Up to nine homes are proposed on a Green Belt field off Hosey Hill, Westerham, with a decision due by 28 October. Plus all 38 new Sevenoaks applications.

A landowner wants permission in principle for up to nine homes on a Green Belt field on Hosey Hill, Westerham. The council’s target date for a decision is 28 October.

The application is one of 38 that Sevenoaks District Council validated in the week beginning 12 October. (Sevenoaks District Council, weekly planning list, Public Access) Eleven are tree works and ten are householder extensions.

The ones to know about

  • Up to nine homes on Hosey Hill, Westerham. The field lies north of St John the Baptist Church, on the town’s eastern edge. It is outside the settlement boundary, in the Green Belt and in the Kent Downs National Landscape. (26/02685/PIP) More on this below.
  • A garden room in Chevening churchyard. St Botolph’s Church wants a garden room of about 9m by 5m with a kitchenette and timber decking. Two headstones would be moved elsewhere in the churchyard. (26/02222/FUL)
  • The flat above the King and Queen, Edenbridge. The owners are asking the council to certify that the first-floor flat at 81 High Street can be lived in as a separate home. (26/02573/LDCPR)
  • Builders’ parking in a field at Underriver. Longwood, a property on Carters Hill, is being redeveloped under a permission granted in February. Its owners want a temporary 530 square metre parking area on their adjoining land, which they say would be returned to grass afterwards. (26/02649/LDCPR, covering letter, 7 October 2026)
  • A storage extension at Watling Tyres, Swanley. The garage at 65 High Street wants a single-storey side extension for storage. (26/02439/FUL)
Bar chart of the 38 planning applications validated in Sevenoaks district in the week beginning 12 October 2026 by type: 11 tree works, 10 householder, 9 details for conditions, 3 lawful development certificates, 3 full applications, 1 permission in principle and 1 demolition notice
Chart by Sevenoaks Online
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Hosey Hill: what is being asked

Permission in principle is a two-stage route for small housing schemes. The first stage settles only the location, the use and the number of homes. Layout, design, access, drainage and landscaping come later in a second application, called technical details consent. A grant lasts three years.

The site is 0.49 hectares of agricultural land, according to the application form. The applicant’s agent puts it at about 400 metres from the town centre and its bus stop. (26/02685/PIP, application form and decision assessment)

The applicant’s case rests on two arguments:

  • the field is “grey belt”, Green Belt land that the government’s planning rules now allow to be built on if it does not strongly serve Green Belt purposes
  • the council cannot show a five-year supply of housing land: its own July position statement records 3.59 years, according to the applicant’s assessment

Most of the field is outside the Westerham Conservation Area. A narrow strip along its western edge is inside it, the assessment says.

What the council’s officers have said so far

Two council teams have replied.

The first objection

One neighbour has objected so far. The objection points to a 2017 appeal on the same field, which concerned an agricultural access rather than housing. It quotes the planning inspector describing the field as part of an “undulating pastoral and woodland landscape” that “remains unspoilt and is worthy of protection for its own sake”. (Public comment on 26/02685/PIP, 17 October 2026)

The objector also asks the council to test the grey belt claim independently. Their point is that limited public views do not by themselves show the field adds little to Westerham’s historic setting.

The full list, by area

Sevenoaks town, Riverhead, Chipstead and Dunton Green

  • 37 Bradbourne Road: garage replaced with a part two-storey, part single-storey side extension (26/02600/HOUSE)
  • Chestnut Lodge, 27 Larkfield Road, Bessels Green: garage replaced with a two-storey side extension (26/02614/HOUSE)
  • 150 Seal Road: single-storey rear extension and raised patio with privacy screen (26/02579/HOUSE)
  • Birchcroft, 6 Chipstead Park Close: two brick boundary walls with piers (26/02118/HOUSE)
  • 36 to 38 London Road: window and rooflight details for an earlier permission (26/02466/DETAIL and 26/02483/DETAIL)
  • Bradbourne Lakes North, Bradbourne Vale Road: tree protection and silt management plan for the restoration (26/02385/DETAIL)
  • Land north of West Kent Cold Store, Rye Lane, Dunton Green: dead trees felled (26/02697/W5DAY)
  • The Lodge, 126 Oakhill Road: dangerously leaning sycamore felled (26/02707/WTPO)
  • Mayfield, Blackhall Lane: two oaks pruned (26/02708/WTCA)
  • 8 Clarendon Road: tree works (26/02694/WTCA)
  • West Lodge, 60 High Street, Chipstead: tree works (26/02717/WTCA)

