Pedham Development: We Need Your Help
There is a proposal in the Sevenoaks Local Plan to build 2,500 houses, a 28,000 seat stadium and hotel on and around the site of Pedham Place golf course split between the parishes of Farningham and Eynsford, with a significant impact on Crockenhill too.
There are two important dates coming up.
This Thursday January 4th from 4:30pm until 7:30pm in Farningham Village Hall there is the opportunity to talk to staff from Sevenoaks District Council about these plans. You are strongly encouraged to attend.
On January 11th the consultation period for this proposal closes and you can no longer object.
It is incredibly important that we lodge as many effective objections to this proposal as possible. The key things to note about commenting on the local plan are:
- Comments are per-person not per-household. Having every adult in your house comment individually is critical.
- Non-public comments (where you ask for your name to be withheld if you write in with a response rather than commenting online) are not counted. You must explicitly state that you're happy for your details to be published.
- Comments must reference material planning concerns. Put plainly not wanting it is not a valid planning concern.
Since very few people are planning experts it may be useful to refer to the response from Farningham Parish Council when formulating a response. It can be found by clicking on this link.
In particular:
- selecting Option 1.
- referring to Pedham Place in the comments box using the identifier "MX-15".
- demonstrating the failure of the development to meet the standards for exceptional circumstances and sustainable development.
are critical points to hit in your response. Once again, the Farningham Parish Council response provides an excellent source of both themes and detail from which to draw. Here's an example of a well-formed response.
The community has crowd-funded a legal report, bullet points of which are available here. These points can be referenced in your own words in the comments box also.
You can read the full local plan by clicking on this link.
You can read a summary of and comment on the local plan by clicking on this link.
We're outnumbered in Sevenoaks and apathy is a large enemy. If you are not confident with writing this kind of response any vote for Option 1 is a vote against this development. Having every adult in your household take the time to select Option 1 with a comment similar to: "Please consider my objections to this development to be represented by Farningham Parish Council's response" is still extraordinarily helpful.
If you need help using the Internet then community-run sessions where somebody can help you complete the online form are being held on Saturday 6th January at:
- Eynsford Parish Council offices (9am - 11am)
- Farningham Shand Hall (right-hand side of the church) (10am - 3pm)
Other ways in which you can help:
- Write to your MP: https://www.lauratrott.org.uk/contact
- Write to your local councillor: https://cds.sevenoaks.gov.uk/mgMemberIndex.aspx?bcr=1
- A team of volunteers have delivered over 6,500 posters and leaflets across the area. Display yours in your road-facing window.
- The community has raised almost 50% of the cost of a legal report with which to challenge this proposal. Please donate to our crowd-funding page to support this and future campaigns.
Speaking of community a recent tractor run in Crockenhill organised by Cllr Rachel Waterton in support of this campaign made the news! The event raised a huge amount of money. Thank you everybody for your support.
