Search any Sevenoaks application by postcode or reference on Public Access, free and no account needed. You get 21 days to comment, and here is what counts.

If a new house, an extension, a shop conversion or a 136-home estate is proposed near you in the Sevenoaks district, you have a right to see the plans and a right to comment before anyone decides them. The whole record is online, free, and open to anyone, neighbour or not. Most people only find out a scheme exists once the diggers arrive. This is a plain guide to the Sevenoaks planning portal, where every application lives, how long you get to have your say, what the council will and will not listen to, and a roundup of the notable schemes shaping the district right now.

The quick answer

The Sevenoaks planning portal is Public Access, run by Sevenoaks District Council at pa.sevenoaks.gov.uk/online-applications. It is free, and you need no account to look: search by street, postcode or a reference such as 21/01254/FUL to open the drawings, the officer reports, the case officer’s name and the comment deadline. To see what has just been lodged near you, open the weekly list and filter it by your parish. You normally get 21 days to comment, and comments must be in writing. One catch trips people up: you cannot submit a new application on Public Access. That goes through the national Planning Portal instead.

Where to find Sevenoaks planning applications

Every application received or decided by Sevenoaks District Council goes on one online register, the Public Access portal. You can search it here:

You do not need an account to look. Type a street name, a postcode, or an application reference number, and you get the documents, the drawings, the case officer, the dates, and any comments already submitted. The council confirms that “weekly lists of all planning applications received or decided by us are available online through our PublicAccess portal”, and you can open that weekly list directly to see what landed in the last seven days.

The Sevenoaks planning portal, and how to read a reference number

If you have heard the council’s system called the “Sevenoaks planning portal”, that is the same thing as Public Access: one register, one address, covering the whole district.

A reference number looks like 21/01254/FUL. The two digits are the year, the middle block is the running number, and the suffix tells you the type: FUL is a full application, HOUSE is a householder application such as an extension, LBC is listed building consent, and OUT is outline. If you only know the address, the search box will find it.

What it means for you

The practical upside is that you can check any address before you buy, rent, object, or just before you wonder what the scaffolding next door is for. The plans, the heritage statements, the drainage reports, the highways comments, all of it sits on the same page. If a neighbour is building, the portal is where you read exactly what was approved, and to what conditions.

How to search the Sevenoaks planning portal, step by step

Once you know the fields, the portal takes under a minute:

  1. Open pa.sevenoaks.gov.uk/online-applications. No login is needed to view.
  2. Choose Simple Search for a quick look, or Advanced Search to filter by ward, date range or application type.
  3. Type a street name, a full postcode, or a reference such as 21/01254/FUL. If you are unsure of the exact address, keep the keyword loose and narrow it from the results.
  4. Open an application, then use the Documents tab for the drawings, heritage and drainage reports, and the Comments tab to read or add a representation.
  5. Note the case officer, the target decision date and the consultation deadline shown on the summary, so you know how long you have to comment.

If you would rather not run a search, open the weekly list to see everything registered or decided across the district in the last seven days.

Get email alerts for new applications near you

Running the same search every week is easy to forget, and the portal can do it for you. Register a free account on Public Access (top right of pa.sevenoaks.gov.uk/online-applications), run the search you care about, usually a postcode, a street or your ward, then use Save Search and switch on notifications. The portal then emails you whenever a new application that matches is validated, so you hear about a neighbour’s plans on day one rather than after the 21-day comment window has half gone. It is the single best habit if you want to keep an eye on a specific street: set the search once and let the council’s own system watch it for you. An account also lets you track individual applications and manage the comments you have already submitted.

What is on the Sevenoaks planning portal right now

We ran the council’s own weekly list on 3 September 2026 to see what the portal actually holds, rather than describing it in the abstract.

