Petition Against 1,500-Home Site North of Sevenoaks Tops 1,700 Signatures

A campaign against one of the biggest housing sites in Sevenoaks District's new Local Plan has passed 1,700 signatures, three months after we first reported on Kent Wildlife Trust's objections to the scheme. The site, known as Land North of Sevenoaks (reference ST4-7), would put around 1,500 homes on 106.5 hectares of Green Belt land west of Otford Road - more houses than currently stand in the whole of Otford parish.

The petition, "Stop 1,500 Houses on Our Green Belt", was started on Change.org on 9 October by the Otford Protection Committee, part of the Otford Society. It had reached 1,377 signatures by the time the Committee wrote to the site's developer, Fairfax Properties, in mid-October, and has kept climbing since - passing 1,500 supporters around 29 October and standing at over 1,700 verified signatures now. The petition argues no detailed planning application has yet been published, but that the scale involved would outstrip what local roads, GPs and schools can cope with.

Fairfax Properties held its own public consultation event on the proposals on 19 October, which campaigners and Kent Wildlife Trust both attended to raise concerns directly. The site sits immediately next to Sevenoaks Wildlife Reserve, a nationally important nature reserve on the Sevenoaks Gravel Pit Site of Special Scientific Interest - the trust's core objection since the summer, alongside worries about increased runoff into the River Darent.

The site remains part of the Local Plan that Sevenoaks District Council's Cabinet voted to progress back in July, and which has already been through its Regulation 19 public consultation. The next major stage is an independent Examination of the plan, expected next year - the Otford Protection Committee says it's now raising funds for the legal and professional costs of taking part in that process.

Sources: Change.org petition, The Otford Society, Kent Wildlife Trust, Sevenoaks District Council development brief