Comments on the 17,460-home Sevenoaks Local Plan close on Thursday 17 September. The biggest sites, the test your comment must meet, and how to respond.

There are eight days left to comment on the Sevenoaks Local Plan. The final consultation closes next Thursday, 17 September, and the council warns that late responses may not be considered. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication)

This is the last formal chance to be heard before the plan goes to a Government-appointed inspector. It sets out where 17,460 homes would be built across the district between 2027 and 2042. That works out at 1,164 homes a year, a 63 per cent increase on the current target. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication)

We reported how the consultation works when it opened on 23 July. This piece is the reminder, and the summary of what is actually in the plan.

The biggest sites in the plan

The published plan names three strategic sites, plus a development area around Sevenoaks railway station. (Sevenoaks District Local Plan, Regulation 19 Publication version, Chapter 1 (PDF))

  • Land north of Sevenoaks, west of Otford Road: 1,500 homes. Farmland between Dunton Green station and Otford Road, with a new primary school, a local centre on Rye Lane and a park on the River Darent floodplain. We set out what the council’s development brief promises.
  • Pedham Place: 2,600 homes. The 140-hectare golf course at junction 3 of the M25, on the edge of Swanley in Farningham and Eynsford parishes. The plan treats it as a potential standalone settlement with its own schools, jobs and community facilities. It sits in both the Green Belt and the Kent Downs National Landscape, so the plan says the development must be shown to be in the public interest.
  • Broke Hill: 714 homes. The former golf course off Sevenoaks Road near Pratts Bottom, close to Knockholt station. The plan includes it on a provisional basis because a live outline application, 25/02129/OUT, already seeks up to 660 homes, a 150-unit retirement village, a care home, a primary school and a country park. The council says it has not yet formed a view on that application. The June draft we reported in the summer had put the site at 810 homes.
  • Sevenoaks railway station. No single housing number, but the plan identifies the station area, including its 517-space car park, for denser development. Options include decking the car park or building above it, under a development brief prepared with Network Rail.

Smaller allocations run right across the district, including 228 homes at Brittains Lane in Kippington, 300 at the One 60 office building on London Road, and 289 on land east of London Road at Dunton Green. (Sevenoaks District Local Plan, Regulation 19 Publication version, site schedules (PDF)) You can check what is proposed near you on the council’s interactive map of proposed sites.

What has happened during the consultation

The eight weeks have not been quiet. Otford Parish Council republished the council’s development brief for the 1,500-home site, which we reported in full. Kent Wildlife Trust called on the public to object to the same allocation, saying it would cut one of the last open links between Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve and the countryside beyond it. (Kent Wildlife Trust, 5 August 2026) Our report on the Trust’s objection explains what it wants changed. Residents have also walked the Brittains Lane site with local councillors.

The test your comment has to meet

This stage is not a vote on whether building should happen. The council cannot accept suggestions for new sites now. The inspector will test whether the plan is legally compliant and “sound”: based on evidence, meeting future need, deliverable and promoting sustainable development. Comments that explain why a specific policy or allocation fails those tests carry the most weight. (Sevenoaks District Council, Local Plan Regulation 19 Publication)

How to respond before Thursday 17 September

Paper copies of the plan are available at local libraries and the council offices. (Sevenoaks District Council, Another chance to comment on the new Local Plan)

Timeline for the Sevenoaks Local Plan: the Regulation 19 consultation opened on 23 July 2026, comments close on 17 September 2026, the plan and comments go to the Government by the end of 2026, an inspector examines the plan in 2027, and if approved it decides planning applications from 2028.
What happens after the deadline. Graphic by Sevenoaks Online.

What happens next

After Thursday, the council will submit the plan and every comment to the Government by the end of the year. A Government-appointed planning inspector will examine it in 2027, and the public comments will be considered then. If the inspector approves it, the plan will be used to help decide planning applications from 2028. (Sevenoaks District Council, Another chance to comment on the new Local Plan)

The council has been blunt about the stakes. Cllr Nigel Williams, the Cabinet Member for Development and Infrastructure, warned that failing to agree a Local Plan “would also leave the District open to piecemeal development, making it difficult for public services, like the NHS and transport bodies, to provide new infrastructure needed to support the new housing”. (Sevenoaks District Council, Another chance to comment on the new Local Plan)

What it means for you

If a site near you is allocated in the final plan, the principle of building there becomes very hard to resist when a detailed application later arrives. This week is the moment to put an objection, or support, on the record in the form the inspector will read. To follow individual applications as they come forward, our guide to Sevenoaks planning applications explains how to search the council’s portal by postcode.

Sources

Image: Pedham Place golf course by Stephen Craven, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph.