Plans to replace a house in North Farnham with seven more have been rejected with a committee insisting: Just because we need housing doesn’t mean we’ll approve every scheme.

Waverley Borough Council urged Beaufoy Homes to scale back plans for the Foxdene site at 108 Upper Hale Road in rejecting the scheme on overdevelopment grounds.

The firm wants to replace the existing semi-detached home and an adjacent “dilapidated” outbuilding with five three-bedroom homes and two others, with one and two bedrooms apiece.

The applicants said they had worked hard to “evolve and improve” their plans before calling their “well-designed and bespoke” scheme an “efficient and worthwhile” use of the plot.

But most people who spoke during the WBC Planning Committee meeting in Godalming felt the numbers were too high with councillors Catherine Powell and Tony Fairclough siding with concerned residents.

Cllr Powell said: “Residents aren’t saying no development on this site, as it has become an eyesore, they’re just saying not this scale of development.”

“Seven dwellings can be built on a plot like this, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should – planning should prioritise people over process,” said Cllr Fairclough.

“Again, residents aren’t against building new homes on this site, but what they want to see is a new application for a smaller number of dwellings,” added the councillor, who suggested four would be a more suitable number.

“Just because we’ve got a lack of housing supply doesn’t mean we should just approve every scheme – we don’t need housing at any cost,” said Cllr Maxine Gale, while even Terry Weldon, who has spoken previously about increasing housing density, opposed the application.

He said: “I actually agree with Cllr Fairclough and other residents – there’s room for development on this site but seven is just too much.”