Week beginning Applications validated
24 August 2026 (last complete week) 46
31 August 2026 (still running when we checked) 9 so far

The nine on the current week’s list, all validated on Tuesday 1 September, the first working day after the August bank holiday:

  • 26/02316/WTPO, various works to trees, Highfield, The Avenue, Westerham Hill, TN16 2EE
  • 26/02314/WTCA, removal of a maple, 1 Granville Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 1ES
  • 26/02315/WTPO, English oak canopy raised 4ft and reduced 20 to 25%, Kilkerran, Gorsewood Road, Hartley, DA3 7DF
  • 26/02322/PAE, prior notification, single-storey rear extension 4.50m beyond the original rear wall, 4 Cyclamen Road, Swanley, BR8 8HJ
  • 26/02287/WTCA, various works to trees, Strathalmond, 18 Woodland Rise, Sevenoaks, TN15 0HY
  • 26/02216/WTCA, various works to trees, The Grange, High Street, Otford, TN14 5PL
  • 26/02194/HOUSE, single-storey rear extension with roof light, 11 Leonard Avenue, Otford, TN14 5RB
  • 26/02072/HOUSE, an 8ft by 8ft timber shed, Barrow Way, Amherst Hill, Riverhead, TN13 2EL
  • 26/00182/HOUSE, demolition of three outbuildings, extension, loft conversion with dormers and a rear balcony, new garage and outbuilding with PV panels and rainwater harvesting, Eastfield, Froghole Lane, Crockham Hill, TN8 6TD

Two things that list tells you about how the portal works.

A week’s list is a running total, not a finished one. Nine is not a quiet week, it is a week that had barely started when we looked. Check the same week again on the following Monday and the number will have moved. The last complete week held 46.

“Validated” is not “received”, and the gap can be months. The last item above, the Crockham Hill scheme, was received on 26 January 2026 and only validated on 1 September 2026, seven months later. Your 21 days to comment run from the consultation that follows validation, not from the day the applicant filed. That is why an application can be sitting with the council for most of a year before it appears on a weekly list and a letter lands on your doormat. If you are watching a particular site, a saved search on the address catches it the day it is validated; nothing catches it before that.

One practical warning if you search hard. Public Access rate-limits. Run about twenty searches in quick succession and it stops answering and returns a “429 Too Many Requests” page instead of results. It is not broken and you are not blocked: wait a minute and it answers again.

How long you get to comment

You normally have 21 days to comment from the point the consultation starts. That is the standard statutory minimum across England, and Sevenoaks works to it: the date is set out in the letter sent to nearby properties, or on the site notice fixed near the application, as the national guidance from Planning Aid explains. The exact deadline for each application is shown on its Public Access page, so check there rather than counting on your fingers.

Not everyone gets a letter. Only neighbours in the immediate vicinity are usually notified directly, although the council casts a wider net for larger or more sensitive schemes, and for those it also puts up a site notice or publishes a press notice. If you want to be sure you never miss one near you, the reliable habit is to read the weekly list rather than wait for a letter that may not come.

Late comments are not automatically binned. Most planning authorities still take account of points received after the 21 days where the decision has not yet been made, but you should contact the case officer named on the application if you cannot meet the date.

How to comment, and what actually counts

Comments must be in writing. The council is explicit: “comments must be made in writing online or by email or letter. We are unable to accept comments verbally, via social media or by video”, per the council’s guidance. You can:

  • comment online through the Public Access portal,
  • email planning.comments@sevenoaks.gov.uk quoting the reference and the address, or
  • write to the Planning Department, Council Offices, Argyle Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 1HG.

Whichever route you choose, quote the application reference number and the site address so your comment is filed against the right scheme.

Here is the part people get wrong. A planning decision can only turn on material planning considerations, the planning merits of the proposal, not on how much you dislike the applicant or fear for your house price. Points that carry weight include the effect on neighbours’ light and privacy, highway safety and parking, design and the character of the area, noise, loss of trees or green space, flooding and drainage, and conflict with the council’s own planning policies. Points that carry little or no weight include loss of a private view, the impact on property values, competition with an existing business, and the identity or conduct of the applicant. Writing your objection in the language of the planning merits is the single thing that makes it count.

