No Development without Infrastructure!
🚨 Pembury Under Threat: Have Your Say Before It’s Too Late
Major housing plans could overwhelm our roads, schools, NHS, and village infrastructure
Pembury is at a critical crossroads. Under the proposed Tunbridge Wells Local Plan, large-scale housing developments are planned for both Pembury and Paddock Wood — and the consequences could be devastating for the daily lives of residents.
🚗 Traffic Crisis on the Horizon
The already-congested Woodsgate Junction and Pembury Road are at risk of becoming completely overwhelmed.
- Planned road improvements will offer just 14% more capacity
- Traffic volume is expected to increase by 254%
This mismatch means long queues, blocked emergency routes, and daily gridlock could become the norm.
🅿️ Parking Problems
- Existing community parking in Pembury may be lost or reduced
- New homes are often allocated just 1 parking space per household
This will result in more cars on narrow village roads, making parking and access more difficult for everyone.
🏥 GPs and Healthcare at Breaking Point
Local GP surgeries are already full, and there are no committed plans to expand healthcare services. Expect:
- Longer waiting times
- More pressure on staff
- Reduced access to care
🎒 School Places in Short Supply
Pembury Primary School and nearby schools are already oversubscribed. Yet no new school is confirmed in Pembury, despite the incoming demand.
🚽 Sewage Infrastructure Can’t Cope
Southern Water has warned that Pembury’s aging sewer system is not fit for major expansion. This could lead to:
- Flooding
- Raw sewage overflows
- Environmental and health risks
📣 What You Can Do Right Now
- 🔗 Visit the Local Plan portal to review proposals
- 📝 Leave a public comment on the TWBC Planning Portal — your feedback matters
- 📧 Email your local councillor and MP
- 🗣️ Attend parish council and public meetings
- 📲 Share this article with neighbours, family and local Facebook groups
🛑 We’re Not Against Homes — We’re Against Unplanned Chaos
The community supports thoughtful growth. But without proper infrastructure, the proposed scale of development could destroy what makes Pembury special.
🔔 Now is the time to act. Once it's built, it's too late to object.
We are not against more houses - we need them, but the right mix is important, as is making them available to locals. Here again boroughs as far away as Croydon will bid for these new homes for their own needs - anecdotally this appears to have happened with some in the new developments in Paddock Wood with unfortunate consequences for local buyers and the wellbeing of that village.
This section of the website will develop quickly, as we answer your questions. We need your help, your ideas and we want to know what is important to you - please contact us via the contact form or directly to info@pemburysociety.org.
Latest Newsletter
Click the image to view and download issue 2 - February 2025. This newsletter covers the parking impact of the Hubbles Farm proposal and the Vistry Bo-Peep application.
Newsletters
The first in a series of Newsletters will have dropped through your letterbox early January and others will follow here or by email to those who want to receive future campaign newsletters - We will not share your email address. Fill in the form below or email us direct at info@savepembury.org
Join The Pembury Society
The Pembury Society has been running for 50 years working to keep the parts of Pembury we love and to improve the village. We actively keep a watch on developments on your behalf. Membership is only £5 per household. You can join the Society here - https://www.pemburysociety.org/resources/Application-for-Pembury-Society-Membership.pdf
What is The Pembury Society doing?
We have presented ideas and suggestions to solve the problems that mass local development will create, as well as proposals to make strategic changes to benefit the entire borough. Specifically we are pushing for the first two applications (PE-2 and PE-3 - BoPeep and Hubble's Farm) to be linked to enable entry & exit along the wider part of the Hastings Road near BoPeep which would also prevent the loss of 80 on-street parking spaces and the imposition of hundreds of metres of double yellow lines around the entrance.
These projects would be transformational whereas at the moment we are spending millions tampering with a bursting pipe called Pembury Road.
The town is a set of spokes without a wheel so that an enormous amount of east-west and north-south crossing traffic transits Pembury Road, St John's Road, Frant Road and Eridge Road, passing through the town centre.
