Pedham Place, Swanley

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Gladman Developments and Ramac Group are jointly promoting the development opportunity at Pedham Place, Swanley.

Gladman Developments Ltd specialise in the promotion of strategic land for residential development and associated community infrastructure and have considerable experience in contributing to the development plan preparation process having made representations on numerous planning documents throughout the UK alongside participating in many Examinations in Public. Gladman was involved throughout the plan preparation process of the previous emerging Local Plan, having previously submitted representations throughout that plan making process.

Ramac Group is a promoter and developer of land and property, with an extensive portfolio of sites across the south east. It has construction capabilities as part of its business, with the preference to invest and build out sites in order to deliver their development potential.   

Pedham Place is a sustainably located 144 hectare site which sits between Swanley and Farningham, ideally placed on the edge of the strategic road network and adjacent to a major rail route with direct links to Bromley South, London Victoria, London Bridge, London Charing, Sevenoaks and Ashford.

The proposed development will comprise of around 2,500 zero-carbon ready homes across a variety of densities over 70 hectares. There will be a mixture of housing typologies providing 40% affordable housing (at least 1,000 affordable homes). The remaining area will deliver green and amenity space. Around 55 Ha of green space shall be provided, with a significant natural woodland buffer to the north, east and south boundaries.

The proposed site shall include a local centre (including health facilities and a shop), electric transport hub, major employment floorspace, two primary schools, a secondary school and leisure facilities.

The vision for Pedham Place will align with existing and emerging local policies, sustainability objectives and Sevenoaks's commitment to become Carbon Neutral by 2030.

Approaches to delivering net zero homes may allow opportunities to support offsetting through developing relationships with existing decarbonisation projects in Sevenoaks. 

Scroll down to understand how the proposals will achieve a zero carbon ready scheme

A complete, compact and connected neighbourhood, where people can meet their everyday needs within a short walk or cycle, the idea of the 20-minute neighbourhood presents multiple benefits including boosting local economies, improving people’s health and wellbeing, increasing social connections in communities, and tackling climate change. (TCPA, 2021)

The strategic location in combination with the size of the site enables a walkable/bikeable neighbourhood with institutional, commercial, and residential uses to meets people’s daily needs at neighbourhood scale, which is not only beneficial for the planet but people's health.

Development at Pedham Place could support ‘Smart Neighbourhood’ initiatives such as Sevenoaks District Council’s ‘ Smart Bin ’ pilot which employs wood cladded bins with sensors that alert the Council to when they need clearing. This will result in a more efficient and reactive waste services, reduce litter across the district and also contribute to zero carbon strategies.  

Additionally, Pedham Place will offer digital solutions to public transport and travel options providing on demand use of hire vehicles, site, e-scooters, e-bikes and pedal cycles, together with other new modes which develop over time. The Park and Share facility will offer users opportunity to share their car journey with other motorists via a web portal or app.

Education

The proposed scheme will deliver 2x 2FE Primary Schools, a 6FE Secondary School (including Sixth Form) and a Special Educational Needs School. The schools will be sized as per the latest Kent ‘Education Commissions Plan’ (2019-2023).

This provision equates to 840 Primary School student places and 1,170 Secondary School student places being created by development at Pedham Place.

Against the need generated from solely Pedham Place, there is an over-provision in terms of education facilities. However, when you take in to account other committed developments it's correctly sized to meet both its own demands as well as educational demands in the local area.

Pedham Place is a strategic solution to meet wider housing needs but also educational needs in the local area. Indeed,  Kent County Council's representation  to the previous emerging local plan confirmed that there was insufficient primary and secondary capacity in the local area and without the delivery of Pedham Place, demand from existing commitments would not be able to be accommodated locally as there is no scope to upgrade existing schools.

If Pedham Place is not progressed, the demand generated from new development in the northern half of the district (2.5FE) could not be accommodated locally. A second challenge is that there is no scope for enlargements in any nearby secondary schools. Without seeking to prejudice or influence any SDC decision, the obvious solution would be to build a new secondary school on the Pedham site...

...The education provision that this site [Pedham Place] could deliver could benefit primary school provision in the Swanley & Hextable area and secondary school provision across North Sevenoaks.

The following interactive map highlights the current education provision in the local area surrounding Pedham Place, highlighting the location of primary and secondary provision including student capacity.

Clicking the pins will highlight school capacity information

Health

It is projected that development at Pedham Place will generate a need for around 4 GPs and 3-4 Dentists. Further development in the local area will likely generate a need for 2 GPs and 1-2 Dentists irrespective of Pedham Place's delivery.

In the local area, our assessments show that most GPs are oversubscribed, having significantly more than 1,800 patients per GP. The following interactive map highlights GPs in the area surrounding Pedham Place and their patient capacities.

