Conservative councillors have banded together to oppose what they call “over-dense” plans for re- development in Tolworth.

Alexandra ward Councillor Richard Hudson, who also heads Kingston Council’s development control committee, wrote an open letter to the authority that criticised “frugal contributions” to affordable housing and “powerful external pressures” to increase development.

Fellow Conservatives Ian George, Chris Hayes and Andrew Day have also backed the Tolworth Deserves Better campaign.

Coun Hudson wrote: “We who live in Kingston do not control what a developer decides to put into the planning system; the only entity that does that are the developers and them alone.

“It is the developer who decides how wacky or extreme the application, testing how much we might fall for.”