A few more things worth knowing before you send:

  • Your comment is public. The council states that “comments we receive will be made available for public inspection on our website.” Your name and address are held on file so the council can keep you updated, but those details are not published.
  • Anonymous comments are ignored. If you do not give your name and address, the council will not take the comment into account.
  • Abuse is removed. Anything “of an inappropriate, derogatory or defamatory nature will not be taken into account or published.”
  • Quality beats quantity. A handful of clear, planning-grounded objections often weighs more than a hundred copy-pasted ones.

The portal is the district’s: your town or parish council comments too

Public Access is Sevenoaks District Council’s register, but it is not the only body reading your application. Every application in the town is also sent to Sevenoaks Town Council, which describes itself as “a statutory Consultee on all planning applications received within the Town”, meaning it “considers applications and makes recommendations to the relevant Planning Authority”. Most of the rural district works the same way through its parish councils.

That gives you a second, quieter route to be heard, and it runs on a different clock to the 21 days on the portal:

  • The Town Council takes most applications at its fortnightly Planning & Environment Committee. Its recommendation is advice, not a decision: the district council still determines the application.
  • If the district’s deadline falls between meetings, the town council uses “Chair’s Action”, where comments are approved by the committee chair “in consultation with the ward councillor and with approval of the Chief Executive who has delegated authority under Section 101 of the Local Government Act 1972”.
  • You can attend and speak. The committee lets members of the public register to speak on planning applications. For other agenda items, speaking has to be agreed by noon on the day of the meeting.
  • To put a view to the town council rather than the district, contact your local councillor or the council itself (01732 459953, Bradbourne Vale Road, TN13 3QG) as early as you can, because once the committee has met, its comment has gone in.

The practical point: a comment on Public Access goes to the case officer, and a comment to your town or parish council goes to the people who write the consultee response the case officer then has to weigh. On a contested scheme it is worth doing both. If the application then goes to the district’s Development Management Committee, a third route opens up, speaking to the committee yourself, and that one has its own rules and its own deadline.

When the application is not on the Sevenoaks portal at all

A few categories never appear on Public Access because the district does not decide them. Kent County Council determines mineral workings, waste facilities, oil and gas, and the county council’s own developments such as schools and highways depots. Those sit on a separate register, the Kent Planning Register, with the county’s own guidance on viewing applications and decisions explaining what it covers. If a quarry, a recycling plant or a school extension is proposed near you and the Sevenoaks portal shows nothing, that is where to look.

Who decides, and how long it takes

Most applications never go before politicians. The council takes about 2,500 a year and roughly nine out of ten are decided by planning officers under delegated powers. The council aims to decide most applications within 8 weeks, or 13 weeks for large or complex schemes, according to its guidance on how applications are decided. A scheme goes to the Development Management Committee, where elected councillors vote in public, only in particular cases: at a district councillor’s request, or where the proposal is significant, controversial or sensitive. That committee route is exactly how the biggest local schemes get fought out, and why turning up or writing in can matter.

How to speak at the Sevenoaks planning committee

Writing in is not the only way to reach the district council. If the application you care about is one of the roughly one in ten that goes to the Development Management Committee, you can stand up and put your case to the councillors in the minutes before they vote. The rules are tighter than most people expect, and one of them can cost you the slot before you get near the chamber.

Book the slot, 5pm on the day at the latest. Ask Customer Services on 01732 227000 or email information@sevenoaks.gov.uk. The council will take a request right up to 5pm on the day of the meeting, but leaving it that late is a gamble, for the reason below.

Only one speaker for, and one against. The council allows a single member of the public to speak in support of an application and a single one to speak against it. Places go first come, first served, and among supporters the applicant or their agent takes precedence. If someone has already registered on your side of the argument, the council puts the two of you in touch and you have to settle between yourselves who speaks and what they say, with the second person kept as reserve. If you take a slot and then change your mind, say so at once and it can be offered to someone else. One privacy point to know before you register: the council says the names, addresses and telephone numbers of people who ask to speak may be given to others who share their view and also want to address the committee.

Three minutes, and the clock is enforced. Each speaker gets up to three minutes, a limit the council says “will be strictly enforced”, with a visual warning when a minute is left. You are welcome to read from a prepared text, and the case officer can help you work out which points are worth the time.

