Tunbridge Wells LPA BNG

Tunbridge Wells is a borough in west Kent on the East Sussex border, and nearly 70% of it lies inside the High Weald National Landscape. The spa town of Royal Tunbridge Wells sits on the Weald’s sandstone ridge, where High Rocks, a 3.2-hectare SSSI of Ardingly Sandstone outcrops and open gulls, lies just to the west. To the south-east, Bedgebury Forest covers about 10.5 square kilometres of ancient woodland around the National Pinetum, and Bewl Water, the largest inland water in south-east England, straddles the Kent and East Sussex boundary near Lamberhurst. In the north, around Paddock Wood, the borough drops onto the Weald Clay plain in the upper reaches of the Teise and Beult, a landscape of historic orchards and hop farms.

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Biodiversity Net Gain became a legal requirement for major developments in England on 12 February 2024, and for small sites on 2 April 2024. The council says it has applied BNG principles since 2019, requiring a 10% gain through existing policies and an interim off-site project. The Borough Local Plan was adopted in December 2025, and its Policy EN 9 sets a minimum 10% gain: at examination the council said it had considered 20% but did not have the evidence for it. The council has said it will produce a BNG Supplementary Planning Document once the new Local Plan is adopted, and none has been adopted yet. Its page sets out the order of preference, with on-site habitat first, then registered off-site units, and Natural England statutory credits last. Off-site gains and significant on-site gains must be secured by a legal agreement for 30 years under an approved Habitat Management and Monitoring Plan.

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The council’s pages do not mention a nutrient neutrality catchment for the borough, and Ashdown Forest is its main designated-site constraint. The nearest part of the SAC and SPA is 4.6 kilometres from the borough, and development that adds housing within 7 kilometres of the Forest pays into the SAMM strategy and SANG provision. The council’s modelling found no air-quality mitigation was needed. The Kent and Medway Local Nature Recovery Strategy, launched on 5 December 2025, will guide where off-site gains are directed and where BNG funding goes.