Clicking the pins will highlight GP information

Pedham Place will deliver a health hub or GP surgery in its Local Centre which will provide for the needs of the local community but also to act as a place-making tool to increase activity in the centre.

The health hub can be sized to meet the needs of Pedham Place alone or to also help meet wider local health needs

Employment

The former emerging Sevenoaks Local Plan identified a need for 11.6 hectares (ha) of employment land to meet needs to 2035 and it was also noted that the Council has asked neighbouring LPAs to see if they could help meet the district's employment needs. There is a clear need for more employment land in the district.

Pedham Place is strategically located at the junction of the M25 and M20 motorways close to London, a strategic link to the Dover crossing and with links to strategic rail services. The development will deliver major employment space to provide jobs for the new and existing local community through employment land including research / development, light industrial and logistics.

Taking account of other uses proposed at Pedham Place, including retail, health and schools, the community could support 1,622 jobs with an annual economic output of £116 million GVA.

By 2035 Pedham Place will provide 1 job for every 0.42 economically active resident, while also being strategically located to accommodate residents commuting for work to other nearby locations including Swanley or further afield to London.

Key to the successful delivery of Pedham Place is to ensure a complementary relationship with Swanley.

Lichfields have conducted a Settlement Study for Pedham Place, auditing current community infrastructure facilities in the local area before analysing how Pedham Place will fit in with the wider settlement hierarchy and its relationship with Swanley and other nearby settlements.

Uses and Community Infrastructure provision at Pedham Place are not sized to a point where it would undermine or preclude Swanley's primacy. Most uses will either meet the new settlements own needs, provide wider District level benefit or will be sized to ensure no negative impact to Swanley.

The development will also provide contributions to improve Swanley, including contributions towards sustainable transport linkages and additional cycle parking at the railway station.

The two settlements will be physically separated by the M25. While new pedestrian and bus links will be provided and there will be some cross-utilisation of facilities, we expect that Pedham Place will also have a greater symbiotic relationship with nearby Eynsford and Farningham. These villages will benefit from improved local infrastructure and new sustainable travel options within Pedham Place.

Pedham Place would sit as a new large village within an existing settlement hierarchy and network of centres. It would clearly have an important relationship with Swanley, but at less than half the size, it would not have a range of facilities that would detract from Swanley's continued role as an important town and would instead support the regeneration of the settlement.

Mott Macdonald have undertaken a comprehensive transport modelling and assessment process over the last three years to identify an appropriate package of infrastructure, measures and initiatives to support sustainable transport and movement at Pedham Place.

The assessments demonstrate that there are no significant technical or policy related constraints that would prevent the site from coming forward for development, subject to high quality design, sensitive planning and appropriate phasing and mitigation. 

Agreements on key elements of the assessment have been reached over this period through a process of regular consultation with Kent County Council and National Highways (formerly Highways England) and this consultation will continue in step with the planning process as further detail is developed.

It has been demonstrated that if Highways England’s M25 Junction 3 scheme was delivered, additional capacity could be released from the corridor through improvements to the B2173 and A20.

Development Thresholds

VISSIM Model Testing has been undertaken to test the impact of the agreed validated capacity model position and test future baseline scenarios including committed development. The scenarios have applied demand changes to represent early delivery of sustainable transport packages at Pedham Place, in advance of M25 Junction 3 improvements.

Following improvements to the B258/B2173 junction, it is demonstrable that the existing network can accommodate up to 1,500 homes plus supporting uses at Pedham Place ahead of improvements to the M25 Junction 3. National Highways intend to improve the M25 Junction 3 in the coming years and we have a greed a number of additional elements to that scheme in order to be able to better accommodate our proposals for Pedham Place.

National Highways have confirmed that the published improvement scheme for Junction 3 is now planned for delivery in the next RIS period (ie post 2026) and assessments demonstrate that this scheme provides sufficient headroom to accommodate additional traffic from development at Pedham Place, subject to two minor modifications which would be incorporated as the design is developed and any additional works funded by development.

It is proposed the scheme would improve both pedestrian and cycling facilities along the route to Swanley town centre and railway station. In addition, a proposal to support Pedham Place includes widening the southern footway of the A20 into a shared footway for pedestrians and cyclists along its length from London Road to the east and the M25 junction, together with the section to the west improving the footway / crossing facilities along the B2173.

Transport Improvement Package

Scroll downwards to explore the range of transport improvement packages proposed

Pedham Place provides a significant opportunity to locate development where travel can be planned and managed to a greater extent than other locations. The A20 / B2173 corridor provides a key link to Swanley railway station, where passengers can access services to London via the Oyster Card network and is a strong connection to Swanley town centre and the various facilities available. 

