Sevenoaks Town Council aims to protect Hollybush Recreation Ground

Published: 13 May 2025

In an effort to protect Hollybush Recreation Ground from any future development pressure or loss of community access, Sevenoaks Town Council has decided that it will nominate the area as an ‘Asset of Community Value’, for consideration by Sevenoaks District Council.

The Town Council’s Planning & Environment Committee agreed that the nomination should also include the informal recreation field within the site, as well as the two steeper fields to the south of the Recreation Ground, which are often used for walking and community access to Knole Park.

Sevenoaks Town Council is eager to retain opportunities for free outside recreation and keep these areas available for the community to use.

Speaking about why this nomination was so important, the Mayor of Sevenoaks, Councillor Tony Clayton, said, “Hollybush Recreation Ground is a valuable green space, much used by the community all around the Hollybush, Hartslands and Seal Hollow Road areas. It provides a large expanse of grassed play space, as well as the very popular children’s play area next to the Lodge Café. It also houses Hollybush Indoor and Outdoor Bowls Clubs, which are important local amenities in their own right, and the all-weather pitch leased to Sevenoaks Hockey Club. The local residents association, Hollybush Residents Association, has made a number of proposals to improve the Recreation Ground.”

Councillor Clayton also noted, “Its location is important – acting as a ‘green lung’, bringing the green belt and the National Landscape Area of Knole Park into the built-up area of Sevenoaks. Together with the two fields leading down to Seal Hollow Road, acquired from Kent County Council in the 1990s and added to the Recreation Ground, the whole area is an important visual and walking link to the park and farmland east of Sevenoaks.”

The site was given to Sevenoaks School in the 1500s as an endowment “the School lands”, and was in use as a cricket field in the late 19th century. In 1910, Sevenoaks Urban District Council bought it, with half the purchase price paid by local councillor Francis Swanzy. Sevenoaks Urban District Council built what is now the Lodge Café, early tennis courts and the outdoor bowls centre. In 1974, the Recreation Ground passed to Sevenoaks District Council, which later invested in the all-weather pitch, the indoor bowls centre and car parks.

Sevenoaks Town Council has successfully nominated a number of sites within the last few years as Assets of Community Value, with some of the most prominent sites including Bradbourne Lakes, the Stag Theatre, and Longspring Woods – the latter of which was later acquired by the Town Council via the Community Right to Bid scheme.

The Right to Bid is a national process whereby local land and buildings may be nominated by community groups and town/parish councils to the local authority – in this case, Sevenoaks District Council – as Assets of Community Value. Then registered assets are required a short moratorium period before they may be put on the open market, during which local groups or town/parish councils can place a bid and raise funds to acquire the community asset. Although not obligating the owners to sell to a community group, this process can assist in securing an asset for continued community use.

The application for Hollybush Recreation Ground and surrounding fields will be submitted to the District Council with the hope that Officers will concur with the Town Council’s argument that the proposed asset furthers the local community’s social wellbeing, cultural, recreational and sporting interests.