More Homes Approved for Former Green Belt

Published on: 4 Jun, 2026
Updated on: 4 Jun, 2026

74 homes planned for Egley Road in Mayford Cala Homes/Woking Borough Council

By Chris Caulfield

local democracy reporter

More former Surrey green belt land will be turned into housing after plans for 74 homes were approved – despite objectors saying it would overload nearby roads.

The application will infill land off Egley Road, Mayford, and was approved at the Tuesday, June 2, meeting of Woking Borough Council’s planning committee after members said there were few grounds for refusal.

Developers Cala Homes said the site will be equally split between affordable and market rate properties.

Aerial view of site Cala Homes/Woking Borough Council

The site borders Hoe Valley School and Woking Sportsbox with officers telling the meeting it would help open up woodland to the public.

Up until 2021 the area had been classified as green belt but had since been released for housing.

Woking Borough Council lack’s suitable development sites to meet government targets which makes it difficult to refuse sustainable plans – to the disappointment of the 54 objectors who wrote in against the scheme.

One said: “The residents of Mayford do not support the Cala Homes application for another 74 homes in a tiny area that already includes Hoe Valley School.

“There are four main concerns we have; the traffic impact, the local infrastructure is inadequate, the impact on the green belt and, lastly, security.

“This is not an appropriate location for new housing.”

The only access is, he said, was via a single road that also serves the school, and sport centre.

He added: “Competing with cars bringing schoolchildren to school, Egley Road is already heavily trafficked.

“Adding 74 homes will increase queuing, junction delays and traffic conflicts during big periods, increasing risks to pedestrian cyclists and school children using these busy junctions.”

The resident said there were infrequent buses to nearby towns and the area only had a single small shop. When added to nearby developments including those in Sutton Green, there would be 1,000 new homes in the area.

Cllr Leslie Rice

Cllr Leslie Rice, the Liberal Democrat ward councillor for Heathlands, added his voice to the concerns raised over the impact of the cumulative developments in his area.

Speaking for the application was John Richards, planning director of Cala Homes Thames, who told the meeting the site has been allocated for housing by the council, and due to its lack of land “made it even more important that those sites allocated for development within the Local Plan… are approved as expediently as possible”.

He added: “This development will go some way to housing those 1,196 households on the council’s housing register.”

Every property will have a dictated EV charging points, while Cala is expected to pay about £600,000 through developer contributions.

The 37 affordable homes will be made up of 13 one-bedroom and four two-bedroom flats.

There will also be 14 semi-detached homes (six two-beds and eight three-beds). The remaining six will be terraced housing, split evenly between two, three and four bedroom homes.

About three quarters of these will be available at affordable rents with the rest under shared ownership.

They will be designed to look the same as the private market homes which will be split between three (three) and four-bed (18) detached houses, and two (three) and three (13) semi-detached properties.

Cllr Guy Cosnahan (Lib Dem, Heathlands) said: “The plan is not a bad plan. The houses are going to be reasonable houses.

“There’s going to be a reasonable number of them.

“It’s going to be a reasonable number of them coming in either affordable or shared ownership.

“It doesn’t mean to say that anyone is very happy about it.

“There are issues still that we will see, some of them working out in the longer term.

“But as I say, I will have to say yes on planning regulations alone.”

Cllr Daryl Jordan

Cala Homes previously said that they were confident of winning an appeal if planning permission was refused.

Cllr Daryl Jordan (Independent: Byfleet and West Byfleet) said: “It’s sad to see that it fills out this previous green space, but obviously, it’s been decided well before this.

“I would like to disagree”, he said, adding “I would like to, but I can’t.”