A Chessington community has failed in its High Court battle to prevent "garden grabbing" property developers building in their street.

They are now calling for heads to roll at Kingston Council after £8,000 of public money was spent on the case and council officers were ill-prepared, they claim.

Developers Astindale Properties won the right to build seven houses in the place of just two in Somerset Avenue at an independent planning appeal last year.

But Kingston Council, which originally refused the plans, challenged the decision at the High Court on Monday, April 27, saying the added traffic would make the road unsafe and the original appeal had been unfair.

This was dismissed by the judge.

Resident Colin Sparks, who spearheaded the campaign, said the council’s legal challenge was a "disaster" and the barrister was given very little to go on.

He said: “We’ve been badly let down.

"This development is going to ruin a lot of lives and now there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Chessington councillor Mary Reid, who attended Monday’s hearing with six residents, had championed the legal bid as "real local democracy in action" but said the result was disappointing.

It is the first time Kingston Council has launched a legal challenge against a planning decision in more than four years.

A council spokeswoman said: "Case history indicated that there was no guarantee that a challenge to an appeal decision would be successful, but in court the council presented as strong a case as it could."

It had refused the development of three and four-bedroom houses last April because they were too large and out of keeping with the area.

The development was so unpopular that up to 60 residents at a time came to council meetings to make their objections known.

A spokesman from Astindale Properties said no decision had been made about when building work will begin.

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