Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council Local Plan Paragraph 116 Topic

Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council Local Plan Paragraph 116 Topic Paper

1. Purpose

1.1. The purpose of this topic paper is to set out the exceptional circumstances for the inclusion of major development within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) as part of the Strategic Site at Borough Green Gardens (Policy LP29) in accordance with paragraph 116 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2012) (NPPF).

1.2. Paragraph 116 states that: “Planning permission should be refused for major developments in these designated areas except in exceptional circumstances and where it can be demonstrated they are in the public interest. Consideration of such applications should include an assessment of;

• the need for the development, including in terms of any national considerations, and the impact of permitting it, or refusing it, upon the local economy;

• the cost, and scope for, developing elsewhere outside the designated area, or meeting the need for it in some other way; and

• any detrimental effect on the environment, the landscape and recreational opportunities, and the extent to which that could be moderated.”

1.3. A small part of the route of the proposed relief road enabled by the development of the strategic site is located within the AONB. Any proposals for development above and beyond the necessary transport infrastructure in the AONB, including residential and/or commercial development would need to be justified in terms of national policy and Local Plan policies LP12 and LP29(6).

2. The need for the development, including in terms of any national considerations, and the impact of permitting it, or refusing it, upon the local economy

2.1. The need for a relief road or Bypass for Borough Green to address issues arising from through traffic using the A25 and A227 has been established for

at least 40 years and every iteration of the proposed route throughout that time has been through the AONB. The Kent Downs AONB has been designated for 50 years. The Borough Green and Platt District Plan Main Issues and Choices report of September 1979 noted that there had been a long standing proposal for a bypass to the west of Borough Green, which would divert through traffic out of the town centre and that the District Council would continue to press the Highway Authority (Kent County Council) to deliver the bypass and would safeguard the route in the District Plan.

2.2. The route of a bypass was subsequently shown and safeguarded in the Borough Green and Platt District Plan of 1985. The supporting text noted that the Highway Authority considered the scheme to be of insufficient priority compared with other county road schemes to be included in the current road building programme and therefore the plan concluded that it was not likely to be built within the plan period. However, as an approved county council scheme the line of the bypass was safeguarded by Policy 4.1 in the District Plan, which stated that no development will be permitted, which might prejudice the ultimate construction of the Borough Green Bypass on the alignment shown on the Proposals Map (See below).

Extract: Borough Green and Platt District Plan (1985)

2.3. Kent County Council granted planning permission for a ‘Borough Green Bypass from the A25 at Dark Hill roundabout to a new roundabout at A227 Borough Green Road by Wrotham School’ in November 1991 (Application number TM/91/636). The application was for a 7.3m wide single carriageway road 1.75km in length to be known as the Borough Green Bypass. The route was similar to that safeguarded in the Borough Green and Platt District Plan.

2.4. The County Planning Officer’s report to the Planning Sub Committee on 15th October 1991 noted that ”The community of Borough Green suffers at the moment form the severance effect of the main traffic routes passing through the village. The bypass will substantially reduce traffic flows through the village particularly of heavy goods vehicles thus reducing pedestrian and traffic conflict and related problems of noise and dust pollution”.

2.5. The report acknowledged that ‘The route passes through the edges of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and through the North Downs Special Landscape Area. This area is also designated Metropolitan Green Belt. Parts of the route are however in a cutting and substantial areas have been reserved for landscaping purposes. The scheme will not affect the wider landscape function of the area. While some trees and hedgerows will be lost, the landscape strategy will provide ample opportunity to introduce a more robust vegetation which will be of more benefit in the longer term’.

2.6. The County Planning Officer’s report concluded that ‘This scheme will only have a minor impact on the local environment and provides ample scope for making a positive contribution to the wildlife and landscape character of the area. In view of the considerable benefits to the community as a whole I fully support the scheme from a strategic planning and environment point of view’.

2.7. The Bypass later appeared in the Kent Structure Plan of 1996 and the Tonbridge and Malling Borough Local Plan of 1998, which effectively brought forward the safeguarding policy from the Borough Green and Platt District Plan of 1985 in the form of Policy 7/7 (see extract below).

Extract: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Local Plan (1998)

2.8. The bypass was carried forward into the Tonbridge and Malling Local Development Framework as a safeguarded policy. Policy S1 of the Development Land Allocations Development Plan Document (2008) ‘Safeguarding Public Utilities and Infrastructure’ includes under a list of transport schemes the ‘A227 (A25) Borough Green and Platt Bypass – new road’. Once again this was also shown on the Proposal Map (see below).

Extract: Tonbridge and Malling Local Development Framework Proposals Map.

2.9. The 1991 planning permission has lapsed, but the need for the bypass has been established for at least 4 decades and the indicative route of a new road between the A25 at Dark Hill roundabout to the west of Borough Green and the A227 to the north of the village through the Kent Downs AONB has been agreed in principle. The scheme has not been implemented to date due to a lack of funding.

