A Sevenoaks Councillor's Own Application to Build on Green Belt Land in His Ward Has Been Approved

A Sevenoaks district councillor has been granted permission in principle to build homes on Green Belt land in the ward he represents. Councillor Chris Haslam applied to build between one and seven dwellings on land behind Childsbridge House on Childsbridge Lane in Kemsing - his own ward - and the application was approved by the council's Development Management Committee on 3 September, despite a formal objection from Kemsing Parish Council.

Applications aren't normally decided by elected members at all - most are approved or refused by planning officers under delegated powers. This one was different only because of who applied: council procedure requires any application where the applicant is a sitting councillor to be referred to the full Development Management Committee rather than decided by officers alone. That's a standard transparency safeguard, not a comment on this particular application - but it's why councillors ended up voting on a fellow member's own scheme rather than officers deciding it quietly.

This is "permission in principle" only - it confirms the site is suitable for housing in general terms (location, land use, and a range of one to seven homes) without yet approving any actual design, layout or access. A further "technical details" application, covering what the buildings would actually look like, will need to come before any building can start. The site itself sits wholly within the Metropolitan Green Belt, next to the M26, and has a high-pressure gas pipeline running through its centre - gas network operator SGN initially objected on safety grounds before withdrawing its objection once the applicant agreed to cap the scheme at seven homes.

Kemsing Parish Council formally objected, pointing to a 2009 refusal of a smaller two-home scheme on the same land on Green Belt grounds, and arguing the new proposal for up to seven homes would harm the openness of the Green Belt in the same way. The parish council also flagged what it said were two factual errors in the council's own assessment report: one comparing the site to a 27-home scheme elsewhere in the district that the parish council says was actually refused, not approved as the report stated; and another wrongly describing a local wood as being located in Kemsing when it isn't.

Council officers recommended approval under a national planning policy that didn't exist when the 2009 application was refused: "Grey Belt", introduced in a revised National Planning Policy Framework in August 2026. It reclassifies some lower-value Green Belt land - land that doesn't strongly serve the traditional purposes of stopping urban sprawl or towns merging into each other - as available for development where there's an evidenced housing need, which officers say Sevenoaks clearly has. Notably, the government's own Connectivity Tool scored the site just 45 out of 100 - officers' own report calls this "low" - but concluded the site was still sustainable enough to comply with transport policy given the area's bus service and footpath links into Kemsing and neighbouring Seal.

The committee voted to grant permission in principle with no conditions attached, as the law doesn't allow conditions at this first stage. Whether the full seven homes are eventually built - or a smaller number - will depend on the technical details application still to come. Sources: Sevenoaks District Council committee minutes, planning application 26/01327/PIP