THE heartbroken owner of a long-standing animal sanctuary in Badshot Lea fears she may have to put her beloved animals to sleep after Waverley Borough Council granted outline planning permission for up to 80 new homes this week.

Sue Wray, together with her husband Rod, has run the Ray of Hope sanctuary next to Squire’s Garden Centre in Badshot Farm Lane for the past 27 years - offering a home to hundreds of rescued horses, cats, chickens, rabbits and other forlorn animals in that time.

However, the couple, both of whom are pensioners, have received an eviction notice to vacate the sanctuary by March next year after their landlords, the Caffyn-Parsons family, opted to develop the green field site for housing, also demolishing the Little Acres Nursery and Poppies tearoom.

Adding to Sue and Rod’s despair, Waverley’s joint planning committee agreed unanimously on Monday evening to the principle of building up to 80 new homes on the site, where the couple have been allowed to run their sanctuary rent-free since 1989.

Sue told The Herald: “I’m very, very upset. I didn’t think that the council would accept their application. It’s only an outline application and there’s still a lot of work involved, but we have already been served with a notice to quit and they’ve given us until the end of March to go.

“We’re both very worried because when you start to get pressure like that, you think where are you going to go? But we are going to fight it, we haven’t got an option. I’ve been there 27 years, it’s part of my life and I was a young girl when I started rescuing animals there.”

The Ray of Hope sanctuary currently provides a home to eight horses as well as 14 cats, chickens, rabbits, pigeons and many more animals. However, given these creatures have already been rescued once, Sue doubts whether she will be able to find them a new home and is fearing the worse.

“Annie, our race horse, is coming up for 30 years old and could go at any time, and I pray to God that she will because who’s going to take a 30-year-old horse?”, Sue continued.

“I really haven’t got anywhere for all my horses to go and not only that, I don’t think I can bring myself to let them go. I love them all dearly, and some of them I’ve had them for 30 years.

“To me, I have no children and they’re my life, and I don’t want to pass them on. We will have to do a lot of soul searching to decide which is the best for them, but we may have to put them to sleep, and that is going to kill me. It’s just horrible.”

Addressing councillors at Monday’s meeting, the Caffyn-Parsons’ planning consultant Norman Gillan declined to mention their battle with the Wrays, but did stress that the principle of development on the site has the backing of the Badshot Lea Community Association and the Farnham Neighbourhood Plan.

He said: “The committee will be aware of the current issues with a lack of housing in the area, the ongoing delays with the Local Plan and the number of planning applications being submitted across the borough, some of which will end up at appeal.

“Bearing in mind the housing numbers required across the borough, green field development is coming around Farnham. Approving this application is a way to ensure that such development is directed to both a sustainable location, and a location identified by the community itself as to where they would like to see housing if housing is required.”

The homes, 40 per cent of which will be ‘affordable’, will be accessed from St George’s Road and accompanied by a shop or office building and a children’s playground, with the Caffyn-Parsons family also proposing financial contributions towards improving the village’s infrastructure.

However, the presence of the commercial unit at the centre of the new estate and the size and detail of the proposed financial contributions proved a sore point at Monday’s meeting, with committee members criticising the lack of detail accompanying the outline application.

Councillors also praised the Badshot Lea community for putting forward the site for housing, but said they should be “rewarded” with a development that improves the village and its facilities, not increases the burden on it’s already-stretched infrastructure.

This sentiment was echoed by Cliff Watts, representing the Badshot Lea Community Association, who added: “This application coupled with the adjacent site in St George’s Road already recommended for 71 homes will enlarge our village by 30 per cent, and we are still awaiting the outcome of another 140 houses in Lower Weybourne Lane currently with the Secretary of State.

“If this application is recommended, we would not expect any other speculative developments around Badshot Lea to be supported by the council. We have provided our share of new housing for this planning period.”