Last updated on 6 July 2025
2,000 new homes and a new public park are proposed for green belt land, off Clayton Road. This would be a major development which, if approved, would bring in at least another 5,000 residents to Chessington. Developers Poppymill are preparing an outline planning application to build Hook Park. The three consultation events for residents at the end of June and early July have taken place but the proposals are available to view on the Hook Park website and there’s still time to feedback comments. We urge you to get involved. The deadline for feedback on the proposals is 31st July 2025.
Background
A company called Poppymill first began consulting on this potential development in 2020 when they proposed building 2,500 homes. This has now been reduced to 2,000. We presume they think that the reduction will be more acceptable to us.
A large chunk of the land they would like to build on is the Chessington Equestrian Centre and The Dell in Clayton Road. However, they do not yet own all the land that their plans cover. They have already purchased the Equestrian Centre, but we do not believe they have purchased any of The Dell. The Dell is home to much illegal activity and squatting, which Kingston Council has been unable to control.
Green Belt Status
The land is Green Belt status and, in 2020, we were confident that Poppymill would not get permission to build on it. However, with the Government’s new plans to make it possible to have Green Belt re-designated and the new London Plan, we believe that they are more hopeful, particularly as The Dell is low grade Green Belt due to the poor state of the land.
Access
There are, of course, other obstacles for Poppymill to overcome. Not least the difficulty in accessing Hook Park from Clayton Road, which is extremely narrow already and regularly gets blocked when there is two-way traffic.