104 Homes Approved on Mount Ephraim's Former Car Showroom Site - Unanimously, Despite a Pub's Warning

The former Hendy Ford car showroom on Mount Ephraim will become 104 homes, after Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's Planning Committee voted unanimously to approve the scheme on 16 September - overruling its own parking team's objections and dismissing a warning from the pub next door about future noise complaints.

The application (ref. 25/02604/FULL) covers demolition of the vacant former dealership and redevelopment for 104 dwellings, with vehicular access from Culverden Street, car parking, landscaping and public open space. The site is split across three levels - Mount Ephraim at the top, Culverden Street running through the middle, and a row of houses fronting Rock Villa Road at the bottom - and had already been allocated for redevelopment in the current and previous Local Plans. Officers noted the scheme would also open up a south-facing window in the neighbouring United Emmanuel Church, currently blocked by an old Hendy building, letting light reach its stained glass.

The most pointed opposition came from Richard Simm, director of Fonthill Ltd, which runs The George - the free house immediately next to the site, whose taproom, brewery, service yard and bin store sit directly on the boundary with the new mews houses. Committee minutes record his argument that the acoustic assessment treated the pub as an ordinary venue closing at midnight, when it actually holds a licence until 3.30am and its brewery, deliveries and late-night dispersal hadn't been properly assessed. Officers' response was that Environmental Health had raised no objection to the dwellings' proximity to the pub and its brewery - the scheme went through without any additional noise conditions specific to that boundary.

The Council's own Parking team objected to the level of provision, and that objection was formally acknowledged and taken into account - but it was Kent County Council Highways, as the statutory consultee on highway safety, that carried the decisive weight, having raised no objection on highways grounds. It's the same dynamic that decided the neighbouring Spratsbrook Farm scheme a few weeks earlier: a statutory consultee's silence outweighs a council team's own concerns. Members did secure two concessions - the number of car club spaces was set at two (down from a suggested six, on the sustainability team's advice, though the developer can add more later if demand requires it), and an informative was added requiring the developer to explicitly tell buyers which properties come with no parking at all, beyond the two blocks of townhouses.

The Section 106 agreement includes affordable housing at a minimum of 30%, with a cascade mechanism that lets the developer fall back on an alternative mix, tenure or even a cash payment in lieu if no registered provider can be found to take on the units - a clause Committee members specifically asked officers to hold the developer to, rather than accept a token sum. Beyond that, the package runs to a NHS West Kent contribution of £108,324, £142,558 towards secondary education places, £108,758.55 combined across special educational needs, adult social care, libraries, children's services and adult learning, £20,189.52 towards waste capacity, £52,500 for the borough's walking and cycling infrastructure plan, £21,840 for the Commons Conservators, and £175,766.72 for youth, adult and children's recreation projects. The Pembury Road corridor contribution was raised by a further 10% at the meeting itself, after Kent County Council asked for a contingency uplift.

No start date has been announced - the resolution to grant is subject to completing the Section 106 legal agreement first, the usual gap between a committee vote and a development actually beginning. Source: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Planning Committee minutes, 16 September 2026, TWBC planning register, ref. 25/02604/FULL