Plans to carry out alterations and repair work to two of the lodges at Witley Park have been given the go-ahead by Waverley.

Officials have given the green light to minor internal alterations and external renovations to Grade II listed Milford Lodge and Brook Lodge.

Planning officers were told the park's new owners were carrying out extensive renovation works to the buildings in the park, including the two lodges.

Milford Lodge sits on the north east corner of Witley Park, where Lea Coach Road joins Haslemere Road.

The plans will make changes to the internal layout of the lodge to provide family accommodation, including replacing all the bathrooms, removing modern wardrobes and other woodwork and installing fireplaces on the ground floor to replace those which have been removed, and recreate the working chimneys.

A modern aluminium window is to be replaced, and a timber back door put in.

External restoration is also being carried out, including repointing brickwork and repairing the roof.

In a report on the proposed works, Waverley's heritage officer recounted the history of the park and its buildings.

The report explained:

"Milford Lodge is one of several fine buildings created by the fraudulent financier James Whitaker Wright in Witley Park. The architect was Paxton Hood Watson, who was responsible for many of the new estate buildings (two other buildings were the work of Lutyens). "After making and losing one fortune in America, Whitaker Wright returned to England and set about making a second even greater fortune promoting mining activities in Australia and Canada, assets that sometimes existed only on paper. He was able to buy Witley Park in 1890. "He set about reforming the landscape (including digging lakes and demolishing an entire hill), and furnishing that landscape with a house and estate building on the most incredibly lavish scale." The report goes on to state that five lodges guard the entrances to the estate: three of them are listed. "All are to strikingly individual Tudor inspired designs, befitting the status and budget of an incredibly wealthy owner, but share the palette of materials and elegant detailing. They make a significant contribution to the Arts and Crafts heritage of south west Surrey. "The proposals relate to conservative repair and restoration of a neglected building together with renewal of modern fittings and services." It adds that the scheme is 'sensitive and appropriate, bringing a neglected building back into use' and forms part of a greater comprehensive and ambitious programme to 'bring the entire Witley Park estate back into good order'. Brook Lodge sits on the eastern perimeter of Witley Park, off Haslemere Road. The works proposed to this building are, says the report, minor alterations to the internal layout and external restoration works. It is planned to use the building as a security office and for staff accommodation serving the main estate house. Plans for Brook Lodge include replacement of the modern kitchen and bathrooms and removal of the modern aluminium windows and replacement with single glazed leaded lights 'as a replication of the originals'. A spiral staircase to the first-floor chapel room, presumably put in to allow estate workers access to the chapel with entering the residential accommodation, has been screened off by an 'unimaginative and unsubtle' glass panel: this will be replaced with a more sympathetic glass screen. It adds: "The proposal relates to conservative repair and restoration of a neglected listed building. The scheme is sensitive and appropriate, bringing a vacant building back into secure residential use." Planners have welcomed the scheme, describing it as 'just one part of a comprehensive and ambitious programme of work by a new owner to bring the entire Witley Park estate back into good order'.