Developer wants to build seven homes in leafy upmarket Kent area on site that's currently parking
There are plans to build seven homes on parking spaces in a leafy upmarket street in Tunbridge Wells. An outline application has been submitted to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council for the site in a Conservation Area.
McCaffrey of Warwick Park Developments Ltd is seeking permission to build a three storey block of flats on "car parking spaces between 7 and 13 Warwick Park" and it owns part of the private car park, which is accessed from the street.
The new homes would be six two-bedrooms and one one-bedroom flats, along with seven car parking spaces. The original height of the building has been brought down by 0.6m, following pre-application discussions with council officers.
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The flats would also have balconies. Warwick Park is an attractive, wide residential street, and a highly desirable area, with large detached properties.
At one end, it rises up to meet Forest Road, another affluent area, and at the other end, it joins Nevill Street, where there's the entrance to The Pantiles.
As in many roads in Tunbridge Wells near the town, drivers on the look-out for free parking line both ends of the long street, parking restrictions permitting. Once upon a time, the 15-space private car park was an orchard, said the applicant's paperwork.
The new homes would be zinc-cladded, and the papers say they could have "green roofs". The "tree screening to the road frontage would not be altered and only glimpsed views of the site would be available".
'Tree top level'
Homes in the much higher up Cumberland Walk, another desirable area, look across the site at "tree top level". The design would be "contemporary and offer a net benefit compared with the unattractive car park site and hard surfaces", said the application.
A look at the drawings with the application show the building would be side on to Warwick Park, not along the frontage.
The papers say two trees would have to be felled, but hedgerow would be retained. Planning and development consultants Kember Loudon Williams said this about new homes for Tunbridge Wells.
"Regard should also be had to other material considerations including the need to boost the housing land supply. In addition, the council has recently begun its Local Plan Review, however, the examination is being held in abeyance pending a response to the Inspector’s comments."
'Without delay'
And talking about the December 2024 revision of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), it said: "The NPPF provides a clear indication of the positive approach that is required from decisionmakers towards sustainable development. Development that is sustainable should go ahead, without delay."
"A positive presumption applies in cases where proposals accord with the development plan and/or where Policies are out of date, unless protection of ‘Assets of Particular Importance’ provides a clear reason for refusing the development proposed."
Where can I see this application?
You can visit Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's planning portal here - press the green "search now" button and in the search bar put in this planning reference: 25/00189/OUT