Fwd: Wildlife Crime at Regent House, Station Approach, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 1TH

[Banstead Swifts]

We have emailed the CEO of Clarion Housing Group and cc''d all of the Development Board Members and the Horley and Dorking MP, Chris Coughlan

+++++++

Dear Clare

We are contacting you to make you aware of a wildlife crime that has occurred at the above Clarion Housing site.

A local resident has been in contact with us for a few weeks regarding swifts nesting in this building.  At the time no work had commenced. However she had to witness a very upsetting incident on her own, on 27 May 2026.

Regent House, by Dorking Station was an empty office block. It had been since at least around 2021/2022.

It was also home to a large colony of the common swift, apus apus.

When Clarion Housing applied for redevelopment of this site in 2022,  Mole Valley Council had at least 7 submissions from the Swifts Local Network in regard of the swift colony that nested in the building and that is documented. Mitigation appears to have offered just 1 swift brick.

This site was monitored by Dorking Swifts for a few years and also Reigate Swifts, of which I understand carried out swift surveys and also took many photos of the established colony in Regent House. It is an undisputed fact that a large swift colony nested in this building and much information was made available in the planning process and Clarion Housing were aware.

Now, we are in 2026 swift nesting season. The local resident had flagged up that swifts were entering Regent House throughout May to us and to other swift conservationists. She returned this week to find the building partially demolished, where she saw swifts enter, now rubble on the ground.

Clearly, swifts were known to have a colony in that building and had for many years.
Clearly demolition should not have commenced until after the nesting season.
There is a whole paper trail through the planning process from the start to evidence that swifts had an established nesting colony in this building.

Swifts are loyal to their nest sites and will return year after year. Clarion Housing should have carried out a building survey immediately prior to demolition work as they knew there were swifts nesting each year from April to September

We are part of the national group: Swifts Local Network and it is expected that this demolition killed and injured swifts, (a red listed, legally protected species, that has experienced more than a 60% decline in their numbers since the 1980s) in the rubble of Regent House, now the scene of the most terrible wildlife crime. We will lose the swift if we continue like this.

Incidentally, Clarion Housing had also blocked/obstructed active swift nests in Burgess Hill, Sussex just last week and the Swift Local Network members also had to intervene there. There has clearly been no adherence to the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 for building depentdent species.

This incident has been reported to Surrey Police as a wildlife crime by the resident.

We would welcome your explanation as to why this was allowed to happen particularly as you had the evidence of swifts present since 2022 and the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 is very clear.

Currently we have a wildlife emergency around the site.

With best regards


Anne-Marie & Barry Griffin,
Founders of Banstead Swifts, a voluntary grass roots conservation group.

Recipients of: Surrey County Council, Surrey Local Nature Recovery, Community Grant, 2026

Members of: Swifts Local Network, a national group of swift conservationists & Surrey Wildlife Trust, Surrey Swift Group

Work with: Autism Friendly Surrey & Banstead Commons Conservators

[Alistair]

The local news programmes could  be interested….or even Springwatch…

It is so frustrating and depressing to hear of these incidences….

Alistair

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[Banstead Swifts]

Update: Site visit and Surrey Wildlife Trust Response 

1. Barry and I went to the site at 5.30pm today. It was all locked up but 7 swifts were overhead. 2 swifts twice screamed around the tiny part of what is left of the building. That made me cry.

The sight is flattened with warning signs everywhere of cctv. We took a step stool to see if we might be able to look over the hoarding enough to use the binoculars to check the ground.

They didn't help. We have taken photos.

2. We then received an email from Surrey Wildlife Trust. I had submitted a formal complaint to them yesterday as it appeared they had signed off without mentioning swifts.

Here is their reply, 2 key points: documents are missing presumably not provided by Clarion. Demolition was specifically not to take place until November 2026.

Be prepared to be shocked.

Email from SWT:

Thank you for making us aware of the demolition activity at Regent House by Dorking Station.

We appreciate you reaching out to us as we take this matter very seriously.

For context, SWT Ecology Planning Advisory Service's role is to review all ecological information submitted to the Local Planning Authority (in this case Mole Valley District Council (MVDC) and check this against legislation and planning policy.  The team does not object or support applications, nor do we enforce the application of the decision.  

We understand from speaking with MVDC the following: 

• Prior to determining the application information on the presence of swifts was provided to them.
• They also determined the application on the basis of the ecological submission(s) which includes reference to potential for swift, and that bird(s) (not identified to species in the report) were recorded nesting in the B5 building. 
• Swifts were material to the discussion at the planning committee, where I understand it was agreed that more than one swift brick would be installed and secured as part of the scheme.  
• A Landscape Environmental Management Plan is a required condition, and this has not been submitted to the Local Authority.  It is usually at this stage that we comment on the measures proposed. If this is submitted and we are consulted, we would require more than one swift brick

We can confirm that:

• The application decision notice (reference MO/2023/1814) required the production of a Construction Environmental Management Plan (CEMP).
• We reviewed the document which clearly stated that building demolition will be carried out in November due to bird nesting restrictions.
• We recommended that an update site check was carried out by an ecologist, to include of buildings. 
• MVDC discharged the condition on the basis of our review.

