Moore Place Refused: 206 Homes

Moore Place refused: what it means for housing development in Hersham

Elmbridge Borough Council has refused outline plans for 206 homes on the former Moore Place golf course at Esher. The decision was taken after a series of votes, and a revised refusal motion was approved only narrowly.

Moore Place is in Esher, not Hersham, and it has never been counted in our local pipeline figure. The reasoning behind the decision matters here all the same.

What the decision turned on

The site sits in the Green Belt. The applicants, Charterhouse Strategic Land and Moore Place Holdings, argued that the golf course, out of use since 2019, should be treated as grey belt, the national policy route by which poorer quality Green Belt land can be released for housing. Planning officers had recommended approval.

The committee declined to designate the land as grey belt, and without that designation the case for releasing the site fell away. Councillor Simon Waugh told the meeting it came down to whether it was a grey belt site, and in his view it was not.

The scheme would have delivered 103 affordable homes, half the total. It attracted more than 1,000 public objections. Members were genuinely split: officers suggested deferring a decision once the committee deadlocked, councillors rejected that, and the refusal motion followed.

The case for building was put as well as the case against. Councillor Harrison Allman-Varty, pressing members to weigh the borough’s housing shortage, asked “what exactly are we prepared to build?”

Why an Esher decision matters in Hersham

Three of the live applications around Hersham rest on a comparable argument. Burhill Kennels, the Ashill site on Burwood Road and Fairview’s land east of Molesey Road are all Green Belt sites where the case for release leans on grey belt policy.

What Moore Place shows is that the grey belt designation is not a formality in this borough. A developer asserting that a site qualifies does not make it so, and members are willing to reach a different conclusion from their own officers.

What could reverse it

This part is worth understanding before anyone treats the decision as settled.

Where a committee refuses an application against its officers’ advice, the applicant can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. A refusal of a scheme that officers judged acceptable, and which offered half its homes as affordable, is the kind of decision that can be overturned on appeal, in some cases with costs awarded against the council. If an inspector were to allow it, the precedent would run the other way, and it would apply to Green Belt sites across the borough, Hersham included.

No appeal has been lodged at the time of writing. The appeal period runs for six months from the decision notice. We will report what happens.

Where Hersham’s Green Belt applications stand today

These are the live applications on Green Belt land around the village, as at 15 October 2026.

Moore Place sits outside Hersham and is shown for context only. It is not included in the local pipeline total.

Burhill Kennels: comments close tomorrow

Of everything on that list, Burhill Kennels is the one residents can still influence directly. The consultation on application 2026/1902, for up to 82 homes on Green Belt land at Turners Lane, closes on 16 October 2026.

If you intend to comment, our summary of the application and the objection points, with the full document to download, is here:
Burhill Kennels, Turners Lane: objection to 2026/1902

The map

Every site is plotted below, with its planning reference and current status.

Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Tap or click any marker for the site name, planning reference and details. On phones, use two fingers to move the map. Purple markers are nearby sites outside Hersham, shown for context only and not counted in the local pipeline total.

What this means in practice

One refusal does not decide anything for Hersham. Each application is determined on its own facts, and none of the three live Green Belt schemes has been to committee yet.

What it does show is that the grey belt argument can be tested and rejected, even when officers accept it and even when a scheme carries a substantial amount of affordable housing. That is a material point for residents making representations on the Hersham applications, and a reason to make them while the consultations are open rather than after a decision.

For the full record of every site, its status and its planning reference:
Housing Developments Around Hersham

Reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service and carried by the BBC and Surrey Live, together with the published officer report for application 2025/3373. Statuses reflect the position on 15 October 2026 and change as applications progress.