Slides have their own, earlier deadline. You may show up to three photographs or plans, but they have to be emailed to dmcommittee@sevenoaks.gov.uk by 5pm the day before the meeting so staff can check and load them. A photomontage is only accepted with a statement showing how it was built from the application drawings, and written information is not allowed as a visual aid at all.

Where you come in the running order. Applications with public speakers are usually taken first, though nobody can say in advance how long the earlier debates will run. The planning officer introduces the item, sets out the key considerations and constraints, summarises the consultation responses and gives the recommendation. Then the public speakers, then the local district councillors and the town or parish council, then questions from the committee to the officers, then the debate and the vote. Once you have spoken you can sit at the back and listen, but you take no further part unless the chairman asks you something.

Say the things the committee is allowed to weigh. The council’s own advice is to keep to planning matters: the Local Plan, access, local amenities, the effect on neighbours, the character of the area. It names three arguments that will not shift the decision, the effect on property values, competition with an existing business, and private covenants. It also warns that there is no legal protection for what is said at a meeting, so keep it about the scheme rather than the applicant.

If it is deferred, your turn does not come round again. Where councillors want more information or a site inspection, they can defer the application to a later meeting, and the council says public speaking “will not normally be considered” when a deferred application is reconsidered. Treat the first hearing as your only one.

You do not have to be in the room to follow it. The committee meets about every three weeks in the Council Chamber at Argyle Road, and meetings are livestreamed on the council’s YouTube channel. Agendas and officer reports appear at least five working days beforehand on the committee’s meetings page, and on paper at the council offices, Swanley Link and the libraries at Sevenoaks, Swanley and New Ash Green. If you mean to turn up, the council asks you to ring Democratic Services on 01732 227000 first to check the meeting is still going ahead. The result reaches Public Access the next day, and the council advises waiting until noon for the record to catch up.

Applying through the planning portal, and appealing a refusal

Searching and commenting is only half of what people mean by the “Sevenoaks planning portal”. If you are the one building, you need to submit an application, and that is a different system. Sevenoaks does not take new applications on its Public Access site. You lodge them through the national Planning Portal at planningportal.co.uk, which is the standard online route for the whole of England, or you send a paper form. Whichever you use, the council asks that supporting plans and documents be emailed to planning.validation@sevenoaks.gov.uk or posted to the Development Management Service, Council Offices, Argyle Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 1HG, as its apply for planning permission guidance sets out.

The step that trips applicants up is validation. The council checks that your submission includes everything on its validation checklist, the right plans, the correct fee and any required reports, before it registers the application. If anything is missing the application is invalid and the clock does not start, so it pays to work through the checklist before you submit rather than after. Once the council validates it, the application appears on the Public Access portal for anyone to search, exactly like the ones you looked up above, and your 8 or 13 week clock begins.

If the council refuses permission, or you disagree with a condition, the applicant (not objectors) can appeal to the Planning Inspectorate, the government body that decides appeals independently of the council. Appeals are handled on the national Appeals Casework Portal at acp.planninginspectorate.gov.uk, where decisions are also published. If you commented on the original application, the council forwards your representation to the Inspectorate, and you are told if there is a further chance to have your say. So the full life of a scheme runs across two portals: the council’s Public Access for the application itself, and the Inspectorate for any appeal that follows.

Finding an old decision, and what to do when the portal shows nothing

The other half of the traffic to Public Access is not people objecting to a new scheme. It is people trying to prove that something already built was allowed: a buyer’s solicitor asking for the permission for a conservatory, an owner selling a house with a loft conversion, a neighbour checking whether an outbuilding was ever approved. The route is the same search box, but what you are looking for is different. Search by address rather than reference, open the application, and go to the Documents tab: the file you want is the decision notice, the one-page document that says whether permission was granted or refused and lists the conditions. That, not the drawings, is what a conveyancer will ask for.

If the address returns nothing, there are three ordinary explanations before you assume a problem.

