Royal School owners United Learning (UL) has withdrawn its controversial plans to remove a cap on traffic movements to the senior school site in Farnham Lane.

UL’s plans came as part of its proposed move of The Royal School’s junior pupils from Hindhead to Haslemere – with the Hindhead site currently the subject of plans for 99 new homes by CALA Homes.

But after a bitter war of words with local objectors at the beginning of this year, UL has confirmed it has withdrawn its request to modify the Royal School’s Section 106 agreement.

If approved, this amendment would have eliminated the existing cap on 200 day pupils at The Royal School’s senior site in Haslemere, and replaced it with a cap on 190 vehicle movements during the morning rush hour and 123 during the evening peak.

A UL spokesman said the move of the junior school from Hindhead to Farnham Lane “will” happen within the school’s current Section 106 limit and “will” increase traffic in September, regardless of the outcome of its application.

But the spokesman added the application would have given the school the ability to manage traffic in the lane by introducing “for the first time a legally-binding limit on school traffic in the lane”.

However, The Farnham Bunch Lane Triangle Association objected, citing pedestrians could be put at heightened risk as a result of more traffic visiting the school.

And in late February, Surrey County Council’s highways department dealt a major blow to UL’s plans, stating the proposed increase in vehicle movements, generated by lifting the cap on pupil numbers and the operation of an enhanced minibus service, would “increase the likelihood of conflict between vehicles on Farnham Lane, impacting on non-motorised users”. 

Without Surrey’s backing, UL this week withdrew its plans.

A spokesman for United Learning said: “We withdrew the request as we are confident we will be able to meet our needs for the foreseeable future within the existing Section 106 agreement”.