A SUCCESSFUL High Court challenge by Waverley Borough Council to a planning inspector’s grounds for allowing a plan to build 29 new homes at Haslemere’s Longdene House, means the scheme will now be re-determined after an appeal hearing.

Waverley planners refused the change of use from office to residential and the erection of up to 29 houses in Hedgehog Road, following the demolition of two dwellings, greenhouses and outbuildings in September 2016.

It was over-ruled at an appeal last September.

Landowner Tony Lawson accused Waverley of wasting taxpayers money pursuing the legal challenges.

Mr Lawson objected that the challenges related to the inspector’s comments about Waverley’s Local Plan and were ‘peripheral’ to the actual application, but had had the effect of stopping the plan in its tracks.

The date of the second appeal for the site near Sturt Farm has yet to be set.