Mary Reid

I'm really, really angry and upset. We've just heard that the application to build 7 houses on the site on 30-32 Somerset Ave (plus the garden next door) has been permitted on appeal.

Last month I wrote about the appeal hearing. 73 local people turned up to object!  Now their views, and the professional opinion of Kingston's planning experts, have been overturned by the Government's Inspector.

This is the first back garden development of its kind that has been allowed in this ward for many, many years. In fact, I think that the last example was probably (ironically) St Paul's Vicarage back in the 1960s.

Since then local councillors have fought hard to maintain the suburban character of the area. That is now under threat, and this decision will be held up as precedent.