Tag Archives: ewell

Site SA8 – Priest Hill Sports Ground adjoining Ewell East Station

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#greenbelt #ewell #priesthill

Priest Hill Sports Ground
Three rugby pitches used by Sutton & Epsom RFC. Adjoining Ewell East Station, Cheam Road, Banstead Road. The information below has been extracted from Epsom & Ewell Draft Plan, Planning for Places section, from page 100. Full details are on the link below.

https://www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/local-plan

Volunteers are required for leaflet drops in the area around Priests Hill Sports ground. Please contact epsomgreenbelt@gmail.com

Site SA8: Land adjoining Ewell East Station (Greenfield)

What is the site to be allocated for?

4.66 The site is allocated for a residential led development, comprising:

  • At least 350 net zero carbon dwellings
  • Building heights up to 6 storeys
  • New local retail provision at ground floor
  • The re-provision of the playing pitches at Hook Road Arena

Summary reason for allocation

4.67 The site will contribute towards meeting the need for housing in the borough and ancillary community infrastructure.
4.68 The site has well defined boundaries and lies adjacent to existing residential areas and adjoining Ewell East railway station, creating a suitable context for residential development and lowering the risk of adverse landscape impacts. The site is also in relatively close proximity to local services and facilities and to bus and rail transport connections. Vehicular access can be achieved without detriment to the character of the local area.


When will the site be developed?
4.69 It expected that a planning application will be submitted in the middle of the plan period with development likely to start by 2031 once new sports pitches have been provided.

Key information

  • LAA Reference: NON013
  • Site size: 8.63 ha
  • Ward: Nonsuch
  • Existing use: Sports pitches and open space

Site Constraints and Mitigation

  • Development proposals must identify ways of improving pedestrian access to Ewell East Station and maximise the linkages between the site and surrounding area, and provide opportunities for walking and cycling.
  • The design of development would need to minimise impacts on Priest Hill Nature Reserve (Site of Nature Conservation Importance (SNCI)) located on the Southern Boundary of the site.
  • Part of the site to the east along Cheam Road is within Flood Zone 3. Any development proposal will need to take this into account.
  • The development proposal will need to work with the topography of the site to ensure that visual impacts of development are minimised.

Specific Infrastructure Requirements
4.70 Provision of new retail unit(s) to provide convenience retail to meet local needs.
4.71 The loss of playing pitches will require reprovision at the Hook Road Arena site (Policy SA9). The developer will be expected to re-provide the playing pitches off site prior to development commencing to ensure that the scheme is acceptable in planning terms.

Availability
4.72 The site is confirmed as available.

Deliverability
4.73 The site is in single ownership and the developer of this site is promoting it for redevelopment.
4.74 A Local Plan viability assessment has been prepared to support the draft Local Plan. The initial findings of this work indicate that the development of this site is viable when taking account of potential sales values and costs associated with development (including the provision of affordable housing). Further detailed viability work will be undertaken as the Local Plan progresses.
4.75 The site is considered to be developable as it is in a suitable location for housing development, the site is confirmed as available and could be viably developed at the point envisaged.

Priest Hill Sports Ground, Cheam Road, Ewell

Draft Local Plan (Regulation 18) 2022-2040 – Public Consultation

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#greenbelt #epsom #ewell #localplan

Some of the documents that detail the local plan are large and complex. 

Council Officers will be available to speak to you in person at the following places

  •  Monday 13 February 14:30 – 19:30 Bourne Hall, Azalea Room 
  • Thursday 16 February 12:00 – 17:00, Ashley Centre, Central Square
  • Tuesday 21 February 14:30 – 19:30,  Bourne Hall, Azalea room   
  • Wednesday 22 February 10:30 – 15:30,   Community & Wellbeing Centre, Sefton Road
  • Saturday 25 February 11:00 – 16:00, Ashley Centre, Central Square
  • Tuesday 28 February 10:30 – 15:30, Community & Wellbeing Centre, Sefton Road

There are likely to be plenty of questions about the Local Plan, which includes significant changes to the centre of Epsom and changes to parts of the borough that are well away from the town centre. Some of these are on Green Belt land.

Full list of Green Belt “Preferred Option” housing sites in the E&EBC Draft Local Plan:are listed below.

  • Horton Farm land 1,500 homes
  • Ewell East Station land 350 homes
  • West Park Hospital land 150 homes
  • Chantilly Way 25 homes
  • Hook Road Arena land 150 homes (council-owned land)

Honey, We’ve Shrunk the Green Belt

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#Greenbelt #Epsom #Surrey

Resident fury at E&EBC’s unanimous decision to include five Green Belt sites for 2,175 houses in Draft Local Plan, to be published on 1st February.

  • Over 100 green-belted residents protest to councillors arriving at Epsom Town Hall for Planning Committee vote
  • Dozens of Green Belts buckled to Public Gallery railings in silent protest – with one on speaker’s table in Council Chamber
  • Residents claim one victory as 110 acre Downs Farm NOT included in preferred Green Belt sites

Epsom, 31st January: Amid scenes of dramatic resident protest over Green Belt inclusion for housing, councillors on a planning sub-committee of Epsom and Ewell borough council voted unanimously last night (30th Jan) to accept its Draft Local Plan.It will be formally published tomorrow, 1st February.

Of the nine “preferred option” sites in the Plan, five are green belt sites, on which it is proposed to build 2,175 houses – over 41% of the total of 5,400 proposed up to 2040. No visionary large-scale brownfield developments for affordable homes is included, while 137 acres of green belt are now effectively blighted.

Green Belt sites for housing include four on the west side of Epsom- with a huge 1,500 home estate planned around Horton Farm, and one for 350 homes obliterating sports fields near East Ewell station. ( full list below) There was one spot of good news for the residents after a long fought campaign – as the 110 acre Downs Farm on the Reigate Road was not included in the final list.

