The racecourse plans to extract fill material from the hatched area on Six Mile Hill, and to transport it in lorries along public bridleways, has been dropped from the planning application currently before Epsom & Ewell borough council.

The BHS will not now object to what remains of the planning application before the council. We are of course pleased that this part of the plans, which would have been hugely damaging to public use of the downs, has been abandoned. The racecourse says that it could not proceed because there were land ownership issues. More likely, it thought that permission would be refused. Not for the first time, it’s the conservators who are eager to sign up to the racecourse agenda, and the planning committee of the council which steps in to prevent abuse of the downs.