Gladedale Estates has jumped the final hurdle for the Jolly Boatman site – just six days before planning permission was due to expire.
Elmbridge Council refused condition 18, travel plan, in February this year, but the condition was approved following an appeal hearing with the Planning Inspectorate.
The appeal hearing on May 8 was postponed due to the submission of a revised travel plan and the decision was announced in writing on June 10, just six days before Gladedale’s planning permission was due to expire.
If the decision had not come through before this date, Gladedale would have had to reapply for planning permission.
Mary Brook from the Hampton Court Rescue Campaign said: “This was the last throw of the dice on this really. There is not really anything else for us to do. We are very, very upset of course, that goes without saying.
“We will not give up because the highway plan that goes with it is flawed and as a group we will carry on until we can get some consultation on it.
“Hampton Court Bridge is already a black spot and it is going to be exasperated by the new road layout. We are not giving up.”
Molesey South councillor Ian T Donaldson said: “We are very disappointed. I thought we had made a good case of showing it shouldn’t have been agreed at all.
“We didn’t know at the time Gladedale had not put a travel plan together. I would have thought that on its own was enough. I really can’t see how the north area planning sub-committee could have passed it because it was not put together.
“It is a wrong decision but there is nothing we can do I’m afraid. It is very disappointing. The inspector hardly mentioned anything about the point the council put across which is very irritating.”
Coun Donaldson said people were particularly disappointed because they believed a good case had been made.
The development will see 66 homes, a 46-bedroom hotel, a 61-bedroom care home and a refurbished railway station among other works, built on the Hampton Court station and Jolly Boatman site.
Full planning permission was granted in June 2009, providing the 56 conditions of planning were agreed by the council.
The planning inspector’s full appeal decision can be viewed online, using application reference 2012/3262 at elmbridge.gov.uk/planning/online.htm.
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