Residents' Association Forum

Please see posts in the forum Planning section on 29 Embercourt Road, the home of the war hero Sir Sydney Camm, designer of the Hawker Hurrican.   This house has been bought by a developer who plans to demolish Camm's house and build four houses on the plot. The adjacent plot is to have three houses built on it.  Thus there will be seven houses where there were originally two.

This will have a profound and irreversible effect on the future of the village in many ways.

The developer has already erected a hoarding around the site and has crudely hacked down all the trees in the garden (to forestall conditions should planning permission be granted)?

Please keep an eye on the Elmbridge BC planning search page for this application -

http://emaps.elmbridge.gov.uk/ebc_planning.aspx?requesttype=parseTemplate&template=SimpleSearchTab.tmplt

The application to demolish 29 Embercourt Road and replace it with four 5 bedroom, 3 storey houses can be viewed on www.elmbridge.gov.uk/planning under reference no 2014/3620. Should you wish to comment you can do so by selecting "comment on this application".

The deadline for comments is 31st October.

I personally don't have an issue with this application. 
The 2 houses in question have little architectural merit and are too big (and the gardens are too big) for modern day living for most families.
We need new houses to be built and it is better than a huge terrace of townhouses which might have been proposed.
We just need to convince the council to make the requisite investment in schools and other infrastructure to support the new residents and their children.

If this application goes ahead, with the development at 31 Embercourt, there would be 7 houses where there are currently 2.   

Given that the rest of Embercourt Road could well follow suit if the precedent is set or strengthened, can the infrastructure support this potentially massive increase in population ?  What would be the effect on the character of the village ?

Emberman - I know you like your politics so with Labour and the LD's posturing for the popular vote with the ridiculously and incongruously named 'mansion tax', the appetite to purchase very large houses at or near £2m is beginning to wain. Therefore keeping these houses with their massive gardens would potentially not be viable. The knock on effect of the mansion tax being, people who own large homes with big gardens (like Embercourt Road) will potentially look to reduce the value of their homes by selling off their large gardens for high density development. Everything has a yin and yang when politicans mess! So we could have lot more of this to come after May!!

I personally can see nothing wrong with the proposals for these two sites. The land is being more effectively utilised to provide well planned and, in the case of no.29 not unattractive family houses, and if we're really honest the current properties are of little architectural merit and too close to the HCW to ever become 'status' houses again.

However I don't want to see back gardens built over anymore than anyone else. Embercourt Road is an attractive road (was more attractive when it had trees until recently) but the two plots in question are not sensitive in location or character and being redeveloped with good quality housing will ultimately probably be a benefit to the road. I don't believe it will lead to the whole scale demolition of Embercourt Road and a mini Brookside Close sprouting up as you infer... unless Labour win the election that is!  :) :o

I've just moved in close to this site, I don't have an either issue either however hopefully it won't be a gated cul de sac as the dog likes a variety of walks

welcome to the village Waterloo.