2.10. A planning application for a new block making factory by H+H Celcon submitted in 2003, included a proposal to construct and fund the bypass, estimated to be in the region of £3m at that time. However, the application was later withdrawn following a public inquiry, during which it was confirmed that the 1991 planning permission for the bypass had in fact expired.

2.11. In 2007 Kent County Council acknowledged that although the 1991 permission had lapsed that the arguments for the bypass remained and that a new planning application would be made within two years. However, primarily due to a lack of identified funding, to date no applications have been made. The scheme was carried forward into the 2006 Kent and Medway Structure

Plan, but this indicated that the bypass would need to be either partially or fully funded by development in order to be delivered.

2.12. The inclusion of the Borough Green Gardens strategic site in the Tonbridge and Malling Local Plan delivers a significant contribution towards meeting identified housing and employment needs while enabling the delivery of a new relief road that will not only realise long standing objective of a new road from the Dark Hill roundabout to the A227, but extend the route east of the A227 to the A20 at Wrotham Heath.

2.13. The strategic site at Borough Green is of sufficient scale to deliver the relief road, but it also contributes a significant proportion of the objectively assessed housing need identified in the Local Plan, particularly in respect of the need arising in the West Kent Housing Market Area. The need for new housing is an important national planning objective and the importance of delivering sustainable growth, with accompanying employment opportunities and infrastructure is enshrined in national planning policy.

2.14. The site is projected to deliver 1,720 new homes during the plan period and up to 3,000 by the time the whole site is made available for development. As well as the employment opportunities offered by the construction phase, there will also be permanent, local employment opportunities created. Existing businesses and services will also be supported by the new residents occupying the housing.

2.15. In addition to the delivering the relief road, the development will also provide new local infrastructure in the form of health care facilities, school places, public open space and community and recreational facilities. Without the relief road none of these benefits would be delivered.

2.16. The issues that supported the need for the relief road or bypass in 1979 are still relevant today and there is evidence to suggest that the negative impacts associated with through traffic have been exacerbated over the last 40 years. This is due to background growth in traffic and increasing car ownership over recent decades. With a particular local constraint being the lack of east facing slip roads at Junction 5 of the M25.

2.17. In 2013 Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council designated a new Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) in Borough Green, including part of Sevenoaks Road (A25), Western Road and the High Street. Based on a 2012 dispersion modelling study of road traffic emissions in Borough Green, the study found that there were exceedances of the nitrogen dioxide annual mean objective occurring at locations with relevant human exposure. The main cause of this is from car emissions where traffic is known to become congested. See Map at Appendix 1.

2.18. According to the Council’s Environmental Health Annual Status Report (2018) the levels of NO2 in Borough Green are still exceeding the required maximum level of 40 µ/m3 at 43 µ/m3. The Local Plan Transport Assessment (Mott MacDonald May 2018) modelled the ratio of flow to capacity for two junctions

within the AQMA for the morning and afternoon peak in 2017 and 2031 (with and without the development at Borough Green Gardens). The results show a significant improvement at the two junctions as a result of the introduction of the relief road, even when the additional movements arising from the new development are factored in. The extracts in Table 1 and Appendix 2 are taken from the Transport Assessment and illustrate these improvements. It is anticipated that this will have a beneficial impact on NO2 levels and air quality generally within the AQMA.

2.19. Table 1: Extract from Tonbridge and Malling Local Plan Transport Assessment (Mott MacDonald May 2018)

2.20. Table 1 illustrates the improvement in the ratio of flow to capacity at the two junctions within the AQMA. A desirable ratio of flow to capacity to maintain performance of a junction is 85% or less. So for example in the case of junction 29, which is showing 78% in the 2017 pm peak, rising to 80% in 2031 without the development indicates that the junction is close to capacity. However, the same junction in 2031 with the development and the relief road results in a much lower 16%. The traffic flows for each junction and scenario showing the actual traffic flows can be found in Appendix 2.

2.21. In terms of road safety, traffic speeds through Borough Green have long been regarded by local residents and Kent Police as being too high and consistently above the speed limits giving rise to safety concerns. In 2014 Kent County Council jointly commissioned with Borough Green Parish Council, a route study of the A25 and A227 through Borough Green to investigate options for traffic management measures aimed primarily at speed reduction.

2.22. The study found that 65% of drivers were exceeding the 30mph speed limit. Nationally the average is 46% so the A25 through Borough Green is characterised by a higher proportion of drivers exceeding the speed limit. This reflects the strategic importance of the A25 and an inter-urban route, where a significant proportion of the through traffic is unable to access alternative routes. The study also found that the number of speeding tickets being issued as a result of the speed camera on the A227 installed in March 2004 is increasing.

