Sevenoaks Council to Consult on Extending Order Against Anti-Social Car Meets at London Road, Halstead

Sevenoaks District Council will ask residents whether the order against anti-social car meets on London Road, Halstead, should be renewed for another three years. Cabinet agreed on Tuesday 22 September to a four-to-six-week public consultation, after officers reported that meets have continued despite the order, which began in March 2024. The council hasn't yet said when the consultation opens.

The order is a Public Spaces Protection Order, a council power to ban specific behaviour in a defined area. This one covers anti-social behaviour involving vehicles, including car cruising events, on London Road at Halstead, the Orpington Bypass at Badgers Mount and the M25 spur road. The listed behaviours include revving engines, sounding horns or playing loud music, racing or speeding, performing stunts such as doughnuts and handbrake turns, causing danger to other road users or pedestrians, and parking on the footway. Breaching it is a criminal offence, and the current fixed penalty is £100.

The report to Cabinet says car meets have carried on since the order was introduced, and that the council has issued 43 fixed penalty notices and 56 community protection notices, 13 of them on behalf of the Metropolitan Police. The Cabinet minutes describe over 100 warnings and penalties issued across four weeks this summer, with just over half of the fines paid within 14 days, others on payment plans and some contested and reviewed by Kent Police. The report and the minutes frame the timescale differently, so treat the totals as approximate.

The fine is expected to rise. The Government's Crime and Policing Bill would raise the maximum fixed penalty for breaching a PSPO from £100 to £500, the council's portfolio holders agreed in June to adopt the higher level once it takes effect, and the Cabinet minutes record new fine levels from 26 October 2026, with the money going to community safety work. On cameras, the council received funding in January for a deployable mobile camera. Kent County Council approved it in July, but when the installer went to fit it the wiring turned out to be unusable, and KCC has said fixing that could take a further three months. The council is also talking to Transport for London about an ANPR camera on one of its lampposts, which would reduce the burden on residents, who currently film meets and report them so that enforcement can go ahead in partnership with the police.

The council must consult Kent Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner, landowners, ward councillors and community representatives, and it wants to hear from residents, local schools and visitors. The area and restrictions would stay the same. Once the consultation closes, a further report goes to the People and Places Advisory Committee and then Cabinet later this year to decide whether to extend. The same meeting also extended a separate order at The Vine in Sevenoaks to December 2029. Sources: Sevenoaks District Council Cabinet report, PSPO extension London Road Halstead, Cabinet draft minutes, 22 September 2026