Plans for up to 80 new homes in rural village

Plans for up to 80 new homes in a rural Surrey village less than 20 minutes from Gatwick Airport have been put forward.

Asprey Homes submitted plans for the new homes in Smallfield, near Horley, which is home to fewer than 3,000 people.

Nearly half of the homes are set to be affordable, the plans show.

The 3.3-hectare site is currently used for agriculture, they also state.

A mixture of two, three and four-bedroom properties have been put forward, 50 of which are due to be family homes, while the remainder will be flats.

Developers Asprey Homes said each home would be "individually designed" to help meet local housing needs and complement the character of the area.

Details on access, layout and scale could change as the application is just an outline, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Although the site is in the green belt, the applicant argues that "96% of Tandridge lies within the Green Belt and as such it is inevitable that most new housing will fall within this designation".

Existing hedgerows and trees will be retained "where possible" along with new planting and habitats, planning documents show.

The scheme, which still needs to go through the planning process, also includes new parking as well as a pick-up and drop-off area for the Aurora Redehall SEN School next door.

Tandridge District Council will decide on the application at a later stage.

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