Feltonfleet School Byfleet Road Cobham Surrey KT11 1DR Data via plota.co.uk

2026/1412 - Full Application Approved

Proposal

Change of use of Leighton House and associated parking area from Educational Use (Class F1(a)) to Nursery Use (Class E(f)) Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
12 Jun 2026
✓
Approved
7 Aug 2026

Approved on 7 Aug 2026 · Last checked 12 Sept 2026

Site constraints 7

Green belt: London
Inappropriate development needs very special circumstances.
Green belt policy allows a short list of exceptions, such as limited extensions and replacement buildings. Anything else needs very special circumstances that clearly outweigh the harm. Some green belt land can count as grey belt, where it does not strongly serve the green belt's purposes. The council decides this in its green belt assessment or on each application, so we do not mark it here.
Read the government guidance ↗
National infrastructure project: M25 junction 10/A3 Wisley interchange improvement
The site is inside the project boundary. Highway, decided. The project page says whether consent was granted.
Nationally significant infrastructure projects (power stations, electricity lines, pipelines, major roads and railways, harbours, airports and reservoirs) are consented by a Secretary of State under the Planning Act 2008, after an examination by the Planning Inspectorate, rather than by the council. The boundary is the one the Inspectorate consults on and can change as the scheme does. Projects are shown within 2 km of the site.
Planning Inspectorate project page ↗
Agricultural land, grade 3b
Not best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. A site survey can differ.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Registered park or garden about 39 m away: Painshill Park
Its setting is a consideration for work nearby.
Registered parks and gardens, battlefields, world heritage sites and protected wrecks are designated heritage assets: harm needs clear and convincing justification.
Historic England ↗
Habitat network: Wood pasture and parkland
Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.
Also on the record
3 listed buildings within 150 m of the postcode pin; Priority habitat about 24 m away: Deciduous woodland.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 6 October 2026. The pin for this application is the centre of its postcode rather than the building, so distances to nearby designations are measured from the postcode and can be out by the width of the postcode area. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England, the Planning Inspectorate and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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Important details

Council
Elmbridge
Application type
Full Application
Postcode
KT11 1DR
Received
12 Jun 2026
Validated
12 Jun 2026
Decision
Grant Planning Permission
Decision date
7 Aug 2026
Freehold owner
Show

How this decision compares

Decided in 56 days from validation, 6 days faster than Elmbridge's median of 62 for changes of use. Approved, as 56% of changes of use here are.

43%decided within 8 weeks
56%approved
75decided in the last year

Plota live figures for changes of use decided by Elmbridge in the last twelve months, from validation. Elmbridge decision record →

Elmbridge
Planning Authority Score
2.6/10
Poor
#247 of 296 councils
Relevant to this application:
Change of use

Elmbridge ranks #195 out of 296 councils for householder decision speed. Elmbridge is also one of the strictest councils - it refuses more householder applications than almost any other, with only 79% approved vs 90% nationally.

One of the strictest councils
only 79% approved vs 90% nationally
These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance
Elmbridge decision statistics
Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026
77%
Overall approval rate
Below avg (87%) #277 of 296
79%
Householder approved
Below avg (90%) #281 of 296
57%
Decided in 8 weeks
Below avg (63%) #195 of 296
44%
Extended time limit
Above avg (41%) #178 of 296
68%
Minor dwellings approved
195 decided (1-9 homes)
60%
Major dwellings approved
15 decided (10+ homes)
72%
Change of use approved
32 decided
1,358
Total decisions
314 refused in the year to March 2026

Freehold owner: Information produced by HM Land Registry. © Crown copyright 2026. Source: HM Land Registry, UK and overseas companies that own property in England and Wales, September 2026 release.