Yes, you guessed, the developer that is building million-pound homes on the other side of the Alfold Petrol Station!

Planning Application WA/2021/0462 – Valid From 17/02/2021

Talk about biter, bit. Michael Dakin, The Head of Acquisitions for Q Developments Limited based in Wimbledon, has had the utter gall to object to the development next door to the former Alfold Garden Centre. On his site, he is currently building 78 homes. For interest. the first application was for 10, then 27, then 56, then 73, and now it is 78,  No development creep here, then?

Guess what Mr Dakin is objecting to? Yes, right again. He doesn’t like the distance proposed by Vistry, formerly Bovis Homes, between his piles of bricks and mortar and his fellow developer’s even bigger pile of bricks and mortar of 99 homes.

 His NIMBY moan is that his company has tried to “reach out to Vistry” to discuss boundary treatments `and adjust the distance between his piles and Vistry’s piles. and is upset there will be “no boundary treatment to the north of the Vistry site.”  

Oh dear! Why isn’t he also having a go at the BP Petrol Station that spoils the setting of a couple of his million-pound homes? After all, it has only been there for 50 years!  Surely, it’s a great USP – for the sale of his homes. Car washing facilities and petrol sales just spitting distance away on the busy A281 Horsdham/Guildford Road.

He told Waverley Planners.

“There are a number of units that sit too close to the boundary; in particular, Plot 30 sits within 10 metres of one of our houses; we have large windows on the flank wall of this house and privacy and light will be severely compromised with a house this close.”

Oh, Boo bloody Hoo! Is that the eerie silence of the cash register not ringing that we hear?

Mr Dakin is waking up to the fact that his neighbouring developer, who has 99 homes consented by yet another Government Inspector, has resisted his attempt to “negotiate for a buffer zone. ”  

He registers concern for the “ecological value of the proposed hedgerow, to preserve the amenity of his piles on Plots 16,17,18,19, 20 and 21. So they can enjoy views of the open countryside. What hypocrisy. 

Did Mr Dakin attempt to create a decent buffer zone between the properties along his boundary?  Properties that have sat alongside the former Wyevale Garden Centre for centuries? No, of course not – because the reduced value of those homes and their views of the open countryside isn’t his concern, is it?

One objector told the Government Inspector:

“There have been complaints about the felling of what the developer states are unimportant trees and land clearance trees on the site.” I also think the inspector should see the proximity of the application to the Petrol station and the fact that almost all the Affordable Housing is situated next to it.”