LONG-AWAITED plans to develop Caterham's most notorious eyesore have fallen at the first hurdle.
The former Rose and Young building in Croydon Road has been boarded up for more than 20 years, with residents branding it a "blot" on the town's landscape.
A planning application was submitted last month – but Tandridge District Council immediately ruled it out as an "invalid" scheme.
The application was submitted by William Power, a director of Derby-based Caterham Properties Ltd which owns the site.
It called for the demolition of the former car showroom buildings to make way for 68 flats and 116 parking spaces.
Council spokeswoman, Giuseppina Valenza, said: "The application does not contain all the information we need to start considering it.
"As it is not a valid application any comments made at this stage could not be taken into account.
"We are waiting for an affordable housing statement, a contaminated land report, an economic development statement, a sewerage and utilities assessment, a noise assessment and drawings with the dimensions marked on them."
Caterham resident John Harvey, who compiled a 83-name petition last year calling for the eyesore to be demolished, said: "That plan is so lacking in detail, it can't be taken seriously."
And Graham Tapley, the organiser of Meet Caterham Business conventions, said: "I can't see how a scheme like that could possibly benefit Caterham.
"Flats may be better than what is there now, but where are the shops in this application?"
A cinema, a Marks and Spencer store and a children's centre were high on residents' wish lists for the site, at a public exhibition held 15 months ago.
Some residents at the event, held by a Kent-based design firm on behalf of the owners, told the Mirror Caterham did not need yet more housing.
They said extra homes would just create overcrowding and more pressure on parking spaces.
OSP Architecture, the scheme's West Surrey-based planning agents, were invited to comment about the rejection of the planning application, but no reply was forthcoming by the time the Mirror went to press.
