MEMBERS of Chobham Club are celebrating winning permission to demolish their dilapidated building and replace it with a new clubhouse.
A planning inspector overruled the objections of Surrey Heath Borough Council’s planning committee to a scheme for a new club building and nine homes in Windsor Road.
His recent decision came nearly a year after an appeal against refusal of planning permission was accepted by the Planning Inspectorate.
During this time, the club lost income through not being able to accept bookings to hire its hall, which has serious, difficult to repair, leaks in its roof.
“We are really, really pleased to finally hear that the rebuild can go ahead,” said club president Asa Brebner. “It took too long for Surrey Heath to determine our application and for a planning inspector to visit the club and decide our appeal.
“In this time, the building has become more and more run down and difficult to heat. Now we can look forward to moving into a modern building that will be much cheaper to run and assure the club can carry on for the foreseeable future.”
The visit by a planning inspector was apparently prompted by Surrey Heath MP Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.
After a visit promised in July last year failed to happen, Asa asked Mr Gove in August to help get the appeal progressed. Mr Gove requested an update on the appeal from the Planning Inspectorate and the inspector visited the club on 5 September.
“It seems that Mr Gove got things moving and we are grateful for his intervention,” said Asa.
The planning application was made on behalf of the club by Chobham-based Cleanslate Ltd, which specialises in redeveloping “brown-field”, previously built-on, land.
It was unanimously refused by the planning committee in August 2021 – against the advice of council officers.
Cleanslate said it had spent a year working with the officers on an application that was acceptable. Changes made to the plans included reducing the number of homes from 10 to nine.
The club already had permission to build a new clubhouse incorporating two flats on the site, but had dropped plans for eight houses.
Councillors said Cleanslate’s plans meant the land would be over-developed, with insufficient amenity space for the nine homes. The housing would be cramped and unsympathetic to the neighbourhood.
They objected to the loss of the tall beech hedge on the Windsor Road side of the site and the effects on the “green corridor” along the road.
The planning inspector, Robin Buchanan, accepted that the development would change the nature of the site but said the scale and layout of the buildings would be compatible with that part of Chobham.
The plans would not harm the character and appearance of what is a built-up area of the village, or affect the neighbouring listed buildings.
He said the proposed replacement hedge along Windsor Road, planted with a selection of native trees, will do much to screen the new homes from the highway.
Residents’ concerns about noise, inconvenience, disturbance and increased on-street parking by club users could be addressed through conditions requiring acoustic and other fencing to be installed and the involvement of the highways authority.
Chobham Club, which has around 200 members, has the only bar in the village that provides traditional pub activities such as darts, snooker and televisions for watching sport.
It stages poker, bingo and quiz nights and has been a venue for social gatherings and events such as wedding celebrations.
The club has been struggling financially for some time due to the high maintenance costs of the 1960s prefabricated building, which is poorly insulated and has an obsolete heating system.
Cleanslate is deciding when it can fit the development into its schedule. It will first build the new clubhouse, before demolishing the old building and putting up the homes.