Locals are vocally opposing developer Poppymill's proposals to deliver up to 2,000 new homes on land near Chessington.

The proposed site of the development, which is being referred to as the Hook Park development, lies to the north of Clayton Road in Chessington, which is bordered by the A3 to the west and north, and council-owned land to the east, and no longer meets the criteria for green belt allocation, according to Poppymill.

The area includes The Dell and Chessington Equestrian Centre, covering approximately 50 acres in total. Of this, around seven hectares consist of previously developed land, including former scaffolding yards and a variety of informal or unauthorised uses.

Aerial view of the site – outlined in red (Credit: Poppymill)

To express their opposition to the proposals, local residents have created a Facebook page dedicated to campaigning against the development.

After Poppymill submitted a planning application for the proposals earlier this month, one of the group's members, Julie Turner, asked other members to submit their opposition comments to Kingston Council before the application's closing date of 12 December.

In her post, Turner said: "Please pass this information on to friends/neighbours/relatives etc. to make sure RBK is in absolutely no doubt about the level of opposition to this proposed development."

You can view the full planning application here where you can also leave a comment about the proposals.

Turner has also contacted the MP for Kingston and Surbiton, Sir Ed Davey, who shares residents' opposition.

In an email to Turner, the Liberal Democrat leader said: "I have now found the time to read key parts of this planning application to decide for myself whether the applicants have fully dealt with the concerns of local people and my own concerns, and my conclusion is, they have not. Therefore, I will be opposing this application.

"I plan to work with local councillors and residents to work out how best to do this. This will not be easy, not least because the latest planning reforms just announced by the Labour Government this very week are deeply alarming, as they could take away decision-making on this application from Kingston Council and thus our local community.

"Before I deal with the substance of your concerns - on issues from traffic to social infrastructure, biodiversity and sheer scale of the development - let me comment on the Government's key strategic planning policy changes that directly affect this site.

"When Poppymill first put forward ideas several years ago, I felt no application in this area would stand any chance at all, due to protections given to greenbelt land like this. Kingston Council, local councillors and my party have always been very strong in supporting greenbelt designation in general and have always opposed attempts to water them down.

"However, Labour's manifesto at the last General Election in 2024 proposed a massive shift in planning law with respect to greenbelt land. When combined with the London Mayor's change in policy towards greenbelt in his developing London Plan, the protections we were relying upon are much weaker. The Labour Government is legislating to give effect to these proposals and are pushing to re-designate some greenbelt land as "greybelt". This is a new factor and fundamentally weakens the planning law protections for sites like this.

"Indeed, Kingston Council like other local authorities must now review greenbelt designations in the light of new planning law and guidance. While there will be some scope to challenge such re-designations - for example, on the grounds that a proposed site is rich in biodiversity and is not therefore "greybelt" - the outcome is much less certain than before. I am particularly worried about this process for the Hook Park site given the stance of the London Mayor and the Greater London Authority and how the Council must take into account the GLA's evolving policies."

Sir Ed Davey MP says he opposes the development proposals (Credit: Liberal Democrats)

The MP continued: "In short, the greenbelt protections that we had been relying on to defeat any development on this site are already much weaker and may offer little or no protection now. That means we may have to rely on other planning law arguments to oppose this application successfully.

"New Government "call in" powers may impact how this application is decided.

"Moreover, this week the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Steve Reed) made a surprise and shocking written statement to Parliament called "The Next Stage of Planning Reform". In this statement, he said: "Second, while planning decisions are principally for local authorities, I hold powers that allow me to take over applications and determine them directly – ensuring the right decisions are taken in the local and national interest.

"Given the scale of the housing crisis, and the imperative of building the homes we need, I want to use these powers in a more focused and active way. I will require local authorities to notify me where they intend to refuse an application for 150 homes or more – providing me with the opportunity to decide whether to take it over."

Locals raised their opposition to the proposals at a residents meeting on Friday, 26 September at Kingston Rugby Club (Credit: Gia Borg-Darcy)

Before submitting its planning application, Poppymill held three public consultations to discuss its proposals.

A meeting held in October of this year to discuss concerns about the development saw huge backlash from both residents and local councillors.