Land South-West of Godstone Station

The land south-west of Godstone Station presents an opportunity to provide much-needed new market and affordable homes, as well as new facilities for South Godstone village.

 

The site is designated Green Belt, and an undeveloped greenfield site outside the defined settlement boundary of South Godstone. However, these factors do not prohibit the development of the site for housing, provided that a number of factors can be successfully demonstrated. Specifically, the updated National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) published in December 2024 states that the development of new homes in the Green Belt is not inappropriate if all of the following apply:

• The development would utilise grey belt land and not fundamentally undermine the purposes (taken together) of the remaining Green Belt across the area

• There is a demonstrable unmet need for the type of development proposed

• The development would be in a sustainable location

• The development proposed meets the ‘Golden Rules’ requirements

The Planning Statement submitted with the planning application explains in detail how we consider the proposed development to meet all these requirements. However, to briefly summarise:

 

UTILISING GREY BELT LAND

‘Grey belt’ is defined as land in the Green Belt that does not strongly contribute to three specific purposes of the Green Belt, namely 1) to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas, 2) to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another, and 3) to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns. The land south-west of Godstone Station is adjacent to a village, not a town, and as such makes no contribution to these purposes; nor would its development undermine the purposes of the rest of the Green Belt in the area.

 

A DEMONSTRABLE UNMET NEED

‘Demonstrable unmet need’ means the lack of a five-year housing land supply in a specific district, or where the Housing Delivery Test was below 75% of the district’s housing requirement in the previous three years. A May 2025 appeal decision for another proposed development in the district established that Tandridge District Council was able to demonstrate only 1.45 years of housing land supply, and the Housing Delivery Test published in December 2024 showed that Tandridge only delivered 42% of its housing requirement between 2020 and 2023.

 

DEVELOPMENT IN A SUSTAINABLE LOCATION

The site is within walking distance of a small range of facilities for everyday needs in South Godstone village, including St. Stephen’s Primary School, a petrol station with an attached small retail outlet, St. Stephen’s Church, a children’s play area and a sports ground. In addition, the site is immediately to the south-west of Godstone railway station, within a 3-minute walk.

 

MEETING THE GOLDEN RULES

The ‘Golden Rules’ stipulate that a housing development on Green Belt land should provide 1) affordable housing levels 15% higher than the district’s current target, 2) necessary improvements to local or national infrastructure, and 3) new green spaces accessible to the public or improvements to existing ones. The proposed development would provide 49% affordable housing, 15% higher than Tandridge’s current target. It would also provide a commercial or community unit of up to 500sqm (primarily intended for use as a convenience store), and safeguards land on-site for Network Rail to provide a step-free access to Godstone station’s southern platform in the future. Furthermore, a variety of public open spaces are proposed, including an equipped play area as well as green spaces suitable for informal play.

 

For these reasons, we consider that the proposed development does meet the requirements for appropriate development in the Green Belt as set out in the NPPF.

 

Facilities within walking distance of the site