Sidlow Green Belt: 9 Self-Build Homes, Say by 11 Sept

Reigate & Banstead has registered an application for up to nine self-build homes on Green Belt land at Lower Duxhurst Farm, Sidlow. Comments close on 11 September and the council’s own deadline for a decision is 24 September 2026.

The site is at 15 Reigate Road, RH2 8QH, in Salfords and Sidlow parish. The applicant is PROwe Planning Solutions of Newdigate. The reference is 26/01362/PIP and the case officer is Russell Brown.

The dates that matter

Only six neighbours and bodies were consulted, which is normal for a rural site with few near neighbours. Two objections had been logged when we checked on 25 August, both submitted the day before, and no letters of support.

Why “up to nine”, and what this application decides

This is a permission in principle application, not a full planning application. That matters twice over.

First, the number. Housing counts as “major development” once it reaches 10 or more homes (Development Management Procedure Order 2015, article 2). Permission in principle cannot be used for major development, so nine homes sits one below the line.

Second, the scope. Government guidance is explicit that permission in principle is limited to three things:

The scope of permission in principle is limited to location, land use and amount of development. Issues relevant to these ‘in principle’ matters should be considered at the permission in principle stage. Other matters should be considered at the technical details consent stage.

So this application will not settle what the houses look like, where the access goes, how many bedrooms they have or how surface water is dealt with. All of that comes later, at the technical details consent stage, and it is the granting of technical details consent that actually amounts to planning permission (gov.uk guidance on permission in principle).

Two more practical points from the same guidance. A permission in principle granted by application lasts three years by default. And once a technical details application is validated, the council normally has five weeks to decide it, because a scheme of this size is not major development.

The Green Belt, and the other constraints on the file

The council’s own constraints list for the application records the site as Metropolitan Green Belt, and as covered by the Development Management Plan’s Green Belt policy. Other constraints on the file include:

• an Article 4 direction covering the rural areas of the southern part of the borough
• a 500 metre buffer around ancient woodland
• the River Mole catchment, for drainage
• Gatwick aerodrome safeguarding, including the bird attractant zone
• a ground gas constraint, flagged to the council’s environmental protection team
• an area of special advertisement control

Salfords and Sidlow Parish Council is a formal consultee. The ward is Horley West and Sidlow, and the three ward councillors, Steve Wotton, Richard Biggs and James Baker, are notified on the file.

The farm has been through the planning system repeatedly

Lower Duxhurst Farm has generated a steady run of applications, with mixed results. From the council’s register:

• June 2024: two prior-approval applications to convert agricultural buildings to two dwellings each, 24/01054/PAP3Q and 24/01060/PAP3Q, both approved.
• November 2024: a certificate confirming a new garage and hardstanding as permitted development.
• 28 November 2025: a retrospective application to demolish a barn and build two semi-detached houses, 25/01572/F, refused. The register records that the appeal against that refusal was allowed.
• 21 April 2026: an application to retain hardstanding and associated temporary buildings, 26/00057/RET, refused.

That allowed appeal is the single most useful fact on the file. A planning inspector has already permitted new housing on this Green Belt farm after the council said no. Anyone reading the new application should expect that decision to be argued both ways.

What the two objectors say

Both published objections are on the council’s website in full. Between them they raise:

• that the site is in the Green Belt and open countryside, and that a council’s duty on self-build plots does not override Green Belt protection
• loss of openness from buildings, an access road, lighting and fencing
• no pedestrian access, no public transport and no local services, so occupants would depend entirely on the car
• traffic and highway safety at the pinch point near Duxhurst Lane
• loss of arable land, and effects on wildlife and rural character
• no legal mechanism, such as a section 106 agreement, to guarantee the homes stay genuinely self-build rather than becoming standard speculative housing
• the precedent a grant here would set for neighbouring Green Belt land

The last two are the arguments most likely to bite, because both go to land use and amount of development, which is exactly what permission in principle decides.

What it means for you

• The deadline is 11 September. Comments go through the application page, and all published comments are visible there.
• Aim your points at the right stage. Objections about drainage details, house design or the exact access position belong at technical details consent. Objections about whether housing belongs here at all, and how much of it, belong now.
• The parish council is a consultee, so Salfords and Sidlow Parish Council’s response will be on the file. Watch for it.
• If permission in principle is granted, nothing can be built yet. A technical details consent application has to follow, and it triggers its own consultation.

Our guide to reading, tracking and commenting on any application in the borough is at Reigate planning applications.

Sources

• Reigate & Banstead planning register: 26/01362/PIP, summary, details, important dates, constraints and comments tabs
• Permission in principle, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government planning practice guidance
• The Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2015, article 2, definition of major development