Stafford Road, Caterham, Public Inquiry 19th, 20th, 21st August

A 3-day Public Inquiry into plans to demolish 22 homes and their gardens in Stafford Road, Caterham, and replace them with 122 dwellings is being held at Tandridge Council Offices, Station Road East, Oxted on 19th, 20th and 21st August.

A Government Planning Inspector will decide whether the plans submitted by Village Developments should be approved or rejected. The land concerned is at 136-164 Stafford Road ( Application No: 2007/1814) and at 184 -198 Stafford Road ( Application No: 2007/1815)

The editor of the Stafford Road Clarion, a newsletter in Caterham which voices the widespread concern about these proposals says:

"Once a country lane, in a valley that was the gateway from London's suburbs into what has been called Surrey's 'Little Switzerland', Stafford Road became a part of settled Caterham, its homes and gardens incrementally melding into a landscape that still retains a good deal of its green and sylvan nature.

Now, planning legislation says that much of this landscape, with its established community, may be considered little more than a development site, ripe for the taking. Will it happen here?

Will the Planning Inspectorate go against the wishes of all those who are opposed to seeing their surroundings transformed into a building site, with homes demolished, more trees felled and gardens trashed ' and the familiar sense of place torn away?

You need to be there for the 3 days, to support Tandridge and its legal team in their efforts to have both of these Village Developments appeals thrown out by the Inspector."

To read more about these applications in the Stafford Road Clarion click here