Ewell Homebase Site: Dunelm Store and Food Shop Planned

Dunelm has applied to move into the empty Homebase store on Reigate Road in Ewell. The plans split the building in two. Dunelm would take one half. The other half would go to a food retailer that the application does not name.

The application, 26/01010/FUL, was validated by Epsom and Ewell Borough Council on 28 August. It is awaiting a decision.

Updated 5 October: the Homebase Ewell redevelopment has drawn 36 public comments, 22 in support and 12 objecting, and the council has now asked its environmental health officer to comment. The register’s dates have also moved. Neighbour consultation ends today, Monday 5 October, not 6 October as the register first showed, while the latest consultation date and the council’s target decision date are both Thursday 22 October. Details below.

The store has been empty since around March 2025, when Homebase’s parent companies went into administration. That date comes from the planning statement, written for Dunelm by DPP Planning.

Homebase Ewell redevelopment: where the Dunelm plan stands

Read on the council’s planning register on 5 October 2026:

• Status: awaiting decision. No committee date has been set, and the register does not yet say whether officers or the planning committee will decide it.
• Target date: Thursday 22 October 2026, which is the statutory deadline for an application of this kind. Councils often agree an extension with the applicant, so treat it as the earliest likely date rather than a promise.
• Neighbour consultation: the register counts 81 people and bodies consulted, and neighbour letters went out on 14 September. One objector points out that the notification list covers only five homes next to the site. The neighbour period ends on Monday 5 October; the latest consultation period, for the organisations asked to respond, runs to 22 October.
• Case officer: Jack Summers. The applicant’s agent is DPP Planning of Leeds.
• Public comments: 36 received, 22 supporting, 12 objecting and 2 neutral. Several of the objections are follow-up letters from the same households, so the number of objectors is smaller than 12.
• Consultees: seven were asked, including Surrey County Council as highway authority, the council’s tree officer and its ecology officer. Two have replied. Environmental health was added to the list on 30 September, after neighbours complained that nobody had assessed noise.

What supporters say

Most supporting comments are short. They want the building back in use after more than a year empty, they would rather see a large shop there than flats, and several say Dunelm would save a trip to Croydon. A shop owner on Ewell High Street wrote that it would be “very positive for the residents and traders in Ewell Village”.

What objectors say

The objections come mostly from houses that back onto the site, in Hazel Mead and on Mongers Lane, and they are about the detail rather than Dunelm itself:

• The substation. The new electricity substation sits in the north-west corner. A neighbour on Mongers Lane measured it from the proposed site plan at about 2 to 2.5 metres from his rear fence and 10 metres from his house, with the electric car charging bays alongside. He asks for both to be moved to the Ewell Bypass side of the car park, and for a noise assessment of the transformer.
• No hours. The application form gives opening hours as “unknown” and proposes no delivery hours. Objectors have suggested their own limits, ranging from 8am to 8pm to 7am to 10pm on weekdays, with shorter Sunday hours, and want the car park shut outside trading times.
• Lighting, security and privacy. Neighbours say security lights shone into bedrooms when Homebase was open, that the empty car park has been used for racing at night, and that a new entrance to the food unit would face kitchen windows.
• The unnamed food shop. Several comments, including neutral ones, say people cannot judge the plan without knowing which retailer it is.
• Housing instead. Two objectors argue the site should be used for homes to take pressure off the green belt.

None of these points has been answered on the file yet. If the council grants permission, limits on hours, deliveries and lighting would normally come as conditions on the decision notice.

What Dunelm is asking for

The building is about 4,366 square metres, with a car park for around 198 cars. Under the plans it becomes two shops of roughly equal size. The transport statement gives the split:

The planning statement’s own layout section gives the two figures the other way round in one paragraph. The transport statement and the statement’s opening list both put Dunelm in the larger unit.

The other changes in the plans:

• the old garden centre would be demolished and turned into about 54 extra parking spaces
• parking would rise to 220 spaces in total, a net gain of 22, shared between the two shops
• 12 electric vehicle charging bays and one car club bay with a charger
• a covered shelter for eight bikes
• the existing 1,578 square metre mezzanine would be replaced with a 1,848 square metre one inside the Dunelm unit, adding 270 square metres
• new entrances on the north side of the building, grey and bronze cladding, and off-white render over the brickwork
• a new electricity substation and a bin store
• a raised “Copenhagen” crossing over the car park exit onto Reigate Road

Both shops would keep using the two existing entrances off Reigate Road, one in and one out. Lorries would service both units from the south-west of the site.

Which food retailer?

The application does not say. The planning statement calls it “an as-yet-unidentified food retailer”. For its traffic sums, the transport statement modelled the unit as a discount food store, which it describes as “the worst-case scenario” for the number of car trips. That is a modelling choice, not a named tenant.

The application form lists opening hours as “unknown” and leaves the job numbers blank.

Traffic on a Sunday lunchtime

The transport consultants used surveys taken at the site entrance in January 2022, while Homebase was still trading. The busiest hour was Sunday between noon and 1pm, when 292 vehicles came in or out.

Their forecast for the same hour with both new shops open is 528 vehicle movements. The food store accounts for most of that. The statement forecasts 384 movements for the food unit and 145 for Dunelm.

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The statement argues the real rise on local roads would be smaller than the 236 extra movements that gap implies. It assumes many trips would be people already driving past on the A24, or switching from other supermarkets. It names the Sainsbury’s off Kiln Lane, about 1.3km away, and the Lidl on Upper High Street in Epsom, about 1.9km away.

What the council has been told so far

Two responses are on the file.

• Surrey County Council, as lead local flood authority, has no objection, subject to conditions. It suggests permeable paving on the new car park and green roofs on the bike and bin shelters.
• The council’s contaminated land officer notes the site is very close to a petrol station. The officer suggests a warning to workers digging out the new car park about possible fuel in the soil.

Dunelm also had pre-application talks with the council. The planning statement says officers told it in January that the principle of continued retail use was acceptable. Because the only extra floorspace is 270 square metres of mezzanine, the council agreed Dunelm did not need to show there was no better site in a town centre.

What it means for you

• If you live nearby, the neighbour consultation ends on 5 October, but the register was still accepting comments on 5 October and councils usually consider anything that arrives before a decision. Use the council’s planning register and search for 26/01010/FUL.
• If you drive the Ewell Bypass at weekends, the traffic figures above are the ones the council will weigh. They are the applicant’s forecasts, not the council’s.
• If you want to know which supermarket is coming, the plans do not say. Any shop signs would normally need their own advertisement consent, which would show on the register.

The site is about 300 metres from Ewell Village and 1.5km from Epsom town centre. We track new applications across the borough on our Epsom planning news page.

Frequently asked questions

What is happening to the Homebase in Ewell?

Dunelm has applied to split the former Homebase at 23 Reigate Road, Ewell, KT17 1PE into two shops. Dunelm would take one and a food retailer that has not been named would take the other. The application, 26/01010/FUL, is awaiting a decision.

Is Dunelm definitely coming to Ewell?

Not yet. The plan still needs planning permission from Epsom and Ewell Borough Council. On 5 October 2026 it was awaiting a decision, with a target date of 22 October.

Which supermarket is going into the old Homebase?

The application does not say. It describes “an as-yet-unidentified food retailer”, and the traffic study modelled the unit as a discount food store as a worst case.

How many people have objected?

By 5 October the register showed 36 public comments: 22 in support, 12 objecting and 2 neutral. Some objections are repeat letters from the same neighbours.

When did the Ewell Homebase close?

Around March 2025, according to the planning statement, when Homebase’s parent companies went into administration.