Refused by Tandridge District Council? We read the decision notice, tell you honestly whether to appeal or resubmit, and prepare the drawings and statement that answer each reason for refusal on the Planning Inspectorate's terms.
Tandridge District Council granted 87% of the householder planning decisions it made in its latest published year — level with the 87% England-wide householder average. Metropolitan Green Belt covers around 94% of the district, one of the highest proportions in England, so the presumption against inappropriate development dominates decisions, which is where a policy-literate drawing pack earns its keep. Its dominant Victorian (1837–1901), Edwardian (1901–1910), interwar (1918–1939) and postwar (1945–1970) housing stock sets the design brief on most streets.
Under Class B, a rear dormer stays permitted development up to 40m³ of added roof volume on a terrace or 50m³ on a semi-detached or detached house, while Class A allows a single-storey rear extension of 3m beyond the original rear wall on a terrace and 4m on a detached house before a full application is needed. Tandridge carries at least one Article 4 direction, and conservation areas including Oxted, Limpsfield and Godstone remove those rights outright, so we confirm your exact address before a line is drawn. A validated householder application in Tandridge is determined against an 8-week statutory target.
Oxted (the principal town with railway-era Victorian and Edwardian housing, twentieth-century growth and a conservation area), Caterham (the district's largest settlement, dense Victorian-to-postwar housing across Caterham-on-the-Hill and the Valley), Warlingham (a hilltop commuter village of largely interwar and postwar detached houses and semis), Godstone (a historic green-belt village around a pond and green with a conservation area), Limpsfield (an affluent AONB-edge village of period and large detached stock with a conservation area) and Lingfield (a historic rural village with a medieval core and a conservation area) — these are the Tandridge pockets our drawings cover most. Heritage designations here include Oxted, Limpsfield, Godstone, Bletchingley, Lingfield and Chaldon. Tandridge District Council weighs each proposal against the Tandridge District Core Strategy (adopted 2008) and Local Plan Part 2: Detailed Policies (adopted July 2014), where the Surrey Hills and High Weald National Landscapes (AONBs) affect the district around Limpsfield, Oxted and the south, adding national landscape protection. Converted flats appear around Oxted and Caterham, and none of them hold householder permitted-development rights.. On roofs the borough is dual-pitch tiled roofs on the railway-era terraces and villas and hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar semis, over Victorian and Edwardian and interwar railway-era housing in Oxted and Caterham, postwar suburban semis and detached houses, large detached houses on generous plots at Woldingham and Limpsfield and historic vernacular cottages in the green-belt villages of Godstone, Bletchingley and Lingfield.
Two routes exist and they suit different refusals. A free-go resubmission — a fresh application within twelve months of the refusal, on the same site and in the same description — costs no fee and lets you change the scheme. An appeal keeps the scheme as refused and asks an Inspector to disagree with Tandridge District Council. Where the refusal reasons are about design detail that can be fixed, resubmission is usually faster; where they are about principle, an appeal is the only route that resolves it.
The decision notice is the brief. Each numbered reason cites policy and states a harm, and the appeal has to meet each one with evidence — sections showing daylight, elevations showing the relationship to neighbours, a site plan proving separation distances. Assertion loses appeals. Tandridge is largely Victorian and Edwardian and interwar railway-era housing in Oxted and Caterham, postwar suburban semis and detached houses, large detached houses on generous plots at Woldingham and Limpsfield and historic vernacular cottages in the green-belt villages of Godstone, Bletchingley and Lingfield, and dual-pitch tiled roofs on the railway-era terraces and villas and hipped roofs on the interwar and postwar semis shape what the Inspector will accept as characteristic here.
Metropolitan Green Belt covers around 94% of the district, one of the highest proportions in England, so the presumption against inappropriate development dominates decisions, which frequently appears in refusal reasons and therefore has to be addressed head-on. Tandridge has Article 4 directions removing permitted-development rights in parts of the district, which owners can check against the council's constraints map before assuming suburban PD rights, and its conservation areas such as Oxted, Limpsfield and Godstone add further character controls.
We give an honest read of the decision notice first. An appeal is usually the right route where:
We take each numbered reason for refusal and answer it with a drawing or an evidenced statement — not with a restatement of the original application. That is the difference between an appeal that reads as a complaint and one that reads as a case.
Below is Tandridge District Council's real decision record, drawn from official planning statistics and refreshed as new data lands. Tandridge grants a fair share of applications broadly in line with the national picture, with overwhelming Green Belt coverage and AONB protection the pressures on anything beyond modest householder work. Knowing what this authority actually refuses, and why, is the starting point for deciding whether to appeal or to redesign.
Source: MHCLG planning application statistics (householder decisions, England, 1 April 2025 - 31 March 2026). Compare every borough on our London approval-rate league table.