The Travel and Bus Hub’s at Pedham Place, together with the Community Park and Share facility off the A20, provide important opportunities to beneficially change the way that the corridor toward Swanley is used and in the future can be shaped to be more attractive to pedestrian and cyclist and improve bus journey times through the better traffic management.

Infrastructure improvements delivered to support new housing at Pedham Place also provide enhancement to the travel opportunities and alternatives to the existing communities along the A20 / B2173 corridor, addressing existing highways safety issues, extended journey times during peak periods and providing new travel options to everyone who visits the development.

The Green Belt within Sevenoaks District (SDC) was first designated within the 1958 Kent Development Plan and County Map, which defined the Green Belt settlement boundaries for Sevenoaks, Swanley and Hextable. Minor amendments to the boundaries of Swanley were made in 1967 and in 1978.

Currently, 93% of Sevenoaks District is designated as Green Belt, which is the fourth highest proportion of Green Belt in the country. In the withdrawn Local Plan there was an insufficient supply of land to meet the identified housing need of the district and it was considered strategic exceptional circumstances existed to warrant the need to alter Green Belt boundaries to facilitate housing delivery.

As part of the evidence base for the withdrawn Local Plan, the Sevenoaks Green Belt Assessment was undertaken in January 2017. The assessment examined the performance of all Green Belt land within the District against the Green Belt purposes set out within national planning policy. The assessment resulted in the alteration of Green Belt boundaries to enable the delivery of sites.

Policy ST1 ‘A Balanced Strategy for Growth in a Constrained District’ of the withdrawn Local Plan states:

“We will encourage the re-use of previously developed 'brownfield' land including land in the Green Belt, where it is situated in sustainable locations. We will promote sustainable patterns of development by permitting development in the Green Belt only in 'exceptional circumstances'.

Where development will result in a significant improvement in the sustainability of settlements through the provision of social and community infrastructure, in areas currently lacking such facilities, we will alter Green Belt boundaries to enable sites to be removed from the Green Belt and to be allocated for development.”

Land at Pedham Place (ST2-28) was identified as a Broad Location for Growth within the draft Local Plan, which states that the “Site has the potential to deliver a comprehensive infrastructure offer that could assist in the regeneration of Swanley”.

However, the Plan went on to state that “Whilst the proposals have the potential to perform well against sustainability objectives, further information is required”. This includes consideration of the site’s location within strongly performing Green Belt, as identified within the 2017 Green Belt Assessment.

In this assessment the site is located at the northern end of Parcel 77. Parcel 77 is a large parcel, extending approximately 8.5km from the south-eastern edge of Swanley to Otford. It was identified that it performed strongly against the Green Belt overall primarily due to performances against Purposes 1, 2 and 3 of the Green Belt.

It is considered that the results of the 2017 assessment are generally appropriate for Parcel 77, however this is due to its large size and the character of the southern and central areas. A large proportion of the assessed parcel comprises of rural countryside, separate from existing settlements and therefore the level of assessment is justified.

It is unclear why Parcel 77 was not broken down into smaller sub areas particularly due to the difference in land uses on the site and remainder of parcel 77, the need for development land on the edge of Swanley and the NPPF requiring any changes to the Green Belt to be fully justified and all reasonable alternatives considered.

It is considered that the site could have been considered for further assessment under the following criterion:

“Medium or strongly scoring Parcels where there is clear scope for sub-division to identify weakly performing sub-areas, including the presence of boundary features which have the potential to be permanent and readily recognisable”.

In this regard, Wardell Armstrong have sub-divided Parcel 77 and identified Parcel 77a for assessment based upon the boundary features of the M25, A20, tree belt and steep topography which are permanent and readily recognisable.

In accordance with the 2017 assessment methodology Parcel 77a performs moderately against purposes 1 and 2, and weakly against purposes 3 and 4.

A summary of the assessments for Parcel 77 and 77a are highlighted below:

Scroll down slowly to compare the assessments for each parcel

It is concluded that Parcel 77a, Pedham Place, performs weakly against the NPPF Green Belt purposes overall.

In consideration of the requirement to release the land in order to meet the housing requirements for the Plan period; and the requirement of the NPPF for authorities to be able to demonstrate that Green Belt boundaries will not need to be altered at the end of the plan period, the Site should be released from the Green Belt within the current emerging Plan.

It is made clear within the former emerging Local Plan evidence base that there is a need for regeneration within Swanley, which must be supported by planned growth of the town. Currently the regeneration of Swanley town centre is severely restricted by the Green Belt, as the boundaries are drawn tightly around the built-up area forming a restrictive envelope.

