Councillors Refuse Troy Lane Traveller Site, Overturning Officers' Recommendation to Approve

A proposal to turn a field off Troy Lane, Edenbridge, into a three-pitch Traveller caravan site has been refused by Sevenoaks District Council, after councillors on the Development Management Committee voted against their own officers' recommendation to approve it.

The application, reference 25/02693/FUL, sought change of use of land south of Yew Tree Farm - at the junction of Troy Lane and Hilders Lane, west of Edenbridge - to a Traveller caravan site with three pitches, each containing one mobile home and one touring caravan, along with hardstanding, car parking, and new fences and gates. It was first submitted in September 2025 and took until January 2026 to be validated.

Planning officers' report to the committee recommended granting permission, despite 74 objections from residents. Councillors took a different view at the Development Management Committee meeting on 15 October, voting to refuse the application - a notable move, since committees refusing against officer advice happens far less often than the reverse.

The formal decision notice, issued 16 October, gives a single reason for refusal: the site's location makes the development inappropriate in the Green Belt under national planning policy, causing harm to its purposes, with no very special circumstances put forward that clearly outweigh that harm. The council found the scheme conflicted with the National Planning Policy Framework as a whole and with policies LO1 and LO8 of the Sevenoaks Core Strategy.

The applicant has the right to appeal the refusal to the Planning Inspectorate. There's recent history on this exact site: an earlier appeal decision relating to the land is already on file with the council, filed under the application's own documents. No appeal has yet been lodged against this latest refusal.

Source: Sevenoaks District Council, planning application 25/02693/FUL