Seal, Kemsing and Underriver

  • 6 Springhead Road, Kemsing: first-floor rear extension (26/02523/HOUSE)
  • Summeryards, Cotmans Ash Lane, Kemsing: bat roost and tree impact assessments for an earlier permission (26/02594/DETAIL and 26/02585/DETAIL)
  • Chestnuts, Pilgrims Way, Kemsing: surface water drainage details (26/02611/DETAIL)
  • 22 West End, Kemsing: holly and rose taken down (26/02689/WTCA)
  • Land north of One Tree Cottage, Carters Hill, Underriver: temporary construction parking (26/02649/LDCPR)

Halstead, Knockholt, Badgers Mount and Shoreham

  • 30 Old London Road, Badgers Mount: garden outbuilding demolished (26/02678/DEMNOT)
  • 19 Fort Road, Halstead: oak crown reduced by about 2m (26/02706/WTPO)
  • Broad Oak, Old London Road, Knockholt: tree works (26/02693/WTPO)
  • 3 Oxbourne Cottages, High Street, Shoreham: tree works (26/02718/WTCA)

Westerham, Sundridge and Chevening

  • Land north of St John the Baptist Church, Hosey Hill, Westerham: one to nine homes (26/02685/PIP)
  • St Botolph’s Church, Chevening Road, Chevening: garden room and decking, two headstones moved (26/02222/FUL)
  • Land north-east of Manor Farm, Dryhill Lane, Sundridge: farm buildings to a self-build home, on last week’s list too (26/01499/FUL)
  • 138B Main Road, Sundridge: gravel hardstanding and driveway (26/01389/HOUSE)
  • 99 High Street, Westerham: tree works (26/02722/WTCA)

Edenbridge and Leigh

  • The King and Queen, 81 High Street, Edenbridge: first-floor flat as a separate home (26/02573/LDCPR)
  • Oaklands, Four Elms Road, Edenbridge: driveway, altered access, detached garage and open car port (26/02612/HOUSE)
  • 44 High Street, Edenbridge: roofing and surface materials for listed building works (26/02410/DETAIL and 26/02396/DETAIL)
  • Lanterncroft, Powder Mill Lane, Leigh: dormer extension and new roof coverings (26/02467/HOUSE)

Swanley, Hextable, Eynsford and Farningham

  • Watling Tyres, 65 High Street, Swanley: single-storey storage extension (26/02439/FUL)
  • Romneys, Highlands Hill, Swanley: rear and two-storey side extensions and a loft conversion (26/02344/HOUSE)
  • 14 Millbro, Hextable: lawful development certificate for a loft conversion with rear dormer (26/02590/LDCPR)
  • 14 Top Dartford Road, Hextable: biodiversity gain plan for an earlier permission (26/02632/DETAIL)
  • Farningham Hill House, Farningham Hill Road: retrospective portico, window and boundary changes (26/00974/HOUSE)
  • Bower House, Bower Lane, Eynsford: tree works (26/02711/WTCA)

Licensing: one notice closes this week

No new premises licence applications reached the council’s register last week. The notice period for Thai Emperor in Swanley (26/04093/LAPRE) ends on 20 October, with no representations so far. (Sevenoaks District Council, premises licence tracker) The figures are from the register as extracted on 19 October.

The review of the Rising Sun, Twitton goes to a licensing hearing on 27 October.

How to comment

Search the reference on the council’s Public Access portal, or read our guide to the Sevenoaks planning portal and how to object. Permission in principle applications have a shorter timetable than most, so anyone with a view on Hosey Hill should comment before 28 October.

Last week’s list: Halstead objects to Knockholt station traveller pitches.

Sources

Image: St John the Baptist Church, Westerham by David Howard, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph. Chart by Sevenoaks Online.