Sevenoaks Cemetery locked in planning dispute

A cemetery is locked in a dispute with a local council and “NIMBYs” over plans for a new road

A cemetery is locked in a dispute with a local council and “NIMBYs” over plans for a new road.

Bluebell Cemetery in Badgers Mount insists it needs the new road on-site to avoid “building site-style deliveries” while mourners are coming in and out.

But planning bosses say the proposal is inappropriate in the green belt.

At the beginning of this year, the cemetery near Sevenoaks and Orpington applied for permission to build a new haul road to transport construction materials.

Originally meant to help with ongoing development work at the rural graveyard, the owners planned to convert it into an exit route for mourners’ vehicles back onto Old London Road.

Jim Godwin, who is the project manager and planning agent for the site, said: “It’s a road that is necessary to execute the remainder of the development work – hard and soft landscaping that needs doing.

“It’s a 28-acre site. It’s kind of like painting the Severn Bridge, it never stops.”

The cemetery, which is in the green belt, opened in June 2019 but has continued to have some ongoing building work.

Mr Godwin continued: “We’ve now got an operational cemetery and crematorium, and having building site-style deliveries in and out the main entrance during the day when we’ve got mourners coming in and out is not a great look.

“Ultimately our goal was to have a one-way system on site so that people can come in one entrance and out an exit.

“We only have four or five services a day. They are well spaced out but we still do get some congestion at the entrance when we have a funeral leaving.”

He explained that a planning consultant told them they could build a haul road without planning permission as construction around the site hadn’t finished.

Then planning enforcement officers turned up to explain permission was needed, so the workers downed tools while the proper paperwork was submitted.

However, Sevenoaks District Council (SDC) then refused the application for the service road, and another one for the same road to be used as an exit road rather than just for construction traffic.

When refusing the first application, planning officers wrote: “The proposal would be inappropriate development in the green belt by definition and harmful to the openness of the green belt.

“The applicant has failed to demonstrate that the development would not cause harm to protected species and that any potential harm could be adequately mitigated or compensated for.

“The applicant has failed to demonstrate that the development would not cause harm to protected species and that any potential harm could be adequately mitigated or compensated for.

“The applicant has also failed to demonstrate that the development would not result in the loss or deterioration of the ancient woodland.”

Badgers Mount Parish Council objected to the application for the exit road, saying members “are worried about the increased traffic on Old London Road and the concerns on road safety of our residents, particularly considering the proximity of the proposed exit road to the bus stop where several children take the school bus”.

A statement continued: “Granting permission for the proposed exit road presents a significant risk of further illegal development, which would inevitably encroach upon green belt land and ancient woodland.”

SDC now faces an appeal against the decision from Mr Godwin to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, looking to have the refusal overturned.

He argues that SDC is “materially wrong” in its refusal because it depends on an outdated council map which shows the road passing through “ancient woodland”.

However, a more up-to-date map from the Forestry Commission shows that it is in fact “ancient semi-natural woodland”, and that the extent of the woods is less than SDC’s maps, as Bluebell’s has a felling licence.

Ron Popely, who helps his wife Jane manage the site, said: “They’ve used an outdated SDC plan of the woodland to say that the road is in the woodland which it clearly is not.

“It just makes no sense at all but we’ve had this from the start from Sevenoaks. It’s been very difficult.”

The application for the cemetery itself first went into the council in 1993 and was refused but was then allowed on an appeal to the Inspectorate.

Mr Popely continued: “We’re doing our very best to create a peaceful and nice place for a cemetery to be, and yet we have this from Sevenoaks planning office.

“It’s very, very frustrating. The appeals are now taking over a year.

“It means that we’re delayed by over a year with all the additional costs and it’s just totally unnecessary, the way I see it.

“It’s a totally reasonable application which is being stonewalled basically because of what they call the NIMBYs, and it’s true.”

The appeal to the Inspectorate is likely to be heard via written representations than at a full hearing.

The inspector will get the final say, and if the council is found to have wrongly refused the bid it could be made to pay Bluebell’s costs.

Sevenoaks council was approached for comment by the Local Democracy Reporting Service