🐝 BEES NOT WASPS CAMPAIGN NEWSLETTER | SEPTEMBER 2026
REGULATION 19 IS OPEN
📍 CAMPAIGN SNAPSHOT | SEPTEMBER 2026
✅ WASPS Stadium proposal has been removed from the Local Plan
⚠️ Pedham Place remains – with up to 2,600 homes and approximately 49,000 m² of employment floorspace, equivalent to almost 7 full-size football pitches
📢 REGULATION 19 CONSULTATION IS NOW OPEN
⚠️ IMPORTANT — WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:
🌳 Focus on Pedham Place and the evidence behind the Plan
🤝 Work with communities and Parish Councils across Sevenoaks
📣 Sign and share the relevant petitions
The next stage is underway – and this is where your response really matters
Firstly, apologies for the length of this update!
It's been several months since our last newsletter, and a great deal has happened.
Our June newsletter brought you up to date with the proposed WASPS stadium being stood down and the Council's decision-making process. Since then, the Local Plan has moved forward. Well done to Crockenhill, who worked tirelessly on this.
Regulation 19 is OPEN.
This is the final public consultation before the Local Plan is submitted for independent examination, and it is our opportunity to make the strongest possible evidence-based case on Pedham Place.
So, grab a cup of tea, settle in, and thank you, as always, for taking the time to stay informed and involved.
🌳 WHERE WE ARE NOW
The WASPS stadium is out. Pedham Place remains.
There is an important distinction.
The proposed WASPS stadium has been removed from the Regulation 19 Local Plan. Sevenoaks District Council says it was removed because it had received insufficient information about the suitability of the scheme, particularly how critical local infrastructure could be addressed.
That is a significant change since our earlier campaigns.
But it does not resolve the wider issue.
Pedham Place remains in the Plan.
And the scale of what is proposed is considerable.
🏗️ PEDHAM PLACE – THE SCALE
The current proposal is for:
🏠 Up to 2,600 homes
🏭 Approximately 49,000 m² of employment floorspace
That's equivalent to the floor area of almost 7 full-size football pitches.
This includes approximately:
- 22,000 m² of office space
- 27,000 m² of B2/B8 employment space, including warehousing, storage, distribution and industrial uses
The site itself is approximately:
141 hectares – around 348 acres
The wider proposal also includes retail/commercial, leisure, education, health, community facilities and associated infrastructure.
This is therefore not simply a housing development. It is a major new mixed-use development on a huge site.
And that makes the questions around Green Belt, sustainability, water, infrastructure, transport, Junction 3, environmental impacts and deliverability particularly important.
⚖️ REGULATION 19 – OPEN
Sevenoaks District Council's Regulation 19 consultation opened on 23 July 2026 and closes at 11.59pm next Thursday, 17 September 2026.
The new Local Plan is intended to guide development between 2027 and 2042 and is being prepared to meet the Government's housing requirement of 17,460 homes – a 63% increase on the previous target.
Regulation 19 is different
This isn't simply another vote on whether you like the Plan. Sevenoaks says that at Regulation 19 you cannot suggest new development options. Instead, representations need to focus on whether the Plan complies with legislation and whether it is sound – based on evidence, meeting future needs, deliverable and promoting sustainable development.
Regulation 19 asks whether the Plan is:
Legally compliant
And whether it is sound, namely:
- Positively prepared
- Justified
- Effective
- Consistent with national planning policy
Understanding the tests
The planning issues we are concerned about – Green Belt, housing numbers, water, infrastructure, transport, environmental impacts and so on – are not themselves the tests.
They provide the evidence and reasoning that can demonstrate whether the Plan meets or fails those tests.
If you don't feel confident about the planning terminology, don't be put off. Explain clearly what concerns you, give any evidence or information you have, and identify why you believe it could affect the Plan's legal compliance or soundness. Every relevant representation can contribute to the evidence considered at examination.
📝 HOW WE SHOULD RESPOND
This is perhaps the most important thing we can now explain to residents.
A statement such as:
"There isn't enough water."
is a concern.
A stronger Regulation 19 representation explains what the evidence demonstrates and why that means the Plan fails a particular test.
For example:
"The Plan is not effective because the necessary water infrastructure is not available or committed, and it is not justified because the evidence does not demonstrate that this constraint can be overcome."
That is the kind of planning argument the Inspector can consider.
Our attached guidance notes explain how to approach this: start with the evidence, identify the planning issue, explain why it matters, and link the conclusion to the relevant legal compliance or soundness test.
A suggested five-step approach:
Evidence → Transparency → Accountability → Persistence
Please keep responses factual, respectful, focused and evidence-led.
