Officers recommend approval for up to nine homes on green belt land at Church End, Ash Road, three months after refusing a near-identical scheme over a high-pressure gas pipeline. Councillors decide on Thursday 18 June.

Sevenoaks planning officers are recommending approval for up to nine homes on green belt land at Church End, Ash Road, just three months after the council refused an almost identical scheme on the same plot. The Development Management Committee decides the application on Thursday 18 June, with Ash-cum-Ridley Parish Council and the New Ash Green Village association both objecting over green belt harm, traffic and water supply.

What is proposed

The application, reference 26/00992/PIP, seeks permission in principle for “the erection of dwellings with a minimum of 1 or maximum of 9 net dwellings and associated ancillary works” at Church End, Ash Road, in the Ash and New Ash Green ward. It was called in for a committee decision by Councillor Manston, who cited inappropriate development in the green belt, an unsustainable location and insufficient infrastructure (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

Permission in principle is a two-stage route. This first stage settles only whether the site is suitable for housing in principle, judged on location, land use and the amount of development. The detail, the access, layout, parking and materials, is dealt with later at a separate technical details stage, so no plans for individual houses are fixed yet (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

The site sits wholly within the Metropolitan Green Belt but close to the settlement boundary of New Ash Green. It contains an existing dwelling, with the Heaver Trading Estate to the west and south and the part-built Oast House Nursery development about 60 metres to the north (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

Why it was refused before, and what has changed

This is a resubmission. The council refused an earlier permission-in-principle application on the site, reference 26/00367/PIP, on 19 March 2026. The officer report records that the sole reason for that refusal was the high-pressure gas pipeline running south of the plot: the whole site falls within the pipeline’s buffer zone, and at the permission-in-principle stage the council could not conclude that development would avoid harm to the pipeline or to public safety, making it contrary to paragraph 102 of the National Planning Policy Framework (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

The new application tries to clear that single hurdle. It includes correspondence from a Scotia Gas Networks officer who visited the site and, in a letter dated 13 May 2026, confirmed that the proposed works location “is not in the immediate vicinity of either HP Gas Main” and that “from a HP perspective you are clear to proceed”, with updated non-objection letters sent. SGN still requires the exact location of its assets to be established, and any future works supervised, before building begins (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

With the pipeline objection addressed, officers conclude the site is acceptable in principle and recommend that permission be granted. Kent County Council as highway authority raised no objection in principle, subject to conditions on access, parking, cycle storage and electric-vehicle charging at the later technical stage (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

The objections

Ash-cum-Ridley Parish Council objects on several grounds. It argues the site is in an unsustainable location, over 300 metres from New Ash Green and more than 400 metres from a bus stop and shops, and outside the built confines of both Ash and New Ash Green (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

Its central worry is cumulative growth. The parish council points out the neighbouring High Leigh site (reference 26/00366) directly to the north, which abuts this plot, was itself granted permission in principle for up to nine homes, while the Oast House development to the north adds another 18. Taken together it puts the figure at about 36 new houses on Ash Road across a site of roughly 1.5 hectares, and says the scheme should be considered as part of a major development under the emerging Local Plan (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

On infrastructure, the parish council says Ash Road and Billet Hill, the exits from Ash and New Ash Green, are already overloaded: it describes Ash Road as single track in places carrying over 10,000 vehicle movements a day, and Billet Hill, a narrow lane, carrying over 3,000. It also flags concerns raised by South East Water about supply capacity, calling Sevenoaks District a severely water stressed area with a real risk of shortages. These figures and concerns are the parish council’s, as recorded in the report, not the council’s own findings (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

The New Ash Green Village association also objects, citing inappropriate green belt development, sprawl between New Ash Green, Hartley and Longfield, highway safety and the combined impact with the High Leigh permission (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report 26/00992/PIP).

What it means for residents

If councillors follow the officer recommendation on Thursday, the site will be accepted for housing in principle, but no homes are approved to be built yet. A second, technical-details application would still have to come forward and be decided before any construction, and that is where access, layout, parking, drainage and the gas-pipeline safeguards would be pinned down.

The wider question for people in Ash and New Ash Green is the one the parish council raises: several small green belt sites along Ash Road, each decided on its own, that add up to a much larger amount of housing on roads and water supply that residents say are already stretched. The site also sits next to land the council is looking at in its emerging Local Plan, the Reg 18 allocation covering the Heaver Trading Estate and Swan Meadows Farm, so this corner of Ash Road is likely to keep coming up.

You can read the full file, the plans and every consultation response, and check applications near your own address, on the council’s Public Access planning portal, searching the reference 26/00992/PIP. Our guide to tracking planning applications in Sevenoaks explains how to set up alerts for your street.

The same committee meeting on 18 June also decides up to 135 homes on green belt land at Edenbridge and eight Gypsy and Traveller pitches at Farningham. For the wider green belt picture in this area, see our report on the refused New Ash Green solar farm.

Sources

Image: The Church of St Peter and St Paul, Ash, by Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.