Riding school claims new homes threaten its future

Cala Homes has applied for planning consent to build 49 homes near The Kiln Equestrian Centre

A horse-riding school has claimed that plans to build homes on a neighbouring field threatens its survival.

The Kiln Equestrian Centre near Farnham – on the border of Surrey and Hampshire – said there were 11 jobs at risk and "the end of a valued community business" if it could no longer access the field.

Planning consent for 49 new homes at the Fullers Road site, which centre users ride in, was applied for in June.

Cala Homes said the development would create "high quality new homes" to address "pressing shortfall in housing needs", according to planning documents.

The equestrian centre said it had been "a vital community riding school for 36 years" and that losing the field "threatens the commercial viability" of the group.

Mandana Mehran Pour, head of participation and development at the British Equestrian Federation, said closure could impact the centre's supply chain too.

"Equestrian centres like Kiln are not easily replaced as their infrastructure, access to land and deep-rooted community relationships take years to establish," she said.

East Hampshire District Council has received dozens of objections to the planning application.

Cala Homes said it had conditionally acquired a "parcel of land" adjacent to The Kiln Equestrian Centre, pending planning consent, and that the land was "identified for housing delivery" in the council's draft housing plan.