  • The work never needed permission. Most modest extensions, outbuildings, and loft conversions are permitted development, and permitted development leaves no application on the register at all.
  • It predates the online record. Public Access holds the council’s digitised file, not the entire history of the district. Older permissions may exist only on paper, and the council can be asked for them directly.
  • You are searching the wrong thing. Conservation area consent, listed building consent and building regulations approval are separate records. Building control in particular is a different service with a different file, and a building regulations completion certificate is not planning permission.

Where nothing exists on the register and you need something formal, the answer is a Lawful Development Certificate. It does not grant permission; it certifies that what is there is lawful, either because it never needed permission or because it has stood long enough to be immune from enforcement. The fee for an existing use is the same as a full application, and for a proposed use it is half of that.

What it costs to apply, at the 2026 rates

Fees in England are set nationally, not by Sevenoaks, and they rose by 3.8% on 1 April 2026, an uplift tied to the September 2025 consumer price index. The rates below are the current ones from the Planning Portal fee schedule for England, and they apply at Sevenoaks exactly as they do anywhere else in the country.

What you are applying for Fee from 1 April 2026
Householder: extension, improvement or alteration of one house £548
Outbuilding, gates, fences, walls or other works inside your boundary £272
Permission in principle £531 per 0.1 hectare
Removing or varying a condition, householder £89
Discharging conditions, householder £89
Discharging conditions, anything else £309
Non-material amendment, householder £46
Non-material amendment, any other case £309

Two things people get caught by. The fee is due when you submit, and an application without the right fee is not valid, so the clock does not start. And the small fees are the ones that surprise: coming back later to discharge a condition, or to make a minor change to something already approved, is a fresh application with its own charge.

Reporting a breach, when the portal is not the answer

If work near you does not match what was approved, or nothing was ever applied for, the portal cannot help. That goes to planning enforcement, which is a separate service, and Sevenoaks takes reports through an online form.

The council asks for your name, your address, your contact details, the full address the complaint relates to, and what you say the breach is. Two points matter here. It will not investigate anonymous complaints, so you have to give your name. But it undertakes to keep your identity confidential during the investigation, which is the reassurance most people are actually looking for before they report a neighbour.

There is also a published list of what enforcement will not take on, and it saves a wasted report:

  • boundary or land ownership disputes,
  • commercial vehicles parked on residential roads,
  • works that have only been talked about and not started,
  • a business run from home with minimal impact,
  • touring caravans and motorhomes on residential property,
  • clearing undergrowth or trees, unless in a conservation area or the trees are protected,
  • road safety matters.

Notices the council has already served, meaning enforcement notices, stop notices and breach of condition notices, are published on its planning enforcement register, which is worth a look before you report: the case may already be running.

Notable Sevenoaks planning schemes right now

Three dates decide the district’s biggest planning questions this month, and all three fall on 17 September. The committee has already settled the fourth: up to seven Green Belt homes behind Childsbridge House, Kemsing, applied for by the village’s own district councillor, were granted permission in principle on 3 September, with the decision notice issued the next day and no conditions attached (what the committee decided). The diary is below, then the case that set the tone for Sevenoaks green belt arguments, the sites the town’s amenity society is watching, and the Local Plan behind most of it. For the week-by-week picture we publish a running roundup of what has just landed on the register, a report of every decision the committee makes and the 135-home Edenbridge green belt scheme granted in June.

The dates in the diary

  • Thursday 17 September, 11.59pm: 1,500 homes north of Sevenoaks. Regulation 19 comments close on site ST4-7, around 1,500 homes on 106.5 hectares of farmland between Dunton Green station and Otford Road. It is the biggest single allocation in the Sevenoaks urban area, and the council’s development brief for it promises a new two-form-entry primary with a 26-place nursery, a bus corridor between Dunton Green and Bat and Ball, a one-way Rye Lane and a park on the Darent floodplain (what the brief promises, and why Kent Wildlife Trust is fighting it).
  • Thursday 17 September, 11.59pm: 284 homes off Brittains Lane. Regulation 19 comments close on sites ST4-4 and ST4-5, on the western edge of the town, next to National Landscape land, the Brad stream and Great Britain’s Wood. Three residents’ associations have been campaigning on them (what Policy ST4 allocates).
  • Thursday 17 September, 11.59pm: who stops paying for infrastructure. Comments close on the draft Community Infrastructure Levy charging schedule, which would take housing schemes of 10 or more homes, all non-residential building and every householder extension out of the levy. The council raised £3.75m from CIL in 2024/25 (what would stop paying).

