Homes that fall short of minimum size standards have been approved on a former Surrey green belt as part of a 58-property and three traveller pitch plan, despite concerns raised by councillors.

The application was submitted by ThamesWey Group, which is half owned by Woking Borough Council and includes flats, terraced housing, semi-detached and detached homes off Brookwood Lye Road.

Councillors at the Tuesday, April 14 planning meeting were told half the homes would be made affordable, with building to start once the abandoned buildings have been torn down.

The plans for the currently derelict and boarded-up site received no letters of objection from residents and passed through after it was made clear the council had no policy that would allow it to refuse the application based on its undersized homes.

Deputy chair of the planning comittee, Cllr Guy Cosnahan, said: “I note that there are 15 out of the 60-odd properties beneath size. I know there is a discussion of whether it’s really beneath size or just within.

“First of all, as Woking, we want to give good-sized houses to people there but to allow planning permission to go through with 15 houses that are subsidised for whatever ability that measure is feels very poor.

“Why don’t they just put an extra row of bricks down the side, that would just cure the problem? It seems the architect hasn’t really thought through the issue.”

He questioned whether it was a good idea to sell what he described as “substandard homes” – and asked whether it could create legal issues down the track.

Officers told the meeting the council had no policy to cover compliance with national space standards, which made it difficult for plans to be refused on those grounds.

They said the homes were “only” short by a square metre, and that in the context of the overall size, 100 sqm, actual harm would be difficult to substantiate. The officer added: “As much as I’d like, professionally, to do so, I don’t have the policy basis to do that.”

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Cllr Cosnahan said: “It just seems a shame that someone can’t add an extra row of bricks in to make it up to standard. I’m just grumpy about it altogether, but I just think that we shouldn’t be building houses undersized within the borough if we can possibly help it.”