Land North Of Furnace House Farm Roodlands Lane Four Elms Kent TN8 6PE Data via plota.co.uk

25/03592/LDCEX - Lawful Development Certificate Existing Approved

Proposal

Confirmation of lawful commencement of planning permission Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
24 Dec 2025
✓
Approved
3 Feb 2026

Approved on 3 Feb 2026 · Delegated Decision · Last checked 3 Oct 2026

Associated applications 2

  • Part of

    Fullcouncil archive
    • LawfulnessConfirmation of lawful commencementThis application25/03592/LDCEX

Site constraints 4

Grade II listed: Furnace House
List entry 1273466 · 2 m away
Listed building consent is needed for work that affects the special interest of a listed building, inside or out, on top of planning permission. Setting can be a consideration for buildings nearby; there is no fixed radius.
Historic England ↗
Green belt: London
Inappropriate development needs very special circumstances.
Green belt policy allows a short list of exceptions, such as limited extensions and replacement buildings. Anything else needs very special circumstances that clearly outweigh the harm. Some green belt land can count as grey belt, where it does not strongly serve the green belt's purposes. The council decides this in its green belt assessment or on each application, so we do not mark it here.
Read the government guidance ↗
Agricultural land, grade 3b
Not best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. Natural England's Provisional ALC map (1:250,000, 1970s) agrees.
Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.
Habitat network: Network Enhancement Zone 2
Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 6 October 2026. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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Important details

Council
Sevenoaks
Application type
Lawful Development Certificate Existing
Postcode
TN8 6PE
Received
24 Dec 2025
Validated
24 Dec 2025
Ward
Cowden & Hever
Parish
Hever
Target decision
18 Feb 2026
Decision
Granted
Decision date
3 Feb 2026
Decision level
Delegated Decision
Applicant
Show
Agent
Squires Planning

How this decision compares

Decided in 41 days from validation, 11 days faster than Sevenoaks's median of 52 for lawful development certificates. Approved, as 73% of lawful development certificates here are.

93%decided within 8 weeks
73%approved
135decided in the last year

Plota live figures for lawful development certificates decided by Sevenoaks in the last twelve months, from validation. Sevenoaks decision record →

Consultation & key dates

Planning Portal ref
PP-14578141
Statutory expiry
18 Feb 2026
Env. assessment
No
Sevenoaks
Planning Authority Score
5.6/10
Average
#115 of 296 councils
Relevant to this application:
Householder decisions

Sevenoaks ranks #109 out of 296 councils for householder decision speed. Householder applications are slightly more likely to be approved here (90%) than the national average (90%).

These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance
Sevenoaks decision statistics
Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026
87%
Overall approval rate
Above avg (87%) #177 of 296
90%
Householder approved
Above avg (90%) #194 of 296
72%
Decided in 8 weeks
Above avg (63%) #109 of 296
34%
Extended time limit
Below avg (41%) #93 of 296
85%
Minor dwellings approved
213 decided (1-9 homes)
100%
Major dwellings approved
7 decided (10+ homes)
71%
Change of use approved
14 decided
1,130
Total decisions
143 refused in the year to March 2026