Residents' Association Forum

Today is the last date by which objections may be received by the council for this development which would almost certainly set a precedent for the rest of the houses in Embercourt Road to be demolished and the land developed as high density housing estates.

Email objections to tplan@elmbridge.gov.uk - it is essential to quote reference Application Reference:  2012/3645 and to give your name and postal address.

Details are on http://www3.elmbridge.gov.uk/WAM/showCaseFile.do?appName=planning&appNumber=2012/3645

Almost certainly, and as usual, objections will be taken into account right up until the officer writes it up, so please send in objections even if you have missed the official deadline today.

I had a quick look at the existing objections/support and there seems to be a tremendous amount of support from outside Thames Ditton (Weybridge, Cobham, Walton etc), mostly from people saying they would like to move to the area and there aren't enough new builds.

Maybe I'm getting cynical in my old age but this looks rather odd to me - and also pretty irrelevant!

I've written with my objections - it would certainly spoil the whole identity of the village if the plots of land on Embercourt Road and Station Road (where I live) are used for high density building development.  The two roads, with their evenly spaced houses, helps create part of the unique identity of Thames Ditton.  It is very unusual to find roads such as ours, where houses have not been developed or even turned into flats and apartments.  Each house is a single dwelling, which means there are not rows of bins, rows of cars etc outside each of the houses.  I hope that the powers that be maintain this unique feature of our village.

The supports from out of the area are almost certainly an orchestrated campaign by the developers - why would so many people suddenly want to live in new builds in Thames Ditton particularly ??    I recall a similar campaign last time developers wanted to build a housing estate on this plot...

Works both ways. 
During the application process for both the Olde Harrow and the Hospital sites there were objections coming from people some distance away, including out of the borough.

What is happening with the Harrow and Hospital sites?

See past two issues of TD Today, including the current Winter issue.  Harrow approved on appeal, four reasonable houses being built.  On the cottage hospital site, Goldcrest returned with a very much better application, well presented, which answered pretty well all the objections to the first one, and EBC approved it.

The present application considered in this thread also shows a significant improvement over the two previous ones which were for six houses.  Elmbridge rejected those two but not by much, and were just about supported by the Inspector on appeal.  This one looks more likely to go through, I would guess.  

Precedent for increasing density along Embercourt Road has already been set, for better or worse.  It seems likely that other owners will follow suit and the character of the road will be very much changed; but unfortunately that is not a formal planning argument.

If readers wish to submit objections to EBC then emails or letters to the planning staff will almost certainly be taken into consideration by the planning officer right up to the time the report and decision/recommendation is written, though they may not appear on the online planning portal page.

I'm told that there are enough objections to ensure that if the planning officer recommends acceptance, this one will have to come before the East Area Planning Committee.

The weighty objection appears to be on the grounds cited by the Planning Inspector in rejecting the last appeal - the 'paddock' and Hampton Court Way - see the cogent objection filed by no. 11 Embercourt Road.

Good news then!

The latest application was rejected by the EBC planning officer: see http://www3.elmbridge.gov.uk/WAM/doc/Decision%20Notice-1569812.pdf?extension=.pdf&id=1569812&location=Volume2&contentType=application/pdf&pageCount=3

Essentials:
- siting, mass, bulk and overall appearance would fail to overcome the previous grounds for the dismissed appeals and would result in a substantial concentration of built form immediately in front of what is presently open views...which would be visually overbearing and overdominant when viewed from the streetscene.

- fails to provide the necessary contributions towards infrastructure....

- likely impact on two important trees

More good news.

Yes.  It seems quite likely that there will be further applications, and if they are reasonable and proportional they'd be expected to go through I think.  The site at 31 EC Rd is roughly twice the size of many of the other plots along that road, so a case could easily be made to put two houses where there is one at present.

Who is the developer?