Homes can be built on village 'grey-belt'

PLANS for up to 270 homes can now go ahead after an appeal where the inspector found the nearby settlement was a village, and not, as the local authority claimed, a “large built up area” or town.

- By EMILY DALTON Local democracy reporter @SurreyLive

Councillors threw out the Chapel Road scheme at a planning committee in May last year arguing it would be an inappropriate development in the green belt around Smallfield.

Tandridge District Council's case was that the land contributed strongly to stopping the “unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas” like towns and cities.

But planning inspector David Prentis concluded Smallfield is a ‘village’ and the 15-hectare site on Chapel Road is actually grey belt. This means the land is poor quality and does not contribute to preventing ‘urban sprawl’ or conserving the countryside.