Almost 100 back garden developments have been granted by the council’s planning committee since 2007, despite huge public opposition to the growing trend.

At last month’s full council meeting, it was revealed 96 developments have been given the green light in less than three years.

Twenty-three of those successful applications were accepted on appeal after initially being rejected.

In December, the planning committee decided to grant a four-year-old application in Coleridge Avenue, Carshalton, that proposed building four apartments in an existing property’s back garden.

This was followed by another application in Wallington’s Harcourt Avenue, where 16 flats will be built on the land where four bungalows and a large back garden currently lie.

Both applications were rejected initially but, after minor amendments, they were resubmitted and then later accepted causing enormous anger among residents, who believe there is no appeals system for them.

Sutton Conservative leader Paul Scully said: “Coleridge and Harcourt Avenues are both excellent examples of this kind of over-development.

"Both parties talk a good game about back gardens but only the Tories have put their money where their mouth is by voting against the big developments.

“Residents do need a fair crack of the whip and we want the planning process to reflect their wishes.

"Sutton is a good area for bringing up families but we are losing family housing by constantly developing on back gardens.”

Darren Richards, head of planning at Sutton Council, said back gardens were classed as brownfield sites by national policy and, according to that policy, new buildings were permitted on this land where “appropriate”.

Councillor Lynn Gleeson, of the Liberal Democrats, said: “I don’t like the development of back gardens either but if you can’t get a roof over your head then you are pretty stuck.

"Whoever is next in power will have to provide housing wherever it is needed as the Greater London Authority (GLA) view whole gardens as developable.”

Liberal Democrat Paul Burstow presented two motions at the House of Commons last month, calling for changes to planning rules to protect gardens from “predatory” developers and for residents to have more say over planning applications.