A planning application has been made for the development of the former Moore Place Golf Course, Esher. It is a major residential scheme (up to 206 dwellings and a capacity of over 1000 residents) located entirely within the Metropolitan Green Belt. The planning application reference with Elmbridge Council is 2025/3373 and the closing date for objections is 15th February 2026.

In order to assist local residents understand the extent to which this application complies with current planning policies and is legally compliant, I appointed London law firm Leigh Day and local planning advisor Kona Planning and their advice was used to compile the guidelines to residents posted on the website mooreplace.uk. The cost of this advice of £4000 is to be paid out of the funds raised on this site to date. My sincere thanks to all who have contributed to the fundraising so far.

A Moore Place Golf Course Defence Group was set up to help ensure the area remains a positive asset available to the community and it has been communicating to members through it's What's App group which on 14th February has 155 members. The activities of it's members has helped to generate over 700 objections of which nearly 400 are documented on the planning portal as of 14th February.

While this development will have many impacts on the community of Esher, the issues around the effect on green belt, loss of recreation, character of the area and heritage are those of greatest concern in contravention of planning policy. In order to provide a more detailed analysis of these issues, I am appointing ET Planning to provide residents, planning officers and the councillors with a comprehensive report the cost of which will be £6500 + vat. ET have also suggested it could help to have a heritage specialist and landscape consultant to support their conclusions. The cost of this specialist advice could be up to another c£6k + vat. I have therefore increased the funding target to £20,000 and we can take a decision on the specialist advice in a couple of weeks time when we can assess the value of their potential input and how funds are going.

ET have had written confirmation that although the planners will not change the official deadline of 15th February for representations, they will take account of any report submitted up to 31st March as the earliest planning meeting to hear this application would be 21st April.

I have sought this advice because I believe this development would have a serious impact on the locality and if you share this view I would very much appreciate your continued support towards this advice.

Brian Whitty FCA

Local resident

(If you want to see the work that ET have been doing, take a look at the Oxshott development 2025/2147 where the residents have raised over £23k to date).