Agenda and minutes

There were no substitute Members nominated for this meeting.

Members are reminded of their obligation under the Council’s Code of Conduct to disclose any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Other Significant Interests in any matter(s) to be considered or being considered at the meeting. These are explained in the Code of Conduct on the Council’s website at Code of conduct for members – Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (tmbc.gov.uk).

Members in any doubt about such declarations are advised to contact Legal or Democratic Services in advance of the meeting.

There were no declarations of interest made in accordance with the Code of Conduct.

To confirm as a correct record the Notes of the meeting of the Housing and Planning Scrutiny Select Committee held on 15 July 2025

RESOLVED:  That the notes of the meeting of the Housing and Planning Scrutiny Select Committee held on 15 July 2025 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This report seeks approval of the Tonbridge and Malling Regulation 18 Local Plan document to be published for public consultation. Once agreed, the consultation will run for the statutorily required six-week period, between Monday 10th November and Monday 22nd December 2025.

Local Plan evidence and documentation is available on the website and can be accessed at: https://www.tmbc.gov.uk/localplan-evidence.

Please note that a low-resolution version of the Annexe 1 (Tonbridge and Malling Draft Local Plan) is included in this main agenda and a high-resolution version of the individual Chapters are published as supplements due to the large size of the files.

The report of the Director of Planning, Housing and Environmental Health sought approval of the Tonbridge and Malling Regulation 18 Local Plan document to be published for public consultation. 

If the Local Plan was approved for consultation, then the consultation was proposed to run for six weeks from 10November to 22 December 2025, meeting the statutory duty, allowing local communities and stakeholders to take part in the consultation and share their views on the emerging local plan before finalising the Plan for its last consultation in summer 2026 and before submitting the Local Plan to the Planning Inspectorate for Examination by December 2026.

This was the second Regulation 18 consultation, the first having been held in 2022.  However, since then, a revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) had been published which resulted in a delay to the council’s plan making process so national planning policy changes could be accounted for.  The key implications of these national policy changes included a requirement to meet a much-increased housing need figure as well as a weakening of Greenbelt policy and the introduction of grey belt.  These implications meant that a different approach to meeting the Governments housing target had to be taken than that which was progressing previously under the old NPPF.

In relation to the Local Plan, it looked ahead to 2042 to ensure that the national requirement for a 15-year plan period was met on adoption.  Once adopted, the Local Plan would provide a range of planning policies to help guide development, ensuring that the borough’s needs and priorities were met including the provision of key infrastructure.  The Plan was structured around key themes including climate change, the natural environment, the historic environment, design, housing, the economy, rural development and infrastructure, and officers had met with Members to shape policies in these key areas.  The Plan also put forward draft proposed housing and employment allocations to meet the borough’s needs.

One of the key areas for any Local Plan was the requirement to meet the Government’s assessment of the objectively assessed need for housing and other uses.  The housing need was to deliver 1,097 homes per year.  For an 18-year period from 2024-2042, the minimum housing requirement was to deliver a total of 19,746 homes within the plan period.  Given existing commitments and a windfall allowance, this meant that the Council were required to find land to deliver 12,592 homes.  It had also been advised that a buffer be provided to account for potential non-delivery of developments, however given the constraints in the borough and the lack of suitable sites, this had not been possible at this time.  Further work would be undertaken to address this as the Plan progressed.  Overall, the Plan allocated land to deliver 12,664 homes providing a surplus of only 72 dwellings.  The Council was also required to meet the employment need as well as pitches for the borough’s Gypsy and Traveller communities.  At a minimum, 361,500sqm of employment space and an additional 33 pitches were  ...  view the full minutes text for item HP 25/43

The Work Programme setting out matters to be scrutinised during 2025/26 is attached for information.  Members can suggest future items by liaising with the Chair of the Committee.  

The Work Programme setting out matters to be scrutinised during 2025/26 was attached for information.  Members were invited to suggest future matters for the 2025/26 Programme and the following item was identified:

(1)        Area Planning Committees

A request was made that consideration be given to the agenda setting process for Area Planning Committees and an extension to the current Member Call-in period. The item would be added to the forward plan for consideration at a future meeting.

The Chairman to move that the press and public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting during consideration of any items the publication of which would disclose exempt information.

There were no matters considered in private.