How a Rejected Scheme for 57 Homes Became One of Kent's First 'Grey Belt' Approvals

Land off Court Lane in Hadlow, earmarked for housing and then refused by the borough council, is now edging toward construction after a planning inspector overturned that refusal - using a change to national planning policy that was barely two months old at the time.

Developer Dandara South East applied in 2022 to build 57 homes plus a new children's nursery and pre-school on a 6-acre former nursery site south of Court Lane - land that sits inside the Metropolitan Green Belt. Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council refused the application, and Dandara appealed. By the time the appeal reached a public inquiry in January 2025, the National Planning Policy Framework had just been rewritten, in December 2024, to introduce a new category called "grey belt" - Green Belt land that doesn't strongly serve the purposes Green Belt is meant to protect, and which can be built on more easily as a result. Planning Inspector A Dawe ruled that the Court Lane site qualified: the undeveloped part was already hemmed in on three sides by existing housing, didn't meaningfully check urban sprawl or prevent towns merging, and played only a modest role in preserving Hadlow's setting. On that basis, the scheme wasn't "inappropriate development" in the Green Belt at all, and the appeal was allowed on 21 February 2025.

The planning balance wasn't just about grey belt land, though. The inspector found that Tonbridge and Malling had only 2.89 years of deliverable housing land, against a national requirement for five, and that the borough's recent housing delivery had run at just 60% of what was required - a "demonstrable unmet need" in the inspector's words. Weighed against that, the harms were judged moderate: some impact on the character of the surrounding countryside, and limited loss of agricultural land, but no harm at all to nearby heritage assets, including the Grade I listed Hadlow Tower and the Grade II* listed St Marys Church, both close to the site. With 50% of the homes affordable and a legal agreement covering everything from road safety works to school places, the inspector concluded the benefits clearly outweighed the harm.

Tucked inside the scheme is a smaller, more human story. The site already hosts Saplings Nursery, which the inspector heard was operating on a rolling one-year lease and had a waiting list - its long-term future was genuinely uncertain. The approved scheme replaces it with a purpose-built nursery and pre-school, with flats above, on the same site. Planning documents show the design has since been tweaked: in May 2026, Dandara submitted a non-material amendment specifically to bring the nursery building's layout in line with Ofsted's regulatory requirements, a small but telling sign that the new facility is being designed with the people who'll actually run it, not just the planners who'll approve it.

The legal agreement attached to the permission commits Dandara to a long list of contributions beyond the homes themselves: funding towards expanding Mascalls Secondary Academy and towards special educational needs places at the Nexus Foundation Special School in Tonbridge; money for Hadlow Medical Centre and Woodlands Health Centre; resources for Hadlow Library; two road narrowings on Court Lane plus a relocated speed limit sign; and financial contributions towards William Field recreation ground and Haysden Country Park to offset the extra use new residents would bring. Fifty per cent of the 57 homes - originally split between social rent, intermediate housing and First Homes - are affordable, though the exact tenure mix for some plots has since been adjusted through the council's planning process.

Eighteen months on from the appeal win, the scheme is still working through pre-construction paperwork rather than visibly under way. Tonbridge and Malling's planning register shows a steady stream of "reserved details" applications discharging the permission's pre-commencement conditions - contamination investigation, surface water drainage, sound insulation between the nursery and the flats above it, a travel plan - running from late 2025 into mid-2026, alongside minor amendments such as a house-type swap on two plots and a December 2025 application to change the approved site access, which remained open for comment as of this year. None of that is construction itself, but it's the paperwork that has to clear before it can start.

Sources: Planning Inspectorate, appeal ref. APP/H2265/W/24/3346228, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council planning register, ref. 26/01056/RD (one of several conditions-discharge cases on permission TM/22/01474/FL), Dandara