The document that explains where housing and infrastructure is to go over the next 15 years was rejected by the government’s Planning Inspector earlier this year.
The inspector found Tonbridge failed to communicate with Sevenoaks District Council over unmet housing needs in the area.
Now a new plan has to be drafted, councillors have been told, at a cost to taxpayers of £750,000 and an increase in housing over the original plan of 21 per cent.
Planning policy manager Ian Bailey told a meeting of the council’s Planning and Transportation Advisory Board that the authority will have to use new government housing figures to produce the plan that will see it build 839 new homes a year rather than 696 as originally proposed.
Landowners will be asked to submit new sites as the authority will have find locations for an extra 2,574 homes on top of those already outlined, bringing the total to be built in the area by 2039 to 15,102.
Cllr Nicolas Heslop, who was Council Leader during the drafting of the Local Plan, said: “I think the government has got what it wanted.
“We had the audacity to get our Local Plan agreed by this council before the 21 per cent uplift in housing targets, but because we weren’t willing to take 600 homes from Sevenoaks our Local Plan has been thrown out and now the national government gets the 21 per cent uplift – that’s 2,574 extra homes – that it wanted.”
None of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s [TWBC] neighbours now have a Local Plan in place.
Wealden District Council also had their document rejected by the Planning Inspector. It has led the authority having to approve developments on Green Belt and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty as it cannot prove it has enough houses being built over the next five years.
Sevenoaks has also had its plan rejected and lost a judicial review over the Planning Inspector’s decision.
Meanwhile, TWBC’s own Local Plan, which has outlined a new Garden Village in the parish of Capel and the expansion of Paddock Wood, is being reviewed by the Planning Inspector.
The plan has caused controversy and led to Town Hall protests (above).
If that plan is rejected, the borough would find itself in a similar situation as Tonbridge and may be left having to build thousands of more houses than it had planned.