The three 17 September deadlines are not one submission. The two site allocations go through the Regulation 19 process set out below; the levy is a separate consultation with its own comment form. Miss the date and there is no late window: Regulation 19 is the last formal stage before a government inspector takes over.

The Cramptons Road gasworks estate (ref 21/01254/FUL)

The old Sevenoaks gasholder station off Cramptons Road and Otford Road is the scheme that set the tone for the district’s green belt arguments. The application, reference 21/01254/FUL, sought 136 homes on the former Southern Gas Networks site, the most striking part being a 30 metre, ten-storey “rotunda” block echoing the shape of the old gas cylinders. It drew more than 500 public objections, yet the Development Management Committee approved it on 7 November 2024 on a tied 7-7 vote, with the chairman using his casting vote to grant permission, as KentOnline reported. Only 8 of the homes were designated affordable. The committee papers are on the council’s decision record. It is a textbook case of a delegated officer call escalating to a public committee vote.

Other sites the Sevenoaks Society is watching

The Sevenoaks Society, the town’s amenity body, currently tracks several town-centre and edge sites, including the former Edwards Electrical premises at 166 High Street, the expansion of Trinity School, and parking changes at Knole. The society’s page is a useful steer on which live applications are drawing local concern, and each can be looked up by address on the council portal.

The Local Plan: consultation open until 17 September 2026

Bigger than any single application is the new Local Plan, which will set where development can go across the district from 2027 to 2042. The government has handed Sevenoaks a target of 17,460 homes over those 15 years, a 63% increase on the previous requirement, which is why the plan has to look at Green Belt and downgraded “Grey Belt” land as well as brownfield.

The final consultation is open now. The Regulation 19 Publication stage runs from 23 July to 17 September 2026, and it is the last formal chance to put a comment on the record before the plan goes to a government inspector. At this stage the council is not asking for new sites: it is asking whether the published plan is “sound” and legally compliant, so comments that argue a specific allocation or policy fails those tests carry more weight than a general objection to building. You can comment through the council’s portal at sevenoaks.gov.uk/reg19, by email to planning.policy@sevenoaks.gov.uk, or by post to Regulation 19 Publication Comments, Planning Policy, Sevenoaks District Council, Argyle Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 1HG. Paper copies are in local libraries and at the council offices. Our guide to how to have your say on the 17,460 homes sets out the practical steps, and the site-by-site detail is here.

If a site near you is allocated in the plan, the principle of building there becomes much harder to resist when a detailed application follows, so this is the stage to engage even if nothing is proposed on your street yet.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a planning application cost in Sevenoaks?

The fees are national, not local, and rose 3.8% on 1 April 2026. A householder application to extend or alter one house is £548. Works inside your boundary such as an outbuilding, gates, fences or walls are £272. Discharging a condition on a householder permission is £89, and a non-material amendment is £46. The full list is in the Planning Portal fee schedule. An application submitted without the correct fee is invalid, so the decision clock does not start.

How do I find the planning permission for a house I am buying?

Search Public Access by the address rather than a reference, open the application and use the Documents tab: the document a solicitor wants is the decision notice, not the drawings. If nothing comes up, the work was probably permitted development and never needed an application, or the permission predates the digitised record. Where you need something formal and there is no record, apply for a Lawful Development Certificate.

How do I report a planning breach in Sevenoaks?

Through the council’s online enforcement form, with your name, address, contact details, the address complained of and what the breach is. The council will not investigate anonymous complaints, but it does undertake to keep your identity confidential. It will not deal with boundary disputes, commercial vehicles on residential roads, home businesses with minimal impact, touring caravans, or road safety.

