520 Homes Planned for Badsell Farm, Paddock Wood - and the Town Council Wants It Refused

A developer's application to build 520 homes on farmland on the edge of Paddock Wood has been sitting with Tunbridge Wells Borough Council for more than four months, past its own statutory deadline - while the town's own council has formally objected and wants it refused.

Dandara South East submitted a hybrid planning application for Land at Badsell Farm, off Badsell Road and Maidstone Road, on 1 June. It combines a full application for 272 dwellings and the site access, with outline permission (details of appearance, landscaping, layout and scale left for later) for a further roughly 248 dwellings - around 520 homes in total, plus a local centre, play areas, a network of new roads, sustainable drainage, car and cycle parking and open space. The application (ref. 26/01233/HYBRID) runs to more than 200 submitted documents, including a full Environmental Impact Assessment, and was preceded by an EIA scoping request Dandara lodged in August 2025 for the same "up to 520" dwellings figure.

This isn't a speculative proposal on unallocated land. Tunbridge Wells Borough Council formally adopted its Local Plan, covering 2020 to 2038, in December 2025 - and that plan already earmarks the area around Badsell Farm and east Capel, under policy AL/CA 3, for a strategic expansion of Paddock Wood running into the thousands of homes, alongside a neighbouring site to the north-west promoted separately by Crest Homes for up to 770 more. The principle of building on Badsell Farm has already been settled at plan-making stage; what's being tested now is whether this specific application gets the details right.

Paddock Wood Town Council's formal consultation response doesn't dispute that principle - it opens by acknowledging the site "forms part of the strategic growth area identified in the adopted Tunbridge Wells Local Plan" - but argues the application itself should be refused in its current form. Its first objection is that infrastructure isn't keeping pace with housing already built: the council says Paddock Wood is "experiencing the cumulative effects of recent and planned development" without timely delivery of roads, foul drainage capacity, clean water, education, healthcare and transport improvements, and is "particularly concerned" that infrastructure tied to earlier developments - including the Badsell Road/Maidstone Road junction itself, additional GP capacity and primary school places - still hasn't been delivered. Its second objection is that flood risk remains unresolved: the site includes and adjoins the Tudeley Brook and the Gravelly Way Stream, and the council says Dandara's evidence "appears to understate" local flood mechanisms, recent flood history and high groundwater conditions.

The council's own statutory deadline for deciding the application was 2 September - which has now passed by more than a month, with the case still showing as "awaiting decision." That's not unusual on its own for a scheme of this scale; major applications routinely run past their formal deadline while a Section 106 agreement covering affordable housing and infrastructure contributions is negotiated, with both sides agreeing an extension rather than the council being forced into a default refusal. Alongside the Town Council and neighbouring Brenchley & Matfield and Capel parish councils, the application has drawn dozens of individual objections from Paddock Wood residents and comments from a long list of statutory consultees - including Kent County Council Highways, the Environment Agency, Natural England, Historic England and National Highways - with local campaign group Save Capel also objecting, linking its concerns to a neighbouring 770-home scheme proposed by Crest Homes it says shares the same flood mitigation, access and infrastructure issues. The council's own case file currently lists this as heading for a delegated decision by planning officers rather than a vote at Planning Committee; Save Capel's objection explicitly asks the council to send it to committee instead, reserving its right to address members in person if that happens.

Sources: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council planning register, ref. 26/01233/HYBRID, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Dandara