland protection. New woodland and meadows will be created and the restoration of former field patterns will help to integrate the new country park with the surrounding landscape and reconnect wildlife habitats.
The site does currently support a broad range of wildlife. Detailed surveys have been undertaken to determine which protected species exist on site. This has enabled the design to be developed in such a way to ensure that wherever possible, impacts on wildlife are avoided as a first principle, and that landscape proposals will benefit the Site’s wildlife. Mitigation will include licence works approved by Natural England, including relocation of wildlife to from areas of development to enhanced areas of the site.
Baseline assessment suggest the site contains no known archaeological sites. The site contains a small number of Grade II listed historical structures associated with the war time and post-war use of the airfield site. None of these will be affected by the proposed development – indeed, we intend to embrace them. The site lies immediately to the north of the historic Wey & Arun Canal and this feature will be preserved and enhanced as part of the development.
The site is overwhelmingly in Flood Zone 1 (Low Probability).
The development will be designed to meet climate change scenarios of higher temperatures and increased rainfall. Homes will have natural ventilation and shading as necessary to maintain good comfort levels.
We are also anticipating the forthcoming Future Homes Standard which means the homes will require little or no heating to be comfortable. The homes will aim to meet stringent targets for energy and water consumption, in advance of increased national standards.
The combined residential village and business park will foster a sustainable way of living and working. They offer the critical mass to include sustainable features in construction techniques, energy conservation and energy production, and to reduce reliance on mains utilities.
Construction
A Construction Method / Construction Traffic / Environmental Management Plan will be submitted as a conditional matter for discussion and agreement with Waverley Borough Council. This will be approved in detail prior to commencement of development and will require traffic management details to be agreed with Waverley Borough Council.
Hours of construction and noise levels will be governed by strict environmental health legislation. We expect to work normal construction working hours. It is expected that such measures would be controlled by the local planning authority through conditions imposed on any planning permission.
Existing materials on site, such as the runway, will be used in the roads on the new development. This in itself will save some 1,000,000 miles of HGV traffic on the wider road network.
Development of 1,800 homes at Dunsfold Park will take over 10 years to complete.
Consultation
Yes. We will continue to listen and react to community views as part of testing and refining our proposals. Whilst planning consent was achieved for outline consent in 2018, there is still considerable work to be done to bring the new village forward, as we move through the detailed design stages.
Information on consultation opportunities will be widely communicated, however, if you would like to be kept up to date then please register for information at the exhibition or on our website.