• The published details of the Kent CC planning application can be found on www.sevenoaks.gov.uk
• The application includes a Statement. This document can be accessed directly on this website:
Housing
• Housing (clauses 5.42 to 5.61) is argued as being desirable on the site. For example, because there are houses on the opposite sides of Station Road and Four Elms Road, housing would be appropriate on the facing Green belt. This is a fatuous argument. Surely there is a greater argument that, because this Green belt site is surrounded by houses, it should remain Green belt and be restored to open space and playing fields in particular.
• Clause 5.47 states “The housing requirement for Sevenoaks District is set out in the KMSP (Kent and Medway Structure Plan). This requires the provision for 2,400 net new dwellings between 2001 and 2016, which equates to an average of 160 units per annum.”
• Other arguments put forward as to why housing on this site should be a “special case” indicate the very weakness of the case itself:
The houses would have good access to shops - but, if built, would destroy an essential Green Belt site close to the centre of the town in the process.
o The need to sustain local communities – as if Edenbridge was shrinking!
o Would provide homes for local people – there have been ample opportunities over the last six years for local people.
o In its “Conclusions” clause 6.2 “Indeed, it is considered that the proposals will offer improvements to the visual amenity and character of the Green Belt”. Surely a better alternative is to demolish the existing “crumbling” buildings and have a green space instead.
• The plea for more houses falls flat on the evidence of the number of houses built in Edenbridge over the past 6 years across the whole range of house types.
• The Application Statement takes great care not to establish how many houses have in fact been built in Edenbridge during the period 2001 to 2007, but makes a great case for more houses in the South-east.
• In the 2001 Census, the population of Sevenoaks District was 109,305 and that of Edenbridge 7,808 or 7.2%. Population would appear to be an indicative measure of where houses should be built. The Edenbridge share of the 2,400 houses to be built over the 15 years based on its 2001 population is 173 (7.2% of 2,400) - an average of less than 12 each year.
• The number of units of housing actually built during the 6 years 2001 – 7 are revealed in the figures for houses in each Council Tax Class Band in each year from 2001-7 that ERFC has obtained from Sevenoaks DC. On the second sheet of this Excel file an analysis of the figures shows that 392 were built in Edenbridge during the first six years of the KMSP or an average of 65 per annum. This figure is more than 5 times what could have been expected on a :
• The inclusion within the Application documents of the report by local Estate Agents, Fox and Mainwaring does little to help the case for yet more houses. Fox & Mainwaring estimate a further 227 units of housing are either currently being offered for sale or are in the pipeline within Edenbridge. This total is by itself considerably more than Edenbridge’s share for the whole of the 15 year statuary period.
Fox and Mainwaring Report
• With the further 227 houses completed over the next two years, there will have been 619 units of housing built over a 9 year period – an increase of 18% on the 2001 figures. This fact proves that Edenbridge has contributed far more than it fair share of new build on brownfield sites. It DESTROYS THE CASE FOR YET MORE HOUSES ON GREEN BELT LAND.
• The Edenbridge Town Council should be concerned at the pressure such increase will place on the Town’s existing services and the disappearance of open space in so central a location.