The car park of a Tesco Express in a Surrey village has been given permission to install a camera that will watch over cars entering and leaving its premises.

Guildford Borough Council has granted retrospective planning permission for an automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) camera to be placed by the store in Ash Vale.

The camera will be mounted on a galvanised column overlooking the Tesco Express car park.

“The proposed scheme does not change the physical size of the car park or the number of parking spaces at the site,” applicant Horizon Parking’s planning documents say.

“The object of this application is to provide an ANPR system to allow management of the car park to prevent misuse and address congestion in the car park and surrounding public highway.”

They further say that the camera should help improve safety both within the car park and the surrounding area.

One resident wrote to Guildford Borough Council objecting to the scheme, arguing it would make little difference to traffic congestion in the area.

They wrote: “The pole that the camera is mounted to is unduly large and unnecessary as it could have been attached to an existing pole on site 30ft to the right which is more in line with the entrance and exit.”

According to the planning officers’ report, Ash Parish Council did not object to the scheme but requested that the camera focus on vehicles coming in and out of the car park to avoid capturing the public highway as much as possible.

The report adds: “The ANPR camera is intended solely to capture vehicle registration plates rather than undertake general video surveillance. 

“Given its intended function, positioning and separation distance from nearby dwellings along Lysons Avenue, the development is not considered to result in any material loss of privacy or harm to neighbouring residential amenity.”

While acknowledging the retrospective nature of the application, officers wrote in their approval that there was no evidence the applicant “intentionally sought to breach planning legislation”.

On the subject of parking, Woking Borough Council has received an application from the New Life Church on High Street, Old Woking to improve its car parking layout and ground.

PLAN/2026/0695 seeks the “Creation of additional parking area to front and rear and formation of new vehicular access from Trentham Crescent”.

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