All three Otford Parish Council seats went to Save Otford's Green Belt candidates on 23 July, on a 31.6% turnout, as the village fights a 203-home allocation.

All three seats in the Otford Parish Council by-election have gone to candidates who stood under the ballot-paper description “Save Otford’s Green Belt”. Sarah Sumner polled 606 votes, Sam McEwan 548 and Patrick McCarthy 534, and all three were declared elected after the poll on Thursday 23 July. The two candidates who stood without a description, Didier Prongue and Christopher Heath, polled 271 and 235. (Sevenoaks District Council, Otford Parish Council By-Election, Thursday 23 July 2026)

The result was formally declared by Lee Banks, the Deputy Returning Officer, in a declaration dated 24 July and now published by Sevenoaks District Council, which runs elections in the district. (Sevenoaks District Council, Declaration of result of poll, Otford Parish Council (PDF))

Bar chart of the Otford Parish Council by-election result on 23 July 2026: Sarah Sumner 606 votes, Sam McEwan 548 and Patrick McCarthy 534, all elected and all standing as Save Otford's Green Belt; Didier Prongue 271 and Christopher Heath 235, not elected
Chart by Sevenoaks Online

The numbers behind the result

The by-election was held to fill three vacancies on the parish council. Of Otford’s 2,670 registered electors, 844 took a ballot paper, a turnout of 31.6 per cent. Four ballot papers, carrying twelve votes between them, were rejected as unmarked or void for uncertainty; none were rejected for any other reason. (Sevenoaks District Council, Declaration of result of poll, Otford Parish Council (PDF))

That is a strikingly high turnout for a parish poll. At the last Otford Parish Council by-election, in October 2024, 601 of 2,754 electors voted, a turnout of 21.82 per cent. (Sevenoaks District Council, Declaration of result of poll, October 2024 (PDF))

The statement of persons nominated, published on 29 June, shows five candidates contested the three seats, with Sumner, McEwan and McCarthy the only three to register a description. Voters faced a straight choice between the green belt slate and two independents, and the slate took every seat. (Sevenoaks District Council, Statement of persons nominated, Otford Parish Council (PDF))

Why the green belt is on the ballot in Otford

The poll came exactly as the district’s biggest planning argument in a generation reached Otford’s doorstep. Sevenoaks District Council’s new Local Plan, which must find room for 17,460 homes between 2027 and 2042, went out for its final public consultation on the same day as the by-election, 23 July, and comments are open until 17 September. (Sevenoaks District Council, Another chance to comment on the new Local Plan)

The plan’s Policy ST4, titled Greenfield Grey Belt Site Allocations, allocates land west of Hale Lane in Otford for around 203 homes on a 13.34 hectare site, reference ST4-24. It is one of the sites the council has identified as “grey belt”, the Government’s new category of Green Belt land that carries weaker protection, which the plan says now covers much of the Green Belt in a district with a dispersed pattern of villages and hamlets. A second, smaller Otford allocation, Ryecroft on Ryecroft Road, is listed for 10 homes. The plan classes Otford as a Primary Service Settlement, one of only three in the district alongside Hartley and New Ash Green. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication version (PDF))

Otford Parish Council has been urging residents to engage: it publicised the Regulation 19 consultation in June, put its own resident survey on the plan live on 14 July, and held two public information events in the village on 4 and 5 August under the banner “Have your say on Otford’s future”. (Otford Parish Council, Sevenoaks District Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation; Otford Parish Council, Regulation 19 resident survey; Otford Parish Council, Regulation 19 additional public information events)

Against that backdrop, a five-way parish contest in which the three candidates campaigning on the green belt took 1,688 of the 2,194 valid votes cast reads as a clear message about local feeling, delivered through the ballot box rather than a petition.

What it means for residents

Otford Parish Council now has three new members, elected with a direct mandate on the village’s most contentious issue. Parish councils do not decide planning applications or the Local Plan, but they are statutory consultees whose formal responses are on the public record, and the parish council’s response to the Regulation 19 consultation will now be written by a council whose newest members were elected on that question.

The Local Plan consultation itself is the place where individual residents’ views carry formal weight. It closes on 17 September, and responses at this stage go to the Government-appointed inspector who will examine the plan, so objections need to address whether the plan is legally compliant and sound. The council’s Regulation 19 pages carry the plan, an interactive map of every proposed site and the response form; our report on how to comment on the Local Plan consultation walks through the portal, email and postal routes. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication)

The full declaration, notice of election and statement of persons nominated for the by-election are on the district council’s elections pages, and you can track any application that follows the plan’s allocations on the council’s planning portal via our guide to Sevenoaks planning applications.

Sources

Image: Otford roundabout and village pond by DS Pugh, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.