Ashtead has become the most reviled place in the UK - condemned in the national press and held in contempt on radio and television.

Some people have started saying they live in Lower Epsom or Upper Leatherhead, rather than admit they come from Ashtead.

It is all because of one plush executive, seven-bedroom house in upmarket Grays Lane and a plan to turn it into a temporary home for families visiting badly wounded servicemen at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court.

Objections from 87 people lodged with Mole Valley District Council brought the issue to nationwide attention - and Ashtead into the unwelcome limelight with reporters and camera crews stalking the normally quiet streets.

But while there were 660 letters in favour of the scheme and more than 43,000 signatures in support on the Prime Minister's website, it led to numerous comment pieces in the national newspapers roundly condemning Ashtead and all its residents.

Mole Valley District Council has given permission for the scheme to go ahead with the proviso the house should revert to private use when it is no longer needed as a place to stay for families visiting wounded servicemen.

But although the battle of Grays Lane seems to be over, bad feeling is simmering in Ashtead and there is still resentment over the way the village was dealt with by the national press.

The objections to the Soldiers, Sailors and Air Forces Association (SSAFA) charity buying the house to turn into a home for visiting families varied from the ludicrous to the more prosaic concerning change of use and increased traffic.

Some of the more bizarre objections presented to Mole Valley planners included Grays Lane becoming a soft target for terrorists and a possible increase in burglaries.

Some residents also said that the change of use would increase the danger to horse riders using the local bridleways.

While some made it clear that the intended residents wouldn't "fit in" in the area which has its share of houses hitting the £2million plus bracket, others had fears for the future; what would happen to the house if permanent change of use is granted and eventually SSAFA sells it on to another organisation?

This is a problem that has been dealt with by the council putting conditions on its grant of planning permission to SSAFA for the change of use of the house.

But while the planning permission row raged people living outside Ashtead got the impression the whole village had turned its back on badly wounded servicemen and their families.

Former Ashtead resident John Dawkins, who now lives in Bookham, said: "I am glad I moved. I would be ashamed to say I lived in Ashtead. It is just sheer snobbery. I was just appalled there is so much bigotry against people who have been wounded serving their country."

The apparent prejudice is in marked contrast to the warm welcome villagers extended to servicemen and their families going back to the First World War.

In 1914 some 2,000 men from the 21st battalion the Royal Fusiliers arrived in Ashtead where they were billeted for 30 weeks. When they finally left, it was with the regret of the village which had earned more than £70,000 from providing accommodation.

After the war was over, the village continued its support for ex-servicemen by hosting the Ashtead Pottery, which offered employment to disabled men and officers who had served in the First World War.

The pottery had homes for its workers in Purcell Close which housed all ranks and homes in Greville Park Road for former officers. Now the houses are owned by the Haig charity which provides housing for ex-servicemen and their families.

The charity owns several groups of homes in Ashtead - some very close to Grays Lane - and there has never been any friction between the residents and other people in Ashtead.

Canadian soldiers were billeted in Ashtead in the Second World War and made a welcome addition to the population.

People in Ashtead showed their generosity to former servicemen when ex prisoners of war returned after years of starvation in the Japanese prisoner of war camps.

Although food was in short supply and tightly rationed, mysterious late night parcels of nutritious food would be left on the doorsteps of returning prisoners to help them back to health.

So with Ashtead's history of support for the services and the families of ex-servicemen, why the hostility to the idea of a luxury house being turned into a short term home for families visiting wounded servicemen?

Sue Norton, wife of Captain Peter Norton who was awarded the George Cross after losing his arm and a leg in Iraq, said: "Unfortunately there are going to be more and more injured soldiers coming back and people want to shut their eyes to that. The objections to the house make me feel in a lower class of society. I am not fit to be in Grays Lane and it is outrageous, preposterous and deeply upsetting.

"It would have been wonderful to have had a stress-free environment where we could have stayed - it wouldn't have been so tiring and draining and it would have been wonderful to have the support of other people going through the same things."

A former airman David New who campaigned for the house said: "The residents' fears of a terrorist attack if the families of wounded soldiers stay there for a short time is absolutely laughable, it is a complete nonsense.

"I don't believe that most people in Ashtead are against this. It is just a few. Most of the people who are getting injured don't earn a fortune For their families to travel to Headley, maybe hundreds of miles and then find a bed and breakfast - it just makes life even more difficult than it has to be.

"It is very, very difficult, particularly for the children, they need a special place where they come to terms with the fact that daddy has been injured.

"People visiting someone in Headley Court are not going to be in the mood for rushing around trashing the place, they want quiet, peace and solitude."

John Reynolds, president of the Ashtead branch of the Royal British Legion, said: "I think the press has given Ashtead a bad name. It is only a tiny minority who were against this. Everyone else wants to give our servicemen every bit of support we can."