A company with a £150m turnover is packing up its offices in Ewell and making way for housing - a move which has been branded as a "blow" to the village's traders.

Bytes Technology Group, one of the UK's largest software services businesses, is moving 140 staff from its head office, in Chessington Road, Ewell, and 40 staff from its office in the Market Parade, Ewell, to Bytes House in Randalls Road, Leatherhead.

The move will take place on Monday, March 17 - more than 30 years after the business started out in Ewell.

Paragon Community Housing Group has submitted an application to Epsom Council for prior approval to turn the Chessington Road office into social housing consisting of 10 flats and a three-bedroom dwelling.

Following the Government's recent relaxation of planning laws, full planning permission will not be required by Paragon to turn the building from offices into housing.

This will be the case as long as Epsom Council is satisfied that certain factors, such as ensuring that there is no contaminated land on-site, are met in the prior approval stage.

Councillor Clive Woodbridge, who represents Ewell, said: "It’s a shame. They are one of the big employers in Ewell and have been here a long time. They have been a very big success story.

"It will have an effect on Ewell. I know staff are loyal supporters of shops and retailers. It is a definite blow to local traders."

Of the proposed development, he said: "We are sorry to see Bytes go, but perhaps a development of this type will provide the borough with much needed affordable social housing for local residents. Maybe it is not all bad news."

Neil Murphy, UK Group MD of Bytes, said the company only had 12 staff and a turnover of £2 million when it moved to Chessington Road 25 years ago.

He said: "We have been bursting at the seams and are unable to expland the business because we cannot fit more people in.

"We're pretty sad. It's been like a second home for a lot of members of staff here. We have got to know the village really well, we go to local pubs and some up us have commuted here for 15 to 20 years."

He added: "We found a perfect building [in Leatherhead] with lots of space, close to the station and with room to expand."

Bytes provides customers with expert knowledge on software licensing, security services and document solutions.

Specsavers, Tesco, the BBC, the NHS and BUPA are among its thousands of customers across retail, media, finance manufacturing, legal professions and the public sector.

It works with the majority of IT vendors and have received multiple awards.

An Epsom Council spokesman added: "This is a private development however we have been informed that social housing will be provided and the council will work with the developers to ascertain how many ‘nominations’ from the council housing register can be included within the housing provision."

For more information and vacancies visit www.bytes.co.uk.

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