Plans for a ‘home from home’ for families to visit injured servicemen at Headley Court rehabilitation centre in Surrey were approved last night. Daily Telegraph

The Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association charity intends to invest £1•7m in a house for relatives of the growing number of servicemen maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The ‘home from home’ had been bitterly opposed by residents living near the seven-bedroom house in upmarket Grays Lane in Ashtead, who complained that it would lower the value of their homes, increase traffic noise and ruin the tranquil area’s ‘community spirit’.