2.23. More generally, the Local Plan evidence base looking at transport issues and more specifically future traffic flows over the plan period concludes that a ‘do

minimum’ scenario (i.e. with no Local Plan development factored in) would still lead to significant increases in the volume of traffic using local roads within the borough.

2.24. The impact of this allocation with a small section of the relief road within the AONB would result in relatively small harm on the AONB while delivering significant benefits for the local economy and community, including improvements to air quality and road safety. Not permitting the relief road would preclude the delivery of the Borough Green Gardens strategic site of up to 3,000 new homes, 500 jobs and associated infrastructure, which is the enabling development required to fund the scheme. In summary the public interest and benefits are clear.

3. The cost and scope for developing elsewhere outside the designated area, or meeting the need for it in some other way.

3.1. The Cost and Scope for Developing Elsewhere Outside the Designated Area

As noted above the route of the western end of the relief road has long been established, and it is reasonable to assume that alternative alignments would have been considered previously. To deliver the same benefits by rerouting through traffic travelling west-east along the A25 away from Borough Green itself, would require relocating the current entry point at Dark Hill roundabout either further west, deeper into the AONB designation or to the east, which would require land acquisitions and demolition of existing buildings as well as bringing the relief road closer to the settlement it is intended to bypass.

3.2. The former option would have a greater impact on a larger area of the AONB and result in a longer road with the inherent cost implications. The latter, would avoid the AONB, but would have a considerably higher cost and potentially diminish some of the benefits it was seeking to deliver by bringing diverted traffic closer to existing buildings. Both alternative options would require a new bridge or crossing of the main railway line, which would be considerably more expensive than utilising the existing railway bridge at the Dark Hill roundabout built in anticipation of the construction of the Borough Green and Platt Bypass.

3.3. The impact of the safeguarded alignment of the Borough Green and Platt bypass on the AONB, was addressed as part of the 1991 planning application and considered to be acceptable. There is some scope for realigning the route of the western end of the new relief road further to the east so that the impact on the AONB can be further reduced.

Extract: Tonbridge and Malling Local Plan for Submission (Sept 2018)

3.4. Meeting the Need in Some Other Way

The construction of east facing slip roads at Junction 5 on the M25, has the potential to deliver an alternative means of east-west road connection for West Kent communities, thus helping to address the issues arising as a result of through traffic using the A25 and A227 at Borough Green (including HGV routing).

3.5. The economic case for the slip roads was revisited by the consultants Systra as part of a joint commission by Kent County Council, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and Sevenoaks Town Council in 2016. This work concluded that while there remained an economic case for the slip roads, it was relatively weak and therefore unlikely to be brought forward for funding by the Government in the foreseeable future.

3.6. This was in part due to the lack of future growth opportunities offered by investing in the new slip roads at Junction 5 of the M25, which is located within the Metropolitan Green Belt and AONB within Sevenoaks District. Therefore, this would also have a similar, if not greater impact on the AONB designation than the proposed relief road at Borough Green, without directly supporting the delivery of any new housing, employment or local infrastructure.

3.7. As noted above, the delivery of the relief road at Borough Green will be funded by the strategic site allocation in the Local Plan, which in turn will provide a significant contribution to meeting future housing need, create new employment opportunities and local infrastructure.

3.8. Further information regarding the refresh of the economic case for the east facing slip roads can be found in the M25 M26 Connectivity Study (2016): https://www.tmbc.gov.uk/services/planning-and- development/planning/planning-local-plans/local-plan-evidence

4. Any detrimental effect on the environment, the landscape and recreational opportunities, and the extent to which that could be moderated.

4.1. The Borough Green Gardens Strategic site has been subject to a Landscape and Visual Impact Appraisal, which assesses the impact and mitigation measures that may be necessary.

4.2. The conclusions and recommendations section for the Borough Green Gardens strategic site allocation notes that there would be inevitable direct effects on physical elements of the AONB, as well as on its character and appearance from any proposed development in those parts of the strategic site within the AONB (Para 5.73).

“The Borough Green Gardens strategic site is partly located within the Kent Downs AONB with the remaining parts either adjacent to or within close proximity to the AONB. There would be inevitable direct effects on physical elements of the AONB, as well as on its character and appearance from these changes, in those parts of the strategic site within the AONB, as well as effects on adjoining areas of the AONB brought about by changes to other nearby landscapes that would be seen from within the AONB.”

