Sevenoaks Local Plan Update: Sevenoaks District Council’s (SDC) new draft Local Plan is undergoing a second stage of public consultation. The Plan contains policies which will guide what can be built and where, and what should be protected, until 2040. The Neighbourhood Plan currently being prepared for Fawkham will sit alongside the district-wide Local Plan.
The plan proposes a number of sites for development, including some in the Green Belt, and Fawkham Parish Council is very pleased to note that no sites are proposed within our Parish. Within our adjoining Parishes, one site is proposed in Hartley (25 houses at a site on Manor Lane, Hartley), three within New Ash Green (98 houses in total) and up to four sites are proposed in West Kingsdown (a total of 349 units across the four sites, all of which are in the Green Belt, close to the A20). We understand 11 sites within Fawkham were put forward for development by their landowners, although none are proposed by SDC within the consultation.
We know that SDC is under pressure to meet Government housing targets – the target for the district is 10,680 more houses by 2040. This represents an increase of around 20%. The previous Local Plan consultation (November 22 to January 23) focused on optimising densities and maximising opportunities in existing settlements, including on brownfield land. However, the District is unable to meet development needs within the existing urban areas.
This second Regulation 18 consultation takes a more District-wide approach. SDC will continue to focus on optimising development opportunities in the existing towns and service settlements, but will also consider the potential contribution of Green Belt land, in exceptional circumstances. Hartley, New Ash Green and West Kingsdown are all service settlements within SDC’s settlement hierarchy, whereas Fawkham Parish is classified as a hamlet, the lowest tier of the hierarchy. This means the Parish is not expected to accommodate much new development.
SDC is putting forward a number of options for meeting the District’s housing need, revolving around sites which are located in the Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and whether it is preferable to allocate a number of smaller sites, or one large site, or a combination of the two. Full details can be found within the draft Plan 2040 which can be found here: https://www.sevenoaks.gov.uk/plan2040.
The consultation opened on November 23rd and closes on January 11th. FPC will be responding to the consultation and members of the public can do so too; details of how to comment can be found via the link above. We will publish our response once it has been prepared and agreed.
Fawkham Parish Council
