Committee:-

Chairman: Mr Nigel Britten

Description:-

Sevenoaks is a picturesque town on the slopes of the Greensand Ridge, overlooking the Upper Darent Valley. The River Darent arises near Westerham and flows east before turning north through a gap in the North Downs where it links a series of attractive villages – Otford, Shoreham, Lullingstone, Eynsford and Horton Kirby. The south of the district extends into the attractive Eden Valley. The whole district is in the Metropolitan Green Belt, and much of it in the Kent Downs AONB, however the attractiveness and tranquillity of the area is threatened by road noise from the M20, M25, M26 and A21 trunk roads and aircraft noise associated with Gatwick.

Hot issues:-

• Due to the very high house prices there is constant pressure to allow building in the Green Belt around Sevenoaks, particularly northwards of the town centre.

• A key dis-function of the motorway network around Kent is the lack of east-facing slips from the M26 onto the A21 southbound. This leads to a lot of traffic, including lorries, travelling along the congested A25 through Borough Green, Seal and Sevenoaks. This is contributing to public pressure for a bypass at Borough Green (see Tonbridge & Malling)