4.3. Paragraph 5.75 states that;

“Lesser amounts of development and more mitigation would reduce the degree of these effects but inevitably, with the relief road having to be aligned through the AONB, this would cause material harm to the AONB. Some degree of harm may, in the context of Paragraph 116 of the NPPF and ‘major development’, be outweighed by other planning merits, this being a matter for planners and decision-makers. But in a pure landscape context, there may, in any case, be the potential for the landscape enhancements to the restored sandpit to be so significantly beneficial that they would balance, or exceed, the adverse effects of the relief road. The Barton Willmore assessment envisages low density development within the restored sandpit, set in a parkland environment. In the context of Policy LP29 point 6, in the assessor’s judgement, whilst this might be sufficient to protect and enhance the AONB overall, this would be a substantial challenge for the design process and for the case being made for it. The assessor’s landscape preference would be to balance the effects of the relief road with a ’green solution’ of landscape

enhancements only, without development, perhaps in the form of a naturalistic country park or similar.”

4.4. Paragraph 5.78 addresses possible mitigation measures;

“For the Borough Green Gardens strategic site there are a number of strategic landscape opportunities that should be brought forward to comprehensively mitigate the effect of potential development for landscape and visual purposes (refer to Figure 19). These should be developed with reference to the Council’s March 2018 report entitled ‘Green Infrastructure and Ecological Networks”.

4.5. The recommended mitigation measures are as follows;

• “Subject to the consideration of the balance of harms and planning merits of major development within AONBs (NPPF Paragraph 116), ideally the design and assessment process should demonstrate that there would be balance in favour of an overall landscape and visual enhancement of the Ightham Sandpit and Celcon access road areas within the AONB. The relief road proposal, that must come forward, should be mitigated and enhanced, with the assessor’s preference for the use of the remaining land as open space, with a naturalistic style country park or similar, with landscape design, planting and long term landscape management;

• The horizontal and vertical alignment of the relief road should be carefully considered and a comprehensive strategy be developed to ensure that the effects on the AONB and its setting are mitigated. This approach accords with that put forward in the Barton Willmore assessment;

• Provide for further structural landscape planting in the form of dense woodland belts and blocks to mitigate other views from the AONB, including longer views from the elevated foot slopes area of the North Downs; and

• Where possible, carefully consider the potential landscape and visual benefits to the AONB of developing out the various mineral workings at levels, after backfilling, at lower than natural levels. This appraisal has identified that there may be some difference in the effects, although this is has been at a relatively high-level, of developing a Low-level Option for Borough Green Quarry. There is a balance to be struck between backfilling to allow for a successful residential scheme to come forward whilst keeping this area lowered slightly to reduce effects”.

4.6. Paragraph 5.79 concludes that;

“The nature of this strategic site means that there is considerable potential for the development of an overall scheme for the new relief road and the development that would allow this to come forward with those parts of the site within the AONB enhanced and those just outside, mitigated to such a degree, that in the mid to long term, as planting matures, these effects could

reduce to the levels of significance to those below the threshold of concern identified by the assessor. Such an assessment cannot be firm at this time, as such a scheme is not yet developed and its actual effects cannot be assessed, but in the assessor’s opinion the potential exists. Perhaps importantly, this particular moment in time is also opportune, as currently the operational status of two or three of the quarries, if Nepicar Farm is included, is such that their ‘end state’ can be considered in the context of their potential development as a strategic site. This position may not be as flexible in the future.”

4.7. The Landscape and Visual Appraisal concludes therefore that any detrimental impacts on the AONB have the potential to be satisfactorily moderated in terms of paragraph 116 of the NPPF.

5. Concluding Remarks: Justification for the strategic site allocation at Borough Green and the location of built development within the Kent Downs AONB.

5.1. This Topic Paper demonstrates the exceptional circumstances for the location of a relief road through a small part of the Kent Downs AONB as required by paragraph 116 of the NPPF, the need for which has been established in successive development plans for 40 years and has the potential to deliver significant housing, employment and infrastructure. Exceptional circumstances may be made for other forms of major development to be located within the AONB as part of a future planning application, but only if they satisfy the requirements of the NPPF and Local Plan Policies LP 12 and 29.

5.2. Policy LP29 criterion 6 states that; “Within the Masterplan area residential and/or commercial development within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) will only be permitted where it can be demonstrated that it makes a critical contribution to the deliverability of the overall development and where its design, scale, massing and materials are respectful of the local character, qualities and distinctiveness of the Kent Downs AONB. The relief road and development at the northern and western edges of the masterplan area will be required to be sensitively designed taking account of the relationship with the Kent Downs AONB and its setting. A Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment will be required to accompany a planning application for development that addresses the impacts on the Kent Downs AONB and includes appropriate mitigation measures.”

5.3. The policy effectively recognises that subject to demonstrating the exceptional circumstances set out in paragraph 116 of the NPPF, major development can be permitted in the AONB, but this will be for an applicant to demonstrate at the master planning and subsequent planning application stages.

5.4. This is also consistent with Policy LP12 regarding AONBs, which states at criterion 2 that;

“Major development within the AONBs will only be permitted in exceptional circumstances and where it can be demonstrated that it is in the public interest.”

Appendix 1: Borough Green AQMA

Appendix 2: Extracts from the Transport Assessment (May 2018)