What we have done: 

• We have notified and urgently reviewed the matter with the MVDC. As a result, we understand that they are investigating the matter on-site.
• We have reviewed our processes and involvement on the project and can confirm that swifts were material to the application decision. 

We understand you have reported this to the police, and we would urge you to continue reporting this, although you have been frustrated by their lack of response.

If you have any further queries, we'd advise you liaise directly with MVDC.  They have enforcement powers which we do not and if action is required, they are best placed to act on this.

Best regards

Rob

Manager - Ecology Planning Advice Services Surrey Wildlife Trust

[Banstead Swifts]

Hi Alistair

We tagged all the news and politicals and everyone we could think of to our news post. No response from the media at all. They did not want to know about our own obstructed swift nest here 2 weeks ago either: the editor of BBC Surrey said, oh, if it is 'just one nest, its not newsworthy'. The media are not easy to engage when you need them.

The Police are the same.

The Police have just called the young resident tonight...the officer told her that he was passing it on, but there would be no chance of prosecution. He is right. There is never a chance of any wildlife prosecution in Surrey Police, as that is their default position. It's called lazy policing, or perhaps there is something else behind it. They'd not called the district council for information otherwise they would have known they were investigating. 

I asked for that officers report by email as I have a disability and need the written word. I was told I would have to submit a subject access inquiry, which  I thought was odd and discriminating. Surrey Police do not want to take any action on wildlife because  top down have presumably told them to prioritise particular crimes only.

So no wonder, Clarion thought they would get away with it, and will think they will get away with it. 

On Friday, 29 May 2026 at 16:23:28 UTC+1 alis...@alofanglia.plus.com wrote:

[Banstead Swifts]

Reply from Clarion received late this afternoon: presumably after Mole Valley District Council had been onto them:

Nick Wood 

16:48 (2 hours ago)

Dear Anne-Marie and Barry,

 

I confirm receipt of your email and that this is being reviewed.  We will respond to you next week with an update and once we have been able to review the information with our contractor.

 

Best regards

 

Nick

 

Nick Wood – Regional Managing Director - South, MRICS

Latimer by Clarion Housing Group

On Friday, 29 May 2026 at 16:23:28 UTC+1 alis...@alofanglia.plus.com wrote:

[Heidi Collishaw]

How distressing for you and the swifts. What can we do, collectively, to support Banstead swifts with this issue? 

Heidi (westow swifts, north Yorks).

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[Tony Croft]

Absolutely disgraceful lack of action by the authorities and a developer and flagarent disregard for the law...

....how sad for these desperate birds trying their best to survive.

The developer and authorities should all be ashamed of themselves!

Best Regards
Tony

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[Banstead Swifts]

That is really kind of you to even think of that and I feel like we need help, but I don't know what that is yet. I have just seen another line of information from the District Council and this case looks so bad, so rotten to the core. I think I need to see what unfolds over the next few days with the Police. I might know then what we need. 

It has been the worst May ever for swifts, I seem to have spent most of the month fighting for them.

Kindest

Annie

[Alistair]

Its probably like all the environmental crime got on at the moment with fly tipping, water crime, etc, they know that the government agencies aren’t taking action or if they do it takes ages for anything to happen that they can get away with it….

Another thought would be to contact Wild Justice. With all the information.   https://wildjustice.org.uk/about-us/

Keep fighting for the swifts!

Alistair

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[Heidi Collishaw]

Does anyone in our swift network have any involvement with Wild Justice? They already have networks and legal knowledge that might be really helpful for crimes like the Banstead swifts one. 

Might it be worth making contact with them? 

https://wildjustice.org.uk/about-us/

Regards

Heidi

On Fri, 29 May 2026, 19:16 Banstead Swifts, <banstea...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Banstead Swifts]

Hi there

We don't but I just emailed Wild Justice with: the background and a few points from the issues/failings that Mike has been working really hard, all weekend, to extract and analyse from documents for us. Thanks Mike!

I had already been in contact with the Environmental Law Federation regarding swift nest 1 at Banstead, but this case will supercede that in size and also the liklihood of a successful prosecution.  I will have to submit a fresh enquiry I think, I will call tommorrow to check.

The Police have still not responded. I called am and pm yesterday. I am tired of speaking to 101 which is a call centre that gatekeeps all access to officers to zero.

I discovered that the first reports were made to Surrey Police 3 weeks ago. Sorry, I can't recall if I had already shared that!

Annie

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[Graham Knight]

Hi Annie

One particular thing I remember from the talk on wildlife crime at the SLN conference last year: if you are unhappy with the response from police in relation to an issue, contact the Police and Crime Commissioner for your area.

PCC's oversee police forces and set policing priorities, and so it seems to me that the level of response to wildlife crime is something to be raised with them.

Best wishes

Graham Knight 

Sawbridgeworth Swifts 

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[Banstead Swifts]

Thanks Graham, I have added it to my list!

I

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