Barratt's BDW Trading wants one Fort Halstead building freed from a Scheduled Monument Consent step before demolition. The council decides by 6 October.

The developer behind the Fort Halstead scheme has asked Sevenoaks District Council to change a heritage condition on the site’s planning permission. The request would let one building be demolished without first securing Scheduled Monument Consent. (Sevenoaks District Council planning register, 26/02390/NMA)

The application, reference 26/02390/NMA, was received and validated on Monday 8 September. It is a non-material amendment application, made on behalf of BDW Trading Ltd by the property consultancy CBRE. The council’s consultation record gives a determination date of Tuesday 6 October 2026. (Application documents, 26/02390/NMA)

BDW Trading Limited is the Barratt group’s housebuilding company. It was previously registered at Companies House as Barratt Homes Limited. (Companies House, BDW Trading Limited, 03018173)

What the change would do

The request concerns condition 46 of the site’s hybrid planning permission, reference 19/05000/HYB, which the council granted on 1 December 2023. According to CBRE’s covering letter, dated 29 August, the condition currently requires Scheduled Monument Consent to be submitted and approved before demolition. The amendment would exclude one building, known as Building X37, from that requirement.

The letter argues the change is minor. It states that:

  • Building X37 is already approved for removal on the permission’s approved Demolition Parameter Plan
  • the building falls within the Fort’s curtilage, but not within the Fort itself
  • the amendment “simply regularises the condition wording” to align with BDW’s site-wide demolition approach and its practical sequencing of work on site
  • BDW’s heritage consultant has confirmed the approach is acceptable, on the basis that the building is not part of the statutory designation

Those are the applicant’s characterisations. The council will make its own judgement on whether the change is genuinely non-material.

Key dates for the Fort Halstead condition 46 amendment: hybrid permission granted 1 December 2023, CBRE letter for BDW Trading dated 29 August 2026, application 26/02390/NMA validated 8 September 2026, council determination date 6 October 2026.
The amendment in context. Graphic by Sevenoaks Online.

Fort Halstead is a scheduled monument. Historic England’s list entry, number 1004214, records it as a late 19th-century mobilisation centre, the largest and most expensive of 13 built nationally. The site was modified from the late 1930s for rocketry research, and in the late 1940s it was used for the top-secret development of Britain’s first atomic bomb. It was first scheduled on 29 April 1976. (Historic England, Fort Halstead list entry 1004214)

The same list entry sets out an important boundary for this application. Buildings and structures put up after 1900 are excluded from the scheduling, with one exception, a Second World War firewatcher’s post on the north ramparts. The ground beneath the excluded buildings is still included in the monument.

Works affecting a scheduled monument need Scheduled Monument Consent under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, separately from planning permission. (Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979)

The wider scheme

The 2023 hybrid permission is the largest consented development in this part of the district. As described on the permission itself, quoted in the covering letter, it includes:

  • up to 635 homes
  • up to 27,773 square metres of business space
  • a mixed-use village centre
  • land safeguarded for a primary school
  • change of use of the Fort area and bunkers to a Historic Interpretation Centre
  • demolition of existing buildings, plus works within the X enclave relating to energetic testing operations

What it means for residents

A non-material amendment is decided by the council under section 96A of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, and there is no statutory requirement for public consultation on one. (Town and Country Planning Act 1990, section 96A) In practice that means this application can be decided quickly, and the 6 October determination date reflects that.

The application is nonetheless a public record, and it is a signal that demolition sequencing on the Fort Halstead site is being worked through. The documents can be read on the application’s page on the council portal. Our guide to finding and commenting on planning applications explains how the register works.

Sources

Image: Boundary Fence, Fort Halstead by N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.