Click here to see map for location of Land Rear Of 23A To 29 Links Road Epsom.

22/00814/NMA Non-Material Amendment to Planning Permission 21/01762/FUL to reduce the width of the shared access from 5 metres to 4.3 metres; removal of tree T27; and to facilitate implementation of the development in phases.

Following refusal and dismissal of Appeals for two earlier developments for 4 houses on this backland plot, application 21/01762/FUL was permitted in March 2022, subject to conditions. The applicant has now made yet another application to vary the conditions in three, allegedly non-material, ways.

First, a reduction of the width of the main access road from 5m to 4.3m, leading to the loss of a pedestrian walkway and inability of two vehicles to pass each other, with obvious safety considerations. Secondly, the removal of a mature Horse Chestnut tree with a further life expectancy of 10-20 years, apparently solely because it would interfere with access for development or location of new properties. And thirdly, phasing of works to allow explicitly for the access road to be constructed first.

The Society believes that the applicant should have allowed for all three issues in preparing the initial application and design, and that the loss of a mature tree just for the convenience of development should not be allowed as an afterthought when it would possibly have led, if included, to refusal rather than permission of the original application. Finally, a nominal amendment to “phase” development of the road would lead to the possibility of the developer avoiding CIL liability by declaring one or more of the new dwellings to be “self-build”.

The Society deprecates any and all attempts to “game” the planning system by securing one permission and then promptly seeking variations for the benefit of the developer before development has commenced, and believes they should always be resisted.

For all these reasons, the Society has requested refusal of the application.

See our letter here.