🦋 KENT WILDLIFE TRUST HAS ALSO RESPONDED
Kent Wildlife Trust has submitted its own response to the Sevenoaks Local Plan 2042 Regulation 19 consultation, raising important points about the implications of the proposed allocations for wildlife, habitats, biodiversity, ecological impacts and the wider natural environment.
Their response is well worth reading before you submit yours. It provides an important independent perspective and may help you identify issues and evidence that you could raise in your own Regulation 19 response.
👉 Read Kent Wildlife Trust's full response here.
Please don't simply copy it — use it to inform your own response and put your concerns in your own words.
🤝 WORKING TOGETHER ACROSS SEVENOAKS
One of the most encouraging developments has been the increasing collaboration between communities across the District.
Parish Councils and local campaign groups are sharing information, scrutinising evidence and supporting residents through this increasingly complicated planning process.
Farningham Parish Council has established a dedicated Sevenoaks Local Plan 2042 page containing information and updates for residents, and is working with neighbouring Parish Councils on the issues surrounding Pedham Place.
👉 Farningham Parish Council – Local Plan 2042
Farningham Parish Council Local Plan page
This collaboration is important.
The more informed our communities become, the stronger our collective contribution to the planning process.
📬 LOOK OUT FOR YOUR LEAFLET
Regulation 19 leaflets have been distributed from Farningham Parish Council to local households to help residents understand what is proposed at Pedham Place and how to respond:
Also attached are some Regulation 19 guidance notes (golden rules above).
Please also use Sevenoaks District Council's own official guidance:
Sevenoaks District Council – Regulation 19
How to Respond to the Regulation 19 Publication
The Council has also published the full Regulation 19 Plan and supporting evidence base.
✍️ WHAT TO DO NOW
📝 1. COMPLETE YOUR REGULATION 19 RESPONSE
If you haven't submitted your Regulation 19 response yet, there is still time to have your say.
Don't wait until 17th September to submit. It will take some time, so please don't be put off – we need as many responses as possible.
Read the Plan, look at the evidence and identify the issues that concern you.
If you don't have all the evidence yourself, don't be put off. Explain your concern clearly and, where possible, identify the information or evidence you believe the Council should consider.
Click here to start your survey.
Every individual response matters.
🗣️ COMPLETE YOUR RESPONSE AND MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD.
✍️ 2. SIGN & SHARE THE PETITIONS
Please take a few moments to sign the relevant petitions and share them with family, friends and neighbours.
🏡 Pause Government Housebuilding Targets
Help us get this petition beyond the 100,000-signature threshold.
🏗️ Pass House Building Reforms for Approved Homes
Support reforms to ensure homes that already have planning permission are built before further countryside is released.
💧 No Water – No Housebuilding
No Water – No Housebuilding campaign
🏠 Raise the Rent-a-Room Scheme Tax-Free Threshold
Support changes that could encourage more people to make spare rooms available, helping to ease housing pressures without building on more Green Belt land.
🌳 Strengthen Protection for Green Belt and National Landscapes
Support a review of national planning policy to strengthen protections for Green Belt and National Landscapes and ensure alternatives such as brownfield land and urban densification are properly considered.
🐝 We remain strictly non-party-political, but we are aware of this petition calling on Sevenoaks District Council to Make the Sevenoaks Local Plan Sustainable, Deliverable and Sound.
It raises a number of issues relevant to the Regulation 19 process, drawing on the Council's own July 2026 Sustainability Appraisal, including landscape, biodiversity, climate change, transport, water and the scale and location of Pedham Place.
If you agree that the Local Plan should be properly scrutinised and strengthened where the evidence demonstrates that changes are needed, you may wish to read and support it:
Please sign, share and encourage others to do the same.
📱3. KEEP UP TO DATE
Things are moving quickly now but keep an eye on these resources for contributions that may be of assistance.
Farningham Parish Council Local Plan Page
Protect Our Green Belt Together – Facebook Group
You can also follow the Bees Not Wasps website for campaign updates.
💚 THE FINAL MESSAGE
The June newsletter was about getting to Regulation 19.
We are now there.
The WASPS stadium has gone from the Plan. Pedham Place has not – and the scale of the proposed development includes up to 2,600 homes and approximately 49,000 m² of employment floorspace. The focus now needs to be on making the strongest possible case, based on evidence and planning policy, about whether Pedham Place and the wider Local Plan can genuinely meet the legal compliance and soundness tests.
Sevenoaks says more than 28,000 comments were received from more than 5,000 residents and organisations during Regulation 18.
Now we need to turn that enormous level of public engagement into well-evidenced Regulation 19 representations.
Don't just object.
Give reasons.
Use the evidence.
Link your concerns to the tests.
And encourage everyone you know to take part.
Regulation 19 closes at 11.59pm next Thursday, 17 September 2026.
