Bye-bye, Milford Golf Course. Hello, bricks and mortar, as Tim and Isobel House give up their fight over a covenant that has prevented development there for eight years.
They said:
So, we are afraid that after having spent an enormous amount of our time and money in the last 8 years opposing the development on MGC we felt compelled to bring an end to the litigation. Life is too short and there are other places to live.
After years of battle between residents, Waverley Planners, and developers over a scheme to build 200 homes on Milford Golf Course, development is about to tee off.
Along with another 350 on the remainder of Milford Golf Club to the east of Station Lane, where it is believed Redrow intends to build, this would signal the closure of the golf club and the release of land from the Green Belt. This would result in 540 new dwellings on each side of Station Lane between the River Ock and Milford Staton. In addition, 214 new dwellings have already been consented at Secretts Hurst Farm.
Is yet another development accessing a narrow country road about to happen? Will commuters on their way to the station soon be playing dodgems with HGVs and increased traffic, as they are already doing in Milford village? 
“Has Milford Golf Course sold developers a Bogey?”
Mr and Mrs Tim House wrote this to their supporters.
This is our final update on the Milford Golf Course development, and we are sorry to say an unwelcome one because we expect the development of 190 dwellings now to go ahead on the west of Station Lane.
Over the weekend we signed a confidential settlement agreement with the developer ending the proceedings that the developer brought against us to overturn our covenant. The trial was due to commence in the High Court tomorrow.
We and our barrister were very confident that we would have won this battle in court, convincingly, but the stark reality is that Milford will be heavily developed over the next few years and the development site will be built on at some density so, although we would have won this battle, winning the longer war was beyond our control given WBC’s determination to see this area developed. We did not think we could achieve the final vindication of having the development site returned to Green Belt in the current political environment given the pressing need for housing. So, we have taken the pragmatic option of a settlement that leaves us in a position to move freely in the future if, as we now expect, the development will proceed and its impact on us is intolerable.
Three things in particular influenced our final decision:
1. We believe Crown Golf has devised a plan with another national house builder (Redrow) to build at least 350 houses on the remainder of Milford Golf Club to the east of Station Lane. We believe WBC’s planning officers have received a formal presentation on this plan and given a favourable indication of likely support. This development would involve the closure of the Golf Club and the release of the land from Green Belt. This would mean a total of 540 (190 +350) new dwellings being built along either side of Station Lane between the River Ock and Milford station. This is in addition to the 214 new dwellings at Secretts, Hurst Farm which now have full planning permission.
2. The new Government Planning Framework which came into effect in December 2024 makes local involvement in these decisions and opposition to them even more difficult, especially if the local planning officers are development minded and developer friendly, as WBC’s plainly are in relation to Milford.
3. Other local landowners in the immediate vicinity have put their land up for consideration for development in the next iteration of the Local Plan. Extension of the Milford settlement boundary south towards Rake Lane and Milford Station, together with the new Government guidance, makes the potential release of this land from Green Belt more likely.
So, we are afraid that after having spent an enormous amount of our time and money in the last 8 years opposing the development on MGC we felt compelled to bring an end to the litigation. Life is too short and there are other places to live.
We remain very grateful nonetheless for your support and we are both extremely sorry not to have been able to find a way to use our legal rights to assist the local community in achieving a more balanced planning outcome for Milford. We feel you have been very let down by successive Heads of Planning at WBC.
We should say that your local ward counsellors, Cllr Maxine Gale and Cllr Phoebe Sullivan, have been exceedingly responsive and supportive in seeking a fair planning outcome for Milford and we wanted to record our gratitude to them.
Yours sincerely
Tim and Isobel House
Tim and Isobel House put up a long and in my view brave fight when their legal rights were ignored. I could not have held my nerve this long in their shoes.
Neither Witley PC nor the neighbourhood plan team wanted this site, certainly not for that many houses. It was imposed on us. It’s cramped and poorly designed and in my view doesn’t meet the design criteria for the Witley Neighbourhood Plan.
Let’s not forget either the cynical move by the developers at one point to cut the social housing provision which officers had accepted in principle but fortunately got rejected by Councillors. In the new planning regime which will be introduced next year with officers taking most decisions this would have got through.
It also has the most ludicrous SANG design l have ever seen which requires crossing Station Lane is going to require thousands of tonnes of aggregate to construct and a fortune to maintain. To be fair acceptance of that design wasn’t down to Waverley although l think the decision whether to let the developers off the hook for about 50 years of the SANG’s maintenance is in Waverley’s hands, unless they have already capitulated.
Some of the smaller villages in Waverley are certainly being hammered, and little attention is paid to the impact they will have on nearby towns. Godalming is gridlocked now! WW wonders if developers or Waverley Planners take any account of design statements in Neighbourhood Plans. As for the SANG design, surely WBC planners will have a say in that ridiculous proposal? If not, then the developer’s idiots really have taken over the asylum.
I think the responsibility for approving the SANG rested with Natural England.
I have had time to check the situation on the application to amend the s106 so the developer’s or builders’s financial support could be reduced from 80 years (which l think is the accepted norm) to 30 years and eventually it was withdrawn.
Such a shame the golf club seems to be doing quite well with lots of youth members
It is nothing to do with the finance. Crown Golf are land bankers under a golfing guise. A few years ago they sold off any golf clubs that didn’t have development potential. We also now know from the entries at HM Land Registry that the MGC main site was spun off into a development subsidiary a while back and that company entered into an option agreement with Redrow (now Redrow Barrett) in March 2023. So this has been coming for a long time.
The golf club is the most affordable course in west Surrey from the north to south. Its so sad those of us that have been members on and off since it opened in 1993.
Yes, it is very sad; WW played there often. A lovely course in a beautiful part of the country. Sadly, the first of many to go, we fear.
Milford golf course is a green space which is used by people, why are they developing such places when there is plenty of fields available.
Milford GC actively encourages young people to get into sport. This country suffers with a severe lack of opportunities for children, which leads them to poor life choices, drug abuse and depression etc.
Sad to see this golf course go. My father was an original member and i always enjoyed my games there. It’s a great loss for the local community, especially the youth.