Nearly 100 residents protested with banners as the councillors arrived at the Town Hall, with a packed public gallery adorned with “green belts” buckled to its railings in silent protest (see picture). One questioning resident took off his green belt and laid it on the Council Chambers’ speaker’s table, where it stayed for the two hour debate.

“We are furious that the RA controlled council did not fight to keep Epsom’s special character and Green Belt heritage, as is permitted under clear emerging government planning policy” said local resident Yufan Si, for the Keep Epsom and Ewell Green Belt “ There is no clear idea of where any of the much needed social infrastructure, will come from, from schools to doctors’ surgeries, as both councillors and planners admitted in the meeting”

Residents complain that the Draft Plan relies totally and lazily on a “Call for Sites”, with opportunistic developers and landowners putting forward plenty of green belt land, with only a few brownfield sites offered up. There has been no advance discussions with major town centre developers to mix new residential units with job opportunities nearer the urban centre, which most agree needs rejuvenation.

Despite written objections to the committee from the CRPE on sustainability issues and concern over the population projections, E&EBC failed to follow the lead of other local councils. Mole Valley voted to remove all Green Belt from its Local Plan, and Elmbridge avoided all Green Belt areas by focussing on smaller 1-5 house brownfield sites – none of which are listed in Epsom’s Local Plan.

Councillors were reminded that the May Local Elections are coming up before the next stage of the Local Plan, and their legacy on supporting Green Belt sites was likely to come under scrutiny – even now, said one resident, they will have to go home to their spouses and say “Honey, I’ve shrunk the Green Belt.”

Residents wishing to preserve Epsom’s Green Belt are now urged to make written representations to EEBC in the six week Public Consultation stage which runs for six weeks from tomorrow. Sites can be added and taken away, say the Council.

Full list of Green Belt “Preferred Option” housing sites in the E&EBC Draft Local Plan:

  • Horton Farm land 1,500 homes
  • Ewell East Station land 350 homes
  • West Park Hospital land 150 homes
  • Chantilly Way 25 homes
  • Hook Road Arena land 150 homes (council-owned land)

EEBC Local Plan Clutches at Green Belt Straws for Houses

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Opinion Piece – #greenbelt #epsom #surrey

– Saving of Downs Farm only bright spot , as brownfield priorities missed

Given the Government’s “brownfield first” brief, it looks like the planners did not get the memo. They certainly did not get the new memo from Government saying that it is not necessary to review Green Belt for housing. And they appear not to have taken the hint from neighbouring Elmbridge, who creatively avoided any Green Belt destruction, and Mole Valley, whose councillors this month voted unanimously to remove all Green Belt sites from its Local Plan.

Out of 5,400 new homes proposed in the Draft Local Plan (2023-2040) , with Epsom & Ewell BC councillors due to take a final Section 18 publication decision on 30 January, some 2,175 homes (almost 41%) are earmarked to be built on the borough’s Green Belt land.

Of nine “Preferred Option” development sites proposed, five are Green Belt – with Downs Farm, where 650 homes were proposed, only narrowly missing the cut after a huge campaign by residents.

Over 55 hectares – or some 137 acres – of Green Belt land could be sacrificed. The plans include one gigantic estate of some 1,500 homes on land around Horton Farm, which will have its Green Belt status stripped away.

The “Preferred Options” for Green Belt development are:

  • 150 homes around West Park Hospital
  • 1,500 homes around Horton Farm
  • 25 homes next to Chantilly Way
  • 350 homes on the sports fields by Ewell East Station
  • 150 homes on sports pitches at Hook Road Arena (land owned by the Council)

Only on its own land can the Council specify 100% affordable homes – the rest will be 40% at best, as developers have many canny ways to get round this stipulation and build more profitable higher end housing.

The Council even admits that they have already taken some slugs of Green Belt land for housing, on the NESCOT campus and the five hospitals housing developments – but they need more.

There is a whole Appendix (Appendix 4) revealing yet more Green Belt sites that have been offered up by opportunistic developers in a “ Call for Sites” that have been mercifully excluded as “Preferred Options”. Much of the analysis seems subjective and open to question.

And then there is this – the previous Council Green Belt studies of 2017-19 have been considered out of date and a new 2022 Green Belt Study has been commissioned- but we all have yet to see this document.

EEBC needs to plunder more Green Belt, as it appears only a few brownfield landowners came forward in its “Call for Sites”. So the Plan is offering just around 1,000 homes in Epsom Town Centre until year 2040, and the same meagre number over 15 years on Urban Land Availability Assessment sites, and it reckons the same number again for existing planning permissions.

So where is the real challenge taken up, to redevelop Epsom Town surroundings, which most commentators agree could do with some rejuvenation, to say the least? Well, the Kiln Lane and Longmead industrial areas are said to be off limits, according to consultants for EEBC, because of the 1,800 jobs there. So not a single new brownfield affordable home is put forward here, with no imaginative plan to mix housing with job creation and revitalise an area close to the station, shops and entertainment facilities that many people prefer.

Smaller brownfield developments of around 5 to 10 homes each, do not seem to be in the Draft Plan either, although we may have missed the brownwood for the trees “We are left with the conclusion that the planners – and by extension our ruling Councillors – are in a “Call for Sites” trap. This has inhibited visionary thinking and pro-active engagement with urban developers on how much-needed affordable housing might be built in tandem with an exciting redevelopment programme that Epsom’s brownfield areas so desperately need” said Yufan Si, campaign leader for

Keep Epsom & Ewell’s Green Belt

“All they seem able to do about it is to bulldozer yet another field of our Green Belt heritage” said Ms Si.

24th January 2023