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Sevenoaks
Town Council welcomed the opportunity to comment on Sevenoaks District
Council’s draft Local Plan Regulation 18 public consultation.
Sevenoaks
Town Council recognised the pressure to deliver significant volumes of new
homes in the coming 15 years. The Local Plan as drafted would increase the
size of Sevenoaks Town by almost 50%, and would have a very significant,
transforming impact upon the town. It is vital that the Local Plan
objectives, policies and guidance make the impact positive overall for the District’s
communities.
Sevenoaks
Town has borne the cost of the lack of Local Plan in the District. Without a
plan, and under the ‘tilted balance’, Sevenoaks has seen several significant,
controversial and inappropriate developments gain planning permission which
conflict directly with the adopted Sevenoaks Town Neighbourhood Plan.
Developments in the town almost never deliver affordable housing due to
viability calculations. It is not unusual for approved plans to be in direct
conflict with the character, building heights, and density of the surrounding
area.
A Local
Plan is essential to delivering high-quality growth for the community. It
must be unambiguous and robust in how it will deliver not only the required
housing numbers, but also in how the priorities and interests of local
residents will be delivered and protected. As drafted in the current
consultation, Sevenoaks Town Council was disappointed by the lack of vision
of the future state of the district. An overall, uniting vision is
essential to drive the policies, and it was therefore extremely disappointed
to find that, in an era of climate emergency, climate policy is not placed
front and centre.
As a local
representative of Sevenoaks Town residents, Sevenoaks Town Council resolved
not to comment on sites outside of the parish, except where they are adjacent
to its boundary. It recorded, however, its deep concern at the concentration
of the required housing in urban areas to the detriment of villages which
will also need to grow to thrive. The Town Council considered the burden of a
50% uplift in the number of homes in Sevenoaks to be a significant challenge
which would require a great deal of community engagement, partnership working
and infrastructure improvement to do successfully.
In
particular, Sevenoaks Town Council recorded its concern for the protection
and enhancement of natural resources such as the River Darent and its
aquifers. The open spaces proposed for development serve important purposes
as green spaces, wildlife habitat and migration space and rare chalk
streams.
Sevenoaks
has a chronic and worsening shortage of affordable homes, particularly social
rented. The Town Council recognised and welcomed that grey belt land will
have to deliver 50% affordable homes in a way which cannot be negotiated out.
It stipulated however, that any such grey belt development must be delivered
in a way which protects and improves the natural resources of the area and
brings with it timely infrastructure delivery to meet the needs of current
and future residents.
The
Local Plan must make clear what infrastructure will facilitate new schemes,
not only mitigating their impact but actively improving the town for all of the
District’s communities. Infrastructure delivery must be front-loaded to
ensure that residents of new schemes are able to access, for example, buses,
cycle routes, surgeries and schools from the moment of occupation. Strategic
infrastructure must prevent, not remedy, capacity issues in the highways and
utility networks.
Sevenoaks
Town Council was pleased to see that the draft plan specifically references
the Sevenoaks Town Neighbourhood Development Plan and the emerging
Masterplans which it has commissioned for Sevenoaks Town Centre and St Johns.
These three policy documents have been produced in close collaboration and
consultation with stakeholders and residents, and the Town Council would therefore
expect them to be given significant weight in planning decisions going
forwards.
The
following key priorities of Sevenoaks Town Council have guided its responses
to the various policies and proposed land allocations within the draft Local
Plan:
- Responding to climate
change and
adopting this stance into every possible element of the Local Plan – see
comments in particular under Objectives OB3, OB5, OB8, OB9 and OB10, as
well as Policy CC1.
- Identifying infrastructure
requirements with local detail informed by local residents and their
representative Town and Parish Councils. See comments in particular
under Policies TLC1, DE1, DE2, DE4, DE5, DE6, and IN1.
- Environmental protection – encompassing
wildlife and nature, green spaces, biodiversity and water supply. See
comments in particular under Objective OB19 as well as Policies H8, W2,
W3, AQ1, and BW1.
- Enhanced community
involvement throughout
the entire planning process, with significant housing schemes designed
alongside, and with, active engagement from local people – see comments
in particular under Policies TLC1, DE1, DE2, DE4, DE5, and DE6.
- Protecting the local
character and amenity enjoyed within residential areas and integrating new
development into the existing character of the town – with respect given
in particular to building heights. See comments in particular
under Objectives OB6, OB12, OB13 and OB17, as well as under Policies H7,
DE3, DE4, DE6, and HW3.
- Placing the historical
environment at
the forefront of planning, seeking not only the protection of historic
assets and significant views, but also opportunities to recognise and
promote the historic character of Sevenoaks. See detailed comments in
particular under Objective OB20.
- Community building and
place making –
See comments in particular under Policies H4, TLC1, DE4, DE5, DE6, and
HW1.
- Creation of a Cultural
Quarter and
enhancing the local economy – see comments in particular under Policies
TLC1 and SEV1.
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