Sevenoaks planning officers are recommending approval for eight Gypsy and Traveller pitches at Farningham Hill Stud on the A20, two years after refusing an identical scheme. Councillors decide on Thursday 18 June.

Sevenoaks planning officers are recommending approval for eight Gypsy and Traveller pitches on land between the A20 and the M20 at Farningham, two years after the council refused an identical application on the same site. The decision goes to the Development Management Committee next Thursday, 18 June. (Sevenoaks District Council, Development Management Committee agenda, 18 June 2026)

The application, reference 25/02418/FUL, seeks retrospective permission for eight pitches at Farningham Hill Stud on London Road, each with up to one mobile home, one touring caravan, a dayroom and two parking spaces. The pitches have been on the site since 2022, and the previous attempt to regularise them, application 22/03191/FUL, was refused in June 2023 on green belt, noise and highway safety grounds. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

Farningham Traveller site key figures: 8 pitches housing 7 families, grant recommended, identical scheme refused in 2023, 181-pitch district shortfall to 2042, parish council and 8 letters of objection, decision 18 June 2026
Chart by Sevenoaks Online.

What changed since the 2023 refusal

Two things, according to the officer report: the rules and the numbers.

The government rewrote both the National Planning Policy Framework and its Planning Policy for Traveller Sites in December 2024, introducing the “grey belt” category for green belt land that does little to serve the green belt’s purposes. Officers conclude the site, which sits on previously developed land wedged between the A20/A225 and the rising embankment of the M20, qualifies as grey belt, so the proposal “would not be inappropriate in the Green Belt”. In 2023 the same use was judged inappropriate development that harmed the green belt’s openness. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

The need figures have moved even more sharply. The council’s 2022 accommodation assessment found a need for 43 extra pitches across the district up to 2040, and by 2023 officers considered the short-term need had been met. The new Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment published in 2025 identifies a need for 192 additional pitches up to 2042, 115 of them in the first five years; permissions granted since reduce the outstanding figure to 181. The council has made no site allocations for Traveller pitches and cannot show the five-year supply the government requires, which the report calls “a failure of policy to deliver Gypsy and Traveller sites over a considerable period of time”. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

Who would live there

The application is made on behalf of Mr J Connors and would provide for seven families from one extended family group: ten adults and three children, according to the submission. Two of the children attend school in Swanley and need a settled base for education and regular hospital appointments, and another member of the group has a serious medical condition requiring ongoing treatment. The submission says the group would have to return to living at the roadside if permission is refused. Officers give the need case significant weight, with the interests of the children “a primary consideration”. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

The objections

Farningham Parish Council objected at both rounds of consultation. Its case, set out in full in the officer report, is that the site sits in one of the noisiest spots in the district, hemmed in by the M20 and A20 near the M25’s junction 3, where even with acoustic barriers the outside amenity areas would exceed accepted noise limits by 6 to 11 decibels. The parish also argues Farningham already carries a disproportionate share of the district’s Traveller provision; the report puts the parish’s share at around 17 per cent, some 31 pitches, much of it at Hill Top Farm to the west. It objects too to the retrospective nature of the application, saying it “undermines the integrity of the planning system”. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

Eight letters of objection were received from residents, raising the green belt, traffic on the A20, noise and light pollution, and the 2023 refusal. The application was referred to committee by ward councillor White on the grounds of the concentration of pitches in the parish and green belt harm, which is why councillors rather than officers will make the decision.

The council’s own Environmental Health team initially recommended refusal, concluding noise levels could not be brought within the relevant British Standard. It withdrew that objection after the applicant proposed taller acoustic fencing, 3.5 metres high on the M20 side and 3 metres on the A20 side, enclosing the mobile homes and their amenity space, subject to a condition securing the barrier’s detailed design. KCC Highways, which objected in 2023, raises no objection this time because access improvements requested then have since been built, giving adequate visibility in both directions. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

The conditions attached

The recommendation is to grant subject to 13 conditions. Occupation would be restricted to Gypsies and Travellers as defined in national policy; the site would be capped at eight pitches with no more than three caravans each, of which at most two can be statics; no commercial activity, including storage or burning of materials, would be allowed on the land; mobile homes must meet the BS3632:2015 residential standard for sound insulation; and details of the acoustic barrier, landscaping, a biodiversity enhancement plan, foul drainage and any external lighting all need council sign-off. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

The report also notes a recent appeal at Brasted, decided on 20 February, where a planning inspector allowed a Traveller site directly beside the M25 despite poor noise conditions in its outdoor areas, concluding the district’s unmet need for pitches outweighed the harm. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

What it means for residents

The committee meets at 7pm on Thursday 18 June at the council offices in Argyle Road, and the meeting is open to the public. It is a heavyweight agenda for green belt watchers: the same evening, councillors decide the 135-home Edenbridge scheme that drew 151 objections. Together the two items are the first big test of how the December 2024 grey belt rules and the district’s worsening housing and pitch supply figures play out in Sevenoaks committee decisions.

Whatever councillors decide, the wider pressure does not go away: the council intends to allocate land for 23 pitches across four sites in its emerging Local Plan, against the identified need of 181, so more applications on unallocated green belt land are likely. (Sevenoaks District Council, officer report, application 25/02418/FUL)

You can read the full application documents and comment history under reference 25/02418/FUL on the council’s planning portal, and our guide to tracking Sevenoaks planning applications explains how to search by street, set up alerts and read an officer report.

Sources

Image: The Lion Hotel, Farningham by Paul Farmer, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph. Chart by Sevenoaks Online.