Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council - Local Plan

As you may be aware, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council is in the process of drafting a new Local Plan. It's current Deveopment Plan is reaching the end of its lifetime (2021) so a new Local Plan needs to be in place to manage change in the Borough for the period up to 2031, including addressing assessed needs and protecting natural heritage assets. The Government expects local authorities to have an up-to-date Local Plan in place which responds to local evidence and is in conformity with national planning policy and practice guidance.

Following the decision of TMBC Full Council on 12th September the public consultation exercise on the Local Plan, required by Regulation 19 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Plans)(England) Regulations 2012 commenced on Monday 1st October for a period of 6 weeks closing at 4pm on 12th November.

All details, including copies of the relevant documents and information on how to respond, will be on their website on from Monday 1st October - www.tmbc.gov.uk/localplanreg19 . There will also be a press release, alerts on social media and hard copies of the documents will be available to view at borough libraries and the Council’s offices at Kings Hill and Tonbridge Castle.

Two ‘drop in’ sessions where officers will be available to discuss the Local Plan with members of the public have also been arranged for 15th and 17th October (further details on these and all of the consultation arrangements will be available on TMBC website).

If you have any further queries please contact the Local Plan Team on [email protected]

There are several sites in Ditton that have been included for potential development:

In the June report TMBC officers reported that White Post Field at the A20/Hermitage Lane site for some 1000 homes with a new road linking Hermitage Lane through to Poppyfields roundabout had been kept in the draft Local Plan as a strategic site. However the idea of allocating land between Hermitage Lane and Kiln Barn Road including some “Research” land, was not included and removed from the draft. It is however retained in the Plan as an Area of Opportunity.

Instead three new sites within the Research Centre were introduced as shown on the plan headed “South Aylesford” on page 47 of the current July draft….which is on the TMBC website.

The sites are:

East Malling Research Station (Small Parcel) 23

East Malling Research Station (Ditton edge) 216

East Malling Research station (Parkside) 205

Plus three small sites within Cobdown Sports Ground area which appeared in The Way Forward document.

Public Consultation

Details of how you can view the Local Plan and comment to TMBC are on the their website (website details above) and we have asked to be notified if there are any local events. If the Parish Council obtains further information that we can pass on to residents then we will call a public meeting. The Parish Council has also offered the Community Centre as a venue to hold a public presentation, should TMBC require it.

We can give no more information at this stage but please be assured the Parish Council is watching closely what is happening with the Local Plan and will be attending all relevant information sessions so that we can report on any updates/developments as soon as we are able to do so.

No detail of the type of houses to be built or facilities to be provided will be known until a formal planning application is submitted. When this is received we will of course publicise this and all planning applications within the village can be viewed by clicking the planning tracker on the Parish Council website's homepage.