How many planning applications does Sevenoaks get in a week?

About 46 were validated in the week beginning 24 August 2026, the last complete week before we checked on 3 September 2026. Most are tree works, householder extensions and condition discharges rather than new housing. Remember that the current week’s list is still filling up, so a low number usually means the week is not over.

Does the date on the weekly list mean the application is new?

No. The list is by validation date, not the date the council received the application. One scheme on the list for the week of 31 August 2026, at Crockham Hill, had been with the council since 26 January 2026. Validation is when the council accepts the application as complete, and that is what starts the consultation clock.

How do I find planning applications in Sevenoaks?

Search the council’s Public Access portal at pa.sevenoaks.gov.uk/online-applications by address, postcode or reference number. No account is needed. The weekly list shows everything received or decided in the last seven days.

What is the Sevenoaks planning portal?

It is the council’s online planning register, branded Public Access, at pa.sevenoaks.gov.uk/online-applications. Some residents call it the Sevenoaks planning portal; it is the same free system. Search it by address, postcode or reference number to see any application’s plans, documents, case officer and comment deadline. No account is required.

How long do I have to comment on a Sevenoaks planning application?

Normally 21 days from when the consultation starts. The exact deadline is on the application’s page on the portal and in the neighbour letter or site notice, per Planning Aid guidance. Late comments are often still considered if the decision has not been made, but contact the case officer if you cannot meet the date.

How do I comment on or object to a Sevenoaks planning application?

In writing only: online through the portal, by email to planning.comments@sevenoaks.gov.uk, or by post to the Planning Department, Argyle Road, Sevenoaks, TN13 1HG. Quote the reference and address, and frame your points around the planning merits, not personal views, as the council explains.

Can I speak at a Sevenoaks planning committee meeting?

Yes, if the application reaches the Development Management Committee rather than being decided by an officer. Register with the council on 01732 227000 or at information@sevenoaks.gov.uk by 5pm on the day of the meeting at the latest. Only one member of the public speaks for an application and one against, first come first served, and each gets up to three minutes, strictly timed. Any photographs or plans, up to three of them, must be emailed to dmcommittee@sevenoaks.gov.uk by 5pm the day before. The full running order and the rules are set out above.

Are comments on Sevenoaks planning applications made public?

Yes. The council publishes comments for public inspection on its website, though your name and address are held on file rather than published. Anonymous comments are not taken into account.

Does my parish or town council see my objection?

It sees the application, not your comment. Sevenoaks Town Council is a statutory consultee on every application in the town and makes its own recommendation to the district, usually at a fortnightly Planning & Environment Committee, and most parish councils in the district do the same. If you want that body to hear you, contact it or your local councillor separately, and ask to speak at the meeting. Its planning page sets out the process.

Why is an application near me missing from the Sevenoaks planning portal?

Because some development is not the district’s to decide. Kent County Council determines mineral workings, waste facilities, oil and gas, and county developments such as schools and highways depots, and those go on the separate Kent Planning Register instead. The other common reasons are that the work needs no permission at all under permitted development, or that the application is lodged but not yet validated, in which case it appears on the weekly list a few days later.

Who decides Sevenoaks planning applications?

Most are decided by planning officers under delegated powers, with a target of 8 weeks (or 13 weeks for major schemes). Significant, controversial or sensitive cases go to the Development Management Committee, where councillors vote in public, according to the council’s process.

Sources

The diary of live schemes was compiled on 30 August 2026 from the council’s own committee agenda, development brief, Local Plan and levy consultation pages. The fee schedule, the enforcement rules, the portal links, the weekly list and the national Planning Portal were checked on 18 August 2026; the Local Plan section on 12 August 2026; the committee public-speaking rules on 3 September 2026; other details on 6 June 2026. Comment deadlines and application statuses change, so always confirm on the Public Access portal before relying on a date.

Image: “Sevenoaks Place, the High Street, Sevenoaks” by Stefan Czapski, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sevenoaks_Place,the_High_Street,_Sevenoaks-geograph.org.uk-_3051247.jpg).