Social Value Ideas for Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council

Site inspection deferred

The committee agreed to defer the application and carry out a site inspection, with the intention of assessing the site, surrounding properties, and highway constraints before the next meeting. Member…

“I think however well conditioned there is likely to be disturbed by noise and coming and going to the detriment of residential amenities of the existi…”

Refusal on six grounds

Members ultimately resolved to refuse the application on six grounds covering heritage harm, conservation area harm, landscape character harm, unsustainability, badger protection, and residential amen…

“so I'm going to read it out first but you've just for for the aid of members of the public you see the grounds there so uh ground one and these are va…”

Planning speech limit changes

The council agreed to change its constitution to impose limits on public speaking at planning committees, with five speakers in parished areas plus the applicant and parish representative, and six in …

“moving from 4 12 this looks at rules um for public speaking at planning committees. Uh at the minute uh we effectively have uh no uh maximum limit on …”

Planning fee increases for 2025/26

Members approved a package of discretionary planning fee increases, including pre-application, building control, section 106, high hedges and planning performance agreement charges. The report stated …

“Thank you chairman uh this report sets out the discretionary fees across the planning service for 2526 and these would become effective from the 1 of …”

Allocated site confirmed

Members and officers repeatedly treated the land south of Discovery Drive as an allocated housing site in the adopted development plan. The debate centred on whether that allocation should outweigh ob…

“the site is designated allocated site known as F Kings Hill as set out in policy H1 the development land allocations dpd the site description of requi…”

Application refused

After debate, a formal refusal motion was put and carried. The stated reason was that vehicle movements and commercial activity would create a material change in noise and disturbance harmful to neigh…

“I'm going to uh resume and I'd ask just to read out the proposal. Actually, I'm going to read it out. Okay. That what we've come to what we've um put …”

Defer for renegotiation

The committee moved to defer the decision so officers, the local ward members, the applicant and KCC could try to agree an alternative way forward that preserves the trees while resolving the access i…

“I think that's where members probably are heading suggest probably where we go probably a deferment on the basis of to enable further discussions to l…”

Refer traveller site to full council

Three members invoked constitutional procedure to send the Section 73 traveller-site decision directly to full council instead of taking the committee vote. This effectively deferred the decision and …

“Given the fact that whichever way this goes or if it goes uh to a refusal it would go to full counsel anyway. Could I invoke clause 15.24 of the const…”

Hackney carriage policy update

The licensing and appeals committee recommended adoption of a revised hackney carriage and private hire licensing policy for 2023-2028, subject to amendments. The council approved the policy update, w…

“Item 11. um from the licensing and appeals committee of the 17th of June 2026 recommending adoption of the revised hackne carriage and private higher …”

Licensing policy adopted

The council adopted the draft statement of licensing policy for 2025-2030. This is a routine but important policy update affecting licensing decisions, compliance and future contract/service planning …

“The licensing and appeals committee of the 10th of June recommends that the draft statement of licensing policy set out on annex one of page 59 be ado…”

Member development strategy approved

The committee approved a new member development strategy after survey feedback showed strong demand for flexible, short, online and interactive training. The strategy will be monitored annually and br…

“So it does obviously show that there's a a clear desire for lots of flexible ways in which we can deliver various uh learning and development opportun…”

Town Council review budget

The council approved a budget to support the community governance review for creating a town council for Tonbridge. The amount was explicitly described as a maximum rather than a target, indicating co…

“So item 19 is the Tumbridge Town Council community governance review. So it's a report from the chief executive seeking approval of the terms of refer…”