Epsom & Ewell Borough Council have published a Green Belt Topic Paper. There has been little or no publicity.

The Local Plan was not an the agenda for a recent meeting of Licensing & Planning Policy Committee or for the full council meeting on 10th February. There has been little or no scrutiny by councillors before the topic paper was sent to the Inspector of the Local Plan.

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The topic paper is long, detailed and complicated, a total of 126 Pages
4 pages of Introduction
110 pages of Site Proformas
11 pages of Conclusions

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Site Proformas

1 West Park (Major Developed Site)
2 Manor Park (Major Developed Site)
3 Livingstone Park (Major Developed Site)
4 Clarendon Park (Major Developed Site)
5 St Ebbas (Major Developed Site)
6 Epsom College (Major Developed Site)
7 NESCOT (Major Developed Site)
COL017 Land West of Burgh Heath Road
COL019 Land east of Burgh Heath Road
COL020 Land near Downs Road -north
COL021 Land near Downs Road -South
COL022 Clear Heights, Downs Road
COL023 Land near Downs Road-east
COU026 Hook Road Arena
HOR001 Cuddington Glade
HOR002 Hollywood Lodge
HOR003 Manor Park
HOR004 Land off Cuddington Glade
HOR005 and HOR006 LAA ref West Park
HOR007 Noble Park extension
HOR008 LAA ref West Park
HOR009 Horton Farm
HOR010 Land at Chantilly Way
HOR011 Land south of West Cottage, Livingstone Park
HOR012 Clarendon Park HOR012
HOR014 Horton Hospital, Livingstone Park HOR01
NON013 Land at Priest Hill NON013
NON016 Downs Farm (LAA ref NON016)
NON021 Drift Bridge Farm (LAA ref NON021)
NON038 Banstead Road
NON040 The Looe, Reigate Road NON040
NON042 Downs Farm (LAA ref NON042)
WOO019 Land near Downs Road-west (WOO019)
WOO020 Land North of Langley Bottom Farm

Major Developed 7 Sites
College 7 sites
Court 1 site
Horton 12 sites
Nonsuch 6 sites
Woodcote 2 sites
Total sites 35

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Selection of points from the Introduction

1.1 This document has been produced following the Examination Hearings for the Epsom and Ewell Local Plan 2022-2040 held at the end of 2025. It includes additional work requested by the Examiner during the Hearings with regards to the Green Belt Topic Paper (Document Reference TP02) that the Council prepared to support the Consultation on the Proposed Submission Local Plan (Regulation 19).

1.2 The Green Belt Topic Paper (Document Reference TP02) comprised of four sections, Section 2 considered the policy and legal context for the alteration of Green Belt boundaries at Plan making; Section 3 set out the case for exceptional circumstances on a strategic level having regard to the first 3 matters of the Calverton Case and Section 4 considered the exceptional circumstances on a site specific level, specifically having regard to the last two matters of the Calverton Case tests iv and v. these are as follows:

iv. the nature and extent of harm to this Green Belt (or those parts of it which would be lost if the boundaries were reviewed); and,

v. the extent to which the consequent impacts on the purposes of the Green Belt may be ameliorated or reduced to the lowest reasonable practicable extent.

1.3 During the Examination Hearing on Matter 4 Green Belt held on 1 October 2025, the Examiner identified shortcomings in part of the Green Belt Topic Paper (Document Reference TP02) and outlined the need to undertake further work on Section 4 which comprised of site assessments of individual Green Belt sites and whether exceptional circumstances existed for making alterations to the Green Belt boundaries.

1.4 During the Hearing Session the Council agreed that updates to the topic paper could be undertaken to address the Inspector’s concerns in relation to Section 4. In addition, it was agreed that the Council should provide additional information to demonstrate how paragraph 147 of the NPPF (Dec 2023) has been satisfied:

‘Where it has been concluded that it is necessary to release Green Belt land for development, plans should give first consideration to land which has been previously-developed and/or is well-served by public transport…’

1.5 The Council committed to prepare a Hearing Action Note for consideration by the Inspector to set out the scope of the additional work to be undertaken. The Post Hearing Action Green Belt Topic Paper (Document Reference HD4_1) was prepared by the Council and subsequently approved for publication by the Inspector as part of the Examination Library.

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