Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Designation Project

Tender description

The Natural England Board has now approved a project to determine whether the Surrey Hills AONB boundary should be extended and if so in which specific areas. The Board has also approved a new co-designed and improved designation process. Collaboration underpins the improvements: including partners in project governance, facilitated engagement for stakeholders, participatory evidence gathering and clear messaging to communities to support greater understanding and transparency. We also want to test the use of new technologies, for example participatory GIS web apps to support evidence gathering. This is all within the framework of the existing legislation. Important aspects of the Surrey Hills Designation Project therefore will be to test the new process, including opportunities for further improvement and time efficiencies, and trial new and innovative approaches under the existing legislation. In this project particular emphasis is being placed on: - a co-designed collaborative engagement process; and - the use of the latest available technologies in the gathering of evidence and mapping. It is our intention through this contract to employ a suitably qualified and experienced contractor to assist in: 1. the development and delivery of a collaborative process with facilitated stakeholder engagement, 2. identifying and utilising modern technologies and 'citizen science' approaches to support evidence gathering by local stakeholders and 3. to the further technical requirements of this project as set out in the tender pack.