Housing delivery in Sevenoaks has, in the recent past, been subject to significant constraint. The Core Strategy implements a housing requirement of just 165 dwellings per annum (dpa). Assessed local housing needs are now 4 times greater than this. A significant stepped change in delivery is therefore required by the Council through the emerging Local Plan, and Pedham Place should form a core part of this strategy.

The affordable housing needs of Sevenoaks are significant. The Sevenoaks District Local Housing Needs Study of 2017 reports this need at 604dpa. This need has increased by almost one third compared to the findings of the 2015 SHMA and represents 85% of local housing need.

Pedham Place will contribute 1,000 affordable dwellings.

The site was identified as a Broad Location for Growth within previous draft Local Plan under the reference 'Land at Pedham Place (ST2-28)', providing 2,500 units out of the 13,960 homes required over the plan period (2015-2035) or the equivalent to 17.9% of the overall requirement for Sevenoaks.

In the context of Sevenoaks, finding a location for development which can meet a significant portion of the districts housing needs is very challenging. The previously emerging Local Plan established exceptional circumstances for altering the Green Belt boundaries to provide for what it considered an appropriate housing requirement.

Pedham Place is located in close proximity to Swanley, the M20 and M25 and represents the only suitable option for a development of this size within a constrained district.

The previous emerging Plan stated that the "Site has the potential to deliver a comprehensive infrastructure offer that could assist in the regeneration of Swanley".

The existing proposal site is located within the Kent Downs AONB and is currently an 18 hole championship golf course with 9 hole course and floodlit driving range. The site also includes an additional section of land which is rough grassland used for a Sunday Market. The existing landscape across the site is clearly man made and ecologically poor with little tree cover and managed grassland. The site also contains built infrastructure including the club house and associated commercial and service buildings and three residential dwellings.

Historically the golf course was formed on landfill where levels in the early nineties were elevated by approximately 2m across the site.

The proposal site falls within the Darent Valley and this is the only character area within the AONB that would be directly affected by the proposals at Pedham Place and see physical change as a result of the scheme.

The Darent Valley has characteristics that include: parkland; broadleaved woodland and blocks of once coppiced woodland. Although rural and secluded in places, the area is described as under pressure from transport infrastructure and new development including golf courses.

The proposal site, bordered by the A20, M20 and M25 and crossed by a major pylon line and railway tunnel as well as being covered largely by a links golf course clearly represents a section of the character that includes all of the detracting influences cited. The proposed development site is not typical of the AONB landscape and there is little woodland or tree cover and no ecological protection.

The removal of the golf course landscape and its replacement with a mixed development that delivers substantial economic and community benefits as well as significant biodiversity enhancement and recreational opportunities within a large area of landscape kept open from development and made accessible to the public will bring both beneficial and adverse impacts to the character area. Residential development is typical throughout the area with both Eynsford and Farningham prominent from vantage points as settlements within the Darent Valley.

The scheme will continue to uphold the common aims of the AONB through a careful balance of development and landscape and ecological enhancement and an informed and sensitive approach to design. The proposal will introduce:

• New woodland screening of proposal from the wider AONB to the south;
• Creation of managed views across the AONB from the plateau and towards the city of London from new public open spaces;
• New footpath, bridleway and cycle routes that will connect with the existing network and provide access into the AONB;
• Provide approximately 23 hectares of new woodland planting including areas of orchards and coppice woodland management; and
• Provide approximately 22 hectares of new chalk grassland and species rich grassland habitat.

The proposals would work with the AONB management and local wildlife groups to develop habitats across the site that will be characteristic to the Kent Downs and provide a local response to International issues such as species decline, habitat loss and climate change. This will deliver significant biodiversity benefit.

Our team has undertaken a review of the site opportunities and considerations discussed throughout this StoryMap and have developed an initial Masterplan concept for Pedham Place.

The vision is influenced by the existing hill fort topography around Fort Farningham, seeks to protect and enhance key views over the Darent Valley while developing a sustainable neighbourhood with good connections to Swanley and wider area.

The aim is to create a real place, with mix of uses, a lively high street and a range of local facilities. The aim is also to create a settlement that is zero carbon ready, both in terms of the new housing and the way that its residents get around.

Use the arrows on interactive diagram below to explore the key considerations and opportunities which have helped develop the indicative concept plan.

Gladman Developments and Ramac Group are jointly promoting the development opportunity at Pedham Place, Swanley.

Gladman Developments Ltd specialise in the promotion of strategic land for residential development and associated community infrastructure and have considerable experience in contributing to the development plan preparation process having made representations on numerous planning documents throughout the UK alongside participating in many Examinations in Public.

Ramac Group is a promoter and developer of land and property, with an extensive portfolio of sites across the south east. It has construction capabilities as part of its business, with the preference to invest and build out sites in order to deliver their development potential.