A revised planning application to build affordable and market price homes at Orchard Farm has been submitted to Waverley Borough Council by the English Rural Housing Association.
The new application is seeking approval for a scaled-down development of seven affordable homes together with two bungalows to be sold on the open market.
The previous ERHA application, submitted in 2016, was for 17 homes – 12 affordable and five open market. This was rejected by Waverley councillors in May 2017.
The ERHA went to appeal but this was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate in June 2018.
The new application was made public on the Waverley Borough Council website on Monday (March 4th, 2019). A deadline of March 29th has been set for comments.
The new development, if approved, would occupy the area of previously developed land at Orchard Farm, Wormley Lane, where various outbuildings currently stand. Five of the new properties would be for affordable rent and two for shared ownership.
Under the revised scheme the original farmhouse, which was to have been demolished, will be retained, renovated and sold on the open market. This does not form a part of the new application.
Paddock land, which was to have been gifted to the village as open space under the previous scheme, is now excluded from the application and is not a part of the latest proposal.
Orchard Farm is within the Green Belt and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the ERHA application will need to demonstrate that the land may be considered as a rural exception site.

The application can be found here:
http://planning360.waverley.gov.uk/planning/search-applications?civica.query.FullTextSearch=Orchard%20Farm%20Hambledon#VIEW?RefType=GFPlanning&KeyNo=332587&KeyText=Subject
Hambledon Parish Council, which held its monthly meeting the day after the application was published, had no opportunity to consider the application in detail. Its next meeting is April 2nd, after the comment deadline.
Therefore, the parish council resolved to request an extension to the comment period in order to examine the proposal in detail and to hear any comments from villagers before responding to Waverley Borough Council.
People with connections to Hambledon and who fulfill ERHA criteria will have the opportunity to apply to be considered for the affordable homes if approval is given to the development. The parish council can comment on the application, but it is for Waverley Borough Council to approve or reject the proposal.
The ERHA website can be found here:https://englishrural.org.uk/