About 3,000 people answered the final Local Plan consultation and 80% called it unsound. Natural England objects to Pedham Place. Full Council votes 1 December.
About 3,000 responses came in to the final consultation on Sevenoaks District Council’s Local Plan, and around 80% of respondents said the plan was not sound. The figures are in a council report published ahead of Thursday’s Development and Infrastructure Advisory Committee. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication Update)
It is the first count the council has released since the consultation closed on 17 September. Natural England, the government’s adviser on the natural environment, is among the objectors. It says the plan cannot be judged sound while it allocates Pedham Place, the golf course by junction 3 of the M25, for development.
The council still plans to send the plan to a government inspector before the end of the year.
What residents said
The publication ran for eight weeks, from 23 July to 17 September. The report gives these headline figures, all described as approximate:
- about 3,000 responses, against roughly 3,500 respondents at the last plan’s equivalent stage in 2019
- most responses came from Sevenoaks Town, Otford and Edenbridge
- about 75% of respondents were aged 45 or over
- on soundness, about 80% did not consider the plan sound, with the reasons spread fairly evenly across the four legal tests
- on legal compliance, about 60% were unsure, 30% thought the plan was not compliant and 10% thought it was
A further 90 people filled in a feedback survey about how the consultation itself was run. The report says the council’s communications team is reviewing those answers.
Every response has been published on the council’s consultation site, so you can read what your neighbours, your parish council or a developer said. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 responses)
The report notes that statutory bodies took a very different view from the public. Many of them called the plan sound or did not comment on soundness at all.
How the key organisations answered
Appendix A of the report lists 25 statutory consultees, neighbouring councils and MPs, with each one’s answer on soundness:
| Answer | Organisations |
|---|---|
| Sound (6) | Environment Agency, Historic England, Network Rail, NHS Kent and Medway / NHS Property Services, Sport England, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council |
| Unsound (3) | Natural England, Kent Downs National Landscape Team, Kent Wildlife Trust |
| Unsure (6) | National Trust, South East Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, Dartford Borough Council |
| Did not answer (10) | National Highways, High Weald National Landscape Team, National Gas Transmission, National Grid Electricity Transmission, Kent County Council, Bexley, Bromley and Medway councils, Laura Trott MP, Tom Tugendhat MP |
“Did not answer” means the organisation did not tick the soundness question. It does not mean it sent nothing.
Pedham Place: Natural England objects
Pedham Place is site ST5-2, proposed in the plan as a standalone settlement of about 2,600 homes on the golf course at the edge of Swanley. It sits in the Green Belt and the Kent Downs National Landscape. We set out the site in detail in our guide to the plan’s biggest allocations.
Natural England welcomed much of the plan, including its policies on protected habitats and nature recovery. But the report says it is “unable to advise that the plan is sound in its current form” because of the sites allocated in the National Landscape, “primarily Pedham Place”.
It considers ST5-2 unsound because it is major development in the Kent Downs National Landscape. The report summarises its view this way: “Given its scale, density and location, Pedham Place is likely to have significant adverse impacts on the special qualities of the Kent Downs, with remaining uncertainty regarding the potential to fully avoid or mitigate these impacts.”
The Kent Downs National Landscape Team and Kent Wildlife Trust also answered “unsound”. The report does not summarise their reasons.
What the other big bodies said
- Environment Agency: finds the plan sound. It calls the council’s 2026 flood risk evidence “a substantially improved evidence base” and has suggested changes to several policies.
- National Highways: says more technical work is needed on the plan’s effect on the motorway and trunk road network, including junction modelling. It wants a signed statement of common ground before the examination.
- Historic England: considers the plan sound and says its earlier comments have largely been dealt with.
Broke Hill sent to the Secretary of State
The report also confirms where the Broke Hill application has got to. Councillors resolved to refuse the 660-home scheme at Halstead on 24 September as inappropriate development in the Green Belt. Because it is over 150 homes, the decision had to go to the Secretary of State under new call-in powers.
The council referred it on 28 September. The Secretary of State then has 21 days to say whether the government will take the decision itself, or whether the council can issue its refusal. (Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication Update, paragraph 30) That points to an answer by about 19 October.
The developer, Quinn Estates, has already asked for the scheme to be called in.
Developer levy: 46 responses so far
A separate consultation on the council’s Community Infrastructure Levy, the charge on new building that helps pay for roads, schools and surgeries, closed alongside the plan. The council wants to take housing schemes of 10 or more homes out of the levy and cover their impact through site-by-site Section 106 agreements instead.
Town and parish councils were given until 1 October to reply. The report says 46 responses have been received. The concerns it lists are:
- less money reaching parish councils
- whether Section 106 agreements reliably deliver the infrastructure promised
- how openly those agreements are negotiated, monitored and delivered
Four town councils set out their objections last week: our report.
What happens next
These are the dates in the council’s timetable:
- Thursday 8 October, 7pm: the Development and Infrastructure Advisory Committee notes the report. It is for information only, so no decision is taken. (Meeting agenda)
- Tuesday 1 December: Full Council decides whether to submit the plan.
- By 31 December 2026: submission to the Planning Inspectorate.
- 2027: public examination by a government-appointed inspector.
- December 2027: planned adoption.
The year-end deadline matters. The report says there is “little scope for flexibility” because plans must be submitted by the end of 2026 to be examined under the current planning rules. A new national planning framework was published in August 2026, but this plan will be tested against the December 2024 version.
Officers are blunt about the alternative. Not submitting would “very likely result in Government intervention”, the report says. It adds that without a plan the council faces “many years of speculative, un-coordinated development proposals”, particularly for housing and Gypsy and Traveller pitches.
What it means for you
The consultation is closed, so nobody can add new comments now. Everyone’s responses go to the inspector, summarised in a consultation statement the council is preparing.
If you ticked the box asking to take part in the examination, the inspector’s programme officer will contact you next year. You will not hear anything before then.
To check what is proposed near you, the plan, its site briefs and the evidence documents are on the council’s Local Plan page. For planning applications already in the system on your street, use the council’s planning portal, and see our guide to Sevenoaks planning applications.
Our earlier coverage: what Otford’s survey found and the 1,500-home Otford Road brief.
Sources
- Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication Update and Appendix A, Development and Infrastructure Advisory Committee, 8 October 2026
- Sevenoaks District Council, Appendix B, Local Plan risk assessment
- Sevenoaks District Council, Development and Infrastructure Advisory Committee, 8 October 2026, agenda
- Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 responses
- Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 publication page
Image: Footpath across Pedham Place golf course by Stephen Craven, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph. Chart by Sevenoaks Online.
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