Plans for 88 homes on a college’s former animal husbandry site have been described by concerned residents as “overdevelopment gone mad”, as they would add to 91 already being built there.
The proposed development on land formerly owned by Nescot (North East Surrey’s College of Technology) would add to the homes already being built after Epsom and Ewell Borough Council’s planning committee approved the plans for 91 homes in August 2015.
If the latest plans are approved, there would be 179 homes on the site.
Plans for a dementia care home for 150 residents on an adjacent site were approved in September 2014, but these were scrapped due to “economic reasons”, planning documents reveal. Subsequent applications in the last two years have been amended to only include provision for houses.
The latest application includes 29 houses (33 per cent) designated as affordable housing.
The future site of 88 homes?
Residents have already written letters objecting to the proposals since Epsom and Ewell Borough Council validated the application for the Sycamore Gardens site on June 20.
Peter Kalinowski, the vice chairman of the Association of Ewell Downs Residents, argued the development would put greater pressure on doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, schools, the local road network, and public transport systems, as well as increase vehicular pollution in Ewell.
He added: “The circa 120 residents of a care home would place little, if any pressure on our community ads the majority of the care home residents would be drawn from the existing community and would actually release housing spaces for new families.”
Jenny Coleman, also from the residents’ group, described the application as “overdevelopment gone mad” in a blog post.
Animals and human skeletons, and coins and pottery from the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age (c. 1200 BC) to Roman period (c. 55BC) were found in a huge Roman quarry on the site during an archaeological dig on the site in 2015.
There is currently no date set for when the council’s planning committee might make a decision on the application.
For more information, and to view the application, search Epsom and Ewell Borough Council’s planning portal for 17/00429/FUL
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