In Sevenoaks, which has among the highest proportion of green belt land in the country, opinions are more mixed than might be expected in the Garden of England. There are, inevitably, some who remain implacably opposed to any development. “I feel quite strongly they shouldn’t build on [it],” says one elderly woman.
“It pains me to see them taking more and more green belt,” agrees Wendy Honeywood, 66, who lives in nearby Tunbridge Wells and worries about plans to build locally “because it’s going to spoil village life”.
How would she feel about grey belt sites being used?
“Perhaps more comfortable,” she concedes.
Richard McLean, 20, who works in a restaurant and lives with his parents, hopes to own his own home one day, but opposes the idea of what he calls “digging up parks”. He says: “It’s good to have all the nice green spaces. Then again, we do need houses somewhere.”
An estimated 340,000 new homes are needed in England each year. Even within green belt areas, there is some appreciation of the scale of the current shortfall.
“People need affordable places to live,” says Angela Woodward, 73, who before retiring worked in planning. “Between the cities there’s a load of [land]. I don’t see what the problem is. People just want their little world to remain the same, and I don’t think we can do that in this day and age.”