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Across Oxted, Caterham and Warlingham, the appeals that succeed are narrow and evidenced. They show the daylight test drawn rather than described, they cite the Inspector's own decisions on comparable sites, and they concede the points that are not worth arguing so the case concentrates on the ones that are. An appeal that disputes every reason equally reads as unfocused and usually fails on the strongest one.
The Surrey Hills and High Weald National Landscapes (AONBs) affect the district around Limpsfield, Oxted and the south, adding national landscape protection. Most householder appeals are decided by written representations, with the Inspector visiting the site unaccompanied. That makes the drawings the primary evidence: what is not on the page is not in front of the Inspector. We prepare the set on that basis, and where the honest answer is that the refusal was sound, we say so and redesign instead.
We prepare appeal drawings and statements across Tandridge. A few of the areas where refusals come up most often:
Appeal drawings for Oxted — the principal town with railway-era Victorian and Edwardian housing, twentieth-century growth and a conservation area — answering Tandridge District Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Caterham — the district's largest settlement, dense Victorian-to-postwar housing across Caterham-on-the-Hill and the Valley — answering Tandridge District Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Warlingham — a hilltop commuter village of largely interwar and postwar detached houses and semis — answering Tandridge District Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Godstone — a historic green-belt village around a pond and green with a conservation area — answering Tandridge District Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Limpsfield — an affluent AONB-edge village of period and large detached stock with a conservation area — answering Tandridge District Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Appeal drawings for Lingfield — a historic rural village with a medieval core and a conservation area — answering Tandridge District Council's reasons for refusal with evidence rather than assertion.
Three responses to a refusal, with different costs, timescales and prospects.
| Route | Deadline | Typical timescale | Best where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Householder appeal | 12 weeks from the decision | About 8–12 weeks | The refusal turns on principle or a disputed harm |
| Section 78 appeal (other) | 6 months from the decision | Several months | Larger schemes, change of use, new dwellings |
| Free-go resubmission | 12 months from the decision | 8 weeks | The reasons are fixable design detail |
| Fresh application, redesigned | No deadline | 8 weeks | The scheme needs a different approach entirely |
Deadlines from the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 78, and the Planning Inspectorate's published appeal procedures.
A process built around the decision notice, because that is what the Inspector reads first.
Send us the decision notice and the refused drawings. We tell you honestly whether the reasons are appealable, whether a resubmission is faster, and how Tandridge District Council has fared on comparable appeals.
We gather the material that answers each reason — daylight geometry, separation distances, decided appeals on similar sites, and the relevant policies read in full rather than in extract.
We prepare the drawings the Inspector needs and a statement of case that takes each numbered reason in turn, conceding what should be conceded and evidencing the rest.
We lodge the appeal inside the deadline, respond to the council's statement, and revise free until the Inspector issues a decision.
Twelve weeks from the date on the decision notice for a householder appeal, and six months for most other section 78 appeals. The deadline is strict and the Planning Inspectorate will not accept a late appeal, so the first thing we do on a Tandridge refusal is check the date and work backwards from it. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
It depends what the reasons say. If they identify design detail you are willing to change, a free-go resubmission within twelve months costs no application fee and usually resolves faster. If they refuse the principle — that an extension of this type does not belong here at all — only an appeal settles it, because a resubmission would meet the same objection. This applies to your Tandridge address specifically. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
Nationally, a minority of householder appeals succeed, and the ones that do tend to be narrow, evidenced and focused on a single disputed harm. We look at how Tandridge District Council's refusals have fared at appeal and at comparable decisions nearby before advising, and we will tell you when we think the refusal was sound — an appeal with no prospect costs months.
The scheme itself cannot change on appeal — the Inspector determines the application as refused. What usually needs preparing is evidence: sections showing daylight, elevations showing the relationship to neighbours, and context drawings showing what already exists on the street. Those explain why the refused scheme causes no harm, without altering it. This applies to your Tandridge address specifically. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
In most written-representation appeals, yes — usually unaccompanied, viewing the site from public land and neighbouring property where access is arranged. That is why the drawings matter so much: the Inspector sees the site once, briefly, and everything else comes from the paperwork you submitted. This applies to your Tandridge address specifically. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
Only where the council has behaved unreasonably — refusing against its own officer's clear recommendation without evidence, or failing to substantiate a reason for refusal. Costs awards are the exception rather than the norm, and they are decided separately from the appeal itself. Where the grounds genuinely exist, we make the application alongside the appeal. This applies to your Tandridge address specifically. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
We quote each Tandridge appeal individually after reading the decision notice, because the work depends entirely on how many reasons are in play and what evidence they demand, and send a fixed, no-obligation quote within one working day. The refusal review itself is free. Call 020 7864 7245 to start. Tandridge District Council is the decision-maker.
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