A controversial proposal to build a new community of 1,024 homes has been submitted, amid serious concerns about traffic and safety in the area.

Surrey Comet:

Idyllic: But is that the whole story?

Neighbours and councillors have been waiting for the application to build Drake Park, Walton, to be submitted, after rounds of plan viewing and revised plan viewing since June of last year.

In a cover letter dated May 26, the developer said a cheque for £75,192 had been hand delivered to the council.

The development includes a primary school, new homes, a supermarket, pub, and parking and would straddle Esher, Walton Ambleside and Walton North wards.

People living near the site have repeatedly voiced concerns about the increase in traffic with more than 1,000 new homes and a new school.

One objector wrote: “To build more than a thousand homes plus school plus supermarket plus pub, etc, would be criminal in my opinion, a thousand homes means about 2,000 plus vehicles adding to the already saturated roads in the immediate locality, this is without the vehicles on the twice daily school run and delivery vehicles to a supermarket, the added danger from this traffic is obvious to us all in light of some recent tragic accidents.”

Traffic worries have been at the forefront of objectors’ minds near the Molesey Road site, heightened by the death of a 55-year-old grandmother, named this week as Yvonne Wyeth, who was involved in a multi-vehicle crash in Molesey Road on Thursday, May 28.

There are also plans to develop Weylands Treatment Works, an anaerobic waste digestion facility, which could see 231 heavy goods vehicles making trips to the site on the same road each day.

Councillor Andrew Kelly, for Walton Ambleside, said it was the biggest planning application Elmbridge had seen for decades and said: “As the cabinet member for planning, I’m very concerned about allowing development on this scale on the greenbelt.

“We need to be protecting our precious greenbelt, not building more than 1,000 homes on it.”

The latest plans for Drake Park were unveiled in March, at Esher Rugby Club, where Nigel Rankine, development director at Bonnar Allan, said: “We have listened to what people said to us, local people said to us, and the councils, and we have sought to deliver.

“There is a concern about increased traffic. We can’t do anything about that, there will be an increase in traffic, but we can make it safer.”

A report by Stilwell Partnership, commissioned by Bonnar Allan, found: “The transport assessment has demonstrated that the likely traffic associated with Drake Park would be easily accommodated on the local highway network with only a limited impact on highway capacity, queuing and delays.”

In summary, it said: “We conclude that the proposed development is in a sustainable location and can be accommodated without detriment to highway safety or capacity on the surrounding highway network.”

Comments are welcome until June 26.