Sunbury Estate Gates Approved: Paths Shut at 6pm in Winter

A Sunbury housing estate can put locking gates on three of its footpaths, after Spelthorne’s planning committee approved the plans on Wednesday 28 October. The public will be able to walk through them from 8am to 6pm in winter and 8am to 8pm in summer.

The estate is International Way, off Windmill Road, built on the former Windmill Trading Estate. Its 264 homes share two areas of public open space, including a children’s playground. A legal agreement made when the estate was built says the public must be able to use them “in perpetuity”.

That agreement is the catch. Councillors approved the application only on condition that the agreement is rewritten first, to allow the gates.

What was approved

The application, 26/00909/FUL, came from International Way (Sunbury) Management Company Limited, which runs the estate. According to the officers’ report, it covers:

• new 1.8 metre metal railings at all four pedestrian entrances, two on Windmill Road and two on Lincoln Way
• gates at three of the four, which would be locked in the evening and overnight
• no gate at the fourth, so that entrance closes for good
• a fire service override on the gates, so emergency crews can get in

The railings are to match the estate’s existing ones. Details of the three gates have to be approved by the council before they go in.

The management company told the council it wants fewer people, cyclists and delivery riders cutting through the estate. Its planning statement says this is to improve residents’ safety and security and to prevent anti-social behaviour.

The paths are already shut. The report records that Heras fencing went up at several entrances in March 2025, leaving the main entrance on Windmill Road as the only way in on foot.

When the gates must be open

The hours are set by a planning condition in the report. The three new gates, and the existing main pedestrian gate on Windmill Road, must be unlocked for the public at these times:

Residents of the estate will still be able to use the gates at any time.

At the meeting, the council’s solicitor told the committee that the main entrance would, as they understood it, be open at all times. The condition as written in the report includes the main pedestrian gate in the same hours.

Why the approval depends on the legal agreement

Officers recommended approval, and said in the report that no change to the estate’s Section 106 agreement was needed. The council’s solicitor advised the committee differently at the meeting.

The solicitor said the agreement requires the open space and play area to be “open and accessible to all in perpetuity”, with no limit on times or entrances. Gates closed at certain hours, the solicitor said, “run the risk of being in breach” of it. The solicitor warned that this could restrict access to the playground for children under eight, who might not walk round to the main entrance.

The suggestion was to approve the plans subject to a deed of variation: a formal change to the Section 106 agreement that writes the gate hours into it. The committee agreed. The management company now has to secure that change before it can rely on the permission.

The vote was taken by a show of hands, which we watched on the council’s recording of the meeting. The chair declared the motion carried. The council has not yet published the minutes, which will give the count.

Who said what

The council wrote to 70 nearby properties and put up four site notices. It received 20 objections and 37 letters of support.

Objectors raised, among other things:

• losing public access to the open space and play area, and the longer walk to reach it
• fire safety and emergency access
• the estate’s legal agreement and the right of way through it
• the loss of walking and cycling routes
• a lack of consultation by the management company

Supporters cited security, reassurance for residents, privacy and incidents of anti-social behaviour. Several said the open space would still be accessible.

Surrey County Council, as highway authority, did not object. Surrey Police’s crime prevention officer did not object either, saying a small number of well-defined entrances is generally supported. The planning officer told the meeting that Surrey Fire and Rescue Service had sent a late response objecting to the plans.

Councillor Howkins called the application in to the committee, citing its effect on the character of the area and an overbearing effect. A resident director of the management company spoke in favour. No objector registered to speak.

What it means for you

• If you walk through the estate, from Lincoln Way or Windmill Road, expect the side entrances to be locked after 6pm from now until the end of March, once the gates go in. One of the four will not reopen at all.
• If you use the playground or the green, they stay open to the public, but only in the gate hours unless you come in through the main entrance.
• Nothing changes until the deed is signed. The management company has to agree the change to the Section 106 agreement with the council, and get the gate designs approved, before the gates can be fitted.

This was one of the last applications to reach Spelthorne’s planning committee under the old call-in rules. From 31 October, councillors can no longer call in most householder and small applications, as we reported last week. Follow other decisions on our Staines planning news page.