How much has this lack of a ring road cost the area in lost trade as it accommodates heavy traffic which does nothing for the town?
Incredibly the land is still undeveloped and follows existing roads. Smaller towns have ring roads - Uckfield, Tonbridge etc - why are we letting our town and our prosperity slowly die due to want of a railway tunnel and a ring road?
You may ask why we are trying to solve Tunbridge Wells' problems? If solving theirs means they solve ours then we are much more likely to persuade TWBC to act in our interests.
We want to hear your ideas, we need your help & support - together we can make sure these changes work to our benefit.
We held a public meeting on 23rd October which was very well attended. We heard borough and Parish councillors speak with one voice about the problems and threats that these developments will bring. We discovered that time is short - changes due to be introduced in March 2025 by the new government will make development considerably less profitable which may mean we can expect a rush to get all of these sites approved under the existing rules. Effectively if one site passes then the rest will likely pass under the same rules - the single current application could quickly become a flood - we need to act now.
Click the image below to download the slides from the society's presentation from the 23rd October.
Although the consultation on the Tunbridge Wells Development Plan is officially closed, comments you make now will be taken into account - your opinion counts
You can comment online https://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/planning/applications/search or quoting the application numbers via email to planning@tunbridgewells.gov.uk
You can comment online https://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/planning/applications/search or quoting the application numbers via email to planning@tunbridgewells.gov.uk
You can view the documents here - https://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/planning/planning-policy/local-plan and we will be creating a plain language version with the information we think you would like to know.
This page is in its infancy and is developing fast - please check in regularly for changes.
If you are looking for inspiration to make your own contribution click the images below to download a PDF of the responses from The Pembury Society and Pembury Parish Council to the first outline planning application - Hubble's Farm - these should provide the specific points you need.
You can also write direct to Councillor Hugh Patterson - now representing Pembury following boundary changes. Hugh is also Chair of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's Planning Committee and well worth expressing your concerns to. His email address is - Hugh.Patterson@TunbridgeWells.gov.uk
You can also write direct to Councillor Hugh Patterson - now representing Pembury following boundary changes. Hugh is also Chair of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council's Planning Committee and well worth expressing your concerns to. His email address is - Hugh.Patterson@TunbridgeWells.gov.uk
Response from The Pembury Society
Response from Pembury Parish Council
WHAT CAN I DO?
- If you want to add your voice on the developments you can still comment on both the Hubble’s Farm application 24/02085/OUT and the Vistry BoPeep application 24/03141/FULL; https://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/planning/applications/search or direct via email to planning@tunbridgewells.gov.uk and the Tunbridge Wells Local Plan which controls what happens here in Pembury, via email; localplan@tunbridgewells.gov.uk
- You can write to your local councillors both Borough and County - https://tunbridgewells.gov.uk/council/councillors-and-meetings/your-councillors
- Reading the Pembury Society and Pembury Parish Council objections above will give you some food for thought when writing about how these developments will affect you.
When setting out the reasons for your comments;
- Your letter or e-mail should state clearly the points you wish to make about an application.You can support a planning application as well as object to it.
- If you wish to object to a proposal, you should set out the reasons for your objection with with valid Reasons for Comment (see attached document below).
- The most effective objections are those which demonstrate the harm that will be caused.
- Stick to planning matters and don’t refer to non-planning issues as these will undermine your case.
- Set out any conditions which you would like to see imposed should an application be approved. Conditions need to be included in the approval notice for a planning application if they are to be legally binding and this does not weaken any objections you have
- Remember that all comments submitted are open to public view.
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Planning Committee Members - Pembury Councillor Hugh Patterson is Chair
Kent County Council is only involved with local road changes but this is a list of specific Members who may take an interest in how these proposed developments could affect their portfolios
© Copyright - The Pembury Society 2025 - Contact us direct - chairman@pemburysociety.org or via the contact page