A school has reduced the height of a proposed sports dome in the face of fierce opposition from residents.

Nonsuch High School for Girls, in Ewell Road, Cheam, still wants to build the dome on the edge of nature reserve Warren Farm but has lowered the proposed height from 45ft (13.6m) to 31ft (9.5m).

Its revised plans for the air-supported dome as well as a running track, pitches and a pavilion have now been submitted to Epsom Council.

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The view with additional planting, based on predicted growth in 15 years

The school will hold two public meetings on its proposals later this month.

Residents opposed to the plans and who have been demanding greater consultation have created a pressure group, No to Nonsuch Dome, and are also forming a residents’ association.

Neill Denny from the pressure group, who lives in nearby Holmwood Road, said the plans remain "virtually unchanged" and nothing had been done to allay fears over parking, noise, pollution and out-of-hours use.

Mr Denny said: "We are pleased that the school have agreed to reduce the enormous size of the dome but that is only one cosmetic concession, a slightly more alluring shade of lipstick on what remains a gigantic pig.

"As planned, the sports development is too big for the site, will generate traffic and noise late into the evening and at weekends, will harm local wildlife and represents a blot on the landscape that will wreck the tranquillity of the Warren Farm Woodland Trust site."

The school's design statement said the creation of a "high quality sporting facility" would benefit both the school and the local community.

It said trees would be planted along the boundary with Warren Farm nature reserve to screen the sports dome and there would be "little visual change" to the character of the site.

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Neill Denny by the site

Since the plans have already been submitted, Mr Denny said the school meetings, on August 20, were to inform residents what will happen, not to consult them in any meaningful sense.

He added: "It’s a little bit like shutting the stable after the horse has bolted." A response from the school is still awaited but on Monday headteacher Peter Gale, confirmed the school was looking at holding a "public information hearing" about the sports development in the third week of August.

An Epsom Council spokesman said the plans were expected to come before the council's planning committee in October.

View the plans, with reference 14/00444/FUL, on the Epsom Council website, www.epsom-ewell.gov.uk