The Site

The Application site is located to the immediate south of Oxshott, bordering Charlwood Drive, Spinneycroft and Leatherhead Road. The site extends to c. 23.32ha, including 12.95ha for the SANG land, and is well contained by residential properties and boundary fencing, alongside various trees and hedgerows.

The Application site is visually screened from the Leatherhead Road and the Crown Estate woodland to the east but is visible and prominent from a number of residential properties in Charlwood Drive and Spinneycroft.

There are no public footpaths or public vantage points which adjoin or cross the Application site. 

There is established vehicular access into Clouds Hill Farm, formed off the southern side of Leatherhead Road between ‘Longwood Lodge’ and ‘Florian House’. 

The northern part of the part of the Application site, served by the driveway, includes previously developed land including two dwellings, together with a range of other ancillary structures including existing agricultural barns, stores and a disused equestrian stable complex.
The bulk of the southern, western and north-western parts of the Application site comprises grassland. 

The former agricultural land is classified as Grade 4: poor quality agricultural land.

The northern part of the Application site is served by Leatherhead Road with existing bus stops located to the east and west of the Application site access.  Bus services run to and from Epsom, Cobham, Oxshott and Leatherhead.

Oxshott Train Station is located approximately 1.7km to the north of the Site and is served by the South Western Railway.

The Application site is served by mains utility services including access to wastewater (foul) connections in Leatherhead Road.

Local Services

Structures on the existing site

Click to enlarge

Green and Grey Belt

The country is grappling with a significant housing crisis, marked by a shortage of affordable homes, escalating rents and rising homelessness. In response to this, the Government has introduced several measures including mandatory housing targets.
As part of this process, a revised version of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was issued in December 2024. It introduced for the first time, the concept of Grey Belt.

Grey Belt is defined in the glossary of the NPPF as “land in the Green Belt comprising previously developed land and/or any other land that, in either case, does not strongly contribute to…purposes…of the green belt”.  The relevant purposes are (a), (b) and (d) which are defined as follows:

(a) to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas;
(b) to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another; and
(d) to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns;

Having reviewed the criteria and having made submissions to the Council in this regard, we are confident that the land does comprise grey belt, for which housing development can be considered as an acceptable land use.