ONH was commissioned by Dunton Green Parish Council to carry out an assessment and advise on how the Parish Council could best use its land assets to deliver ‘community value’.
Dunton Green, located on the northern edge of Sevenoaks, is under pressure to accommodate more housing to meet the demands of an emerging Local Plan, with the potential release of land from the Green Belt to help deliver this. Initial discussions to agree a brief for the study identified the impact of additional housing on the existing infrastructure, functions, and character of the village as key concerns, with previous development having failed to deliver the promised infrastructure.

An analysis of the spatial layout, context, statutory and physical constraints of the parish was our starting point. This included a review of historic mapping to understand how the form and character of the settlement developed over time and how this contributed to the underlying sense of place that forms part of its identity. This was followed by a site visit to gain an ‘on the ground’ feel for the qualities of the place that may not be evident from a desktop analysis.
The Parish Council’s land includes two parcels with the potential to influence the growth of the village and a key question for the Parish Council was how this land could be used to shape the future of the village and deliver new infrastructure.
Using this information, a slide pack was prepared for a workshop with councillors to consider how the village might develop over the next 20 years and what role their land could play in shaping that future.
As well as looking at issues around the use of Green Infrastructure to meet health and recreation needs and the challenges of climate change, the workshop considered how the land could be used to negotiate a more favourable outcome for the village if further development were to occur. It also explored options for engaging in the development process to influence the outcome, rather than relying on reacting to planning applications, where the scope for influencing development is far more limited.
The output from the workshop was a set of options that could be tested with the community through an informal engagement exercise to assess community buy-in, enabling the Council to agree on a vision for the village and a strategy for taking that vision forward.
The approach taken in Dunton Green is one of land asset management: considering how land that the parish already owns, or might in the future, could influence the development of the area in order to maximise community value. Contact us to find out more!
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