Proposed housing on Poverest Road

The proposed housing is a mix of 2-, 3- and 4-bed affordable homes each with a private garden, including 5 accessible homes. Plans also include resident parking spaces, cycle parking, EV charging points, the creation of public green spaces, and tree retention and biodiversity enhancements. The wider plans will also see enhancements to nearby green spaces such as Tillingbourne Green Playground and Poverest Park playground. Vehicular and pedestrian access to Poverest Primary School is also set to be improved.

Following the welcome feedback provided at earlier engagement sessions last year, a planning application has been submitted for these proposals. The Planning application is available to view online through the Planning portal. The link to the application is here and the reference is 25/05699/FPA.

An information session, with a presentation on the submitted scheme, is taking place at Poverest Primary School. The presentation will include information on how adult education will be delivered across the borough in the future, and how decisions are made about which Bromley residents will be allocated a home within the scheme. The presentation will be held in the hall at the front of the school and accessed via the main entrance on Tillingbourne Green.

• Wednesday 25 March: 6pm to 7pm

The housing would be delivered on the site of the Poverest Adult Education Centre once this centre is no longer used to deliver Adult Education courses.

Yes! From September 2027 courses will be delivered from the Kentwood Adult Education Centre and from new locations in the borough using existing council buildings like libraries and the Children and Family Centres. The Kentwood Adult Education Centre will undergo a major refurbishment, ensuring a welcoming environment for all Learners, including those with SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities).

This new hub-and-spoke model will bring services together in appropriate locations to make more efficient use of council sites, as well as making courses available across a larger number of sites. This follows the success of the Community Resource Centre co-locating with St Paul’s Cray Library following its refurbishment, with the service then shortlisted for Library of the Year .

The details about the specific courses being offered and their location will be determined through stakeholder engagement in 2027 as part of curriculum planning for the 2027/28 year.

There is no planned reduction in the Adult Education service due to the closure of the Poverest Centre. As happens already, the courses that can be offered are reviewed each year and depend on a number of factors including the level of grant funding received, some of which is only announced annually for a single year. For instance, funding from the Greater London Authority is announced each June for the academic year starting in September.

There are no plans to change the current travel assistance arrangement for Learners who receive this.

Bromley, like all local authorities, is continuing to face significant costs related to its statutory duty to house homeless families, driven by the lack of available affordable housing, particularly in London. The council is delivering developments like these across the borough through the ‘Bromley homes for Bromley people’ programme to help to reduce reliance on more expensive, nightly paid accommodation when housing Bromley residents. Therefore, these developments provide homes for Bromley families who need them who are on the housing register, help to save council taxpayers, and also provide additional much-needed affordable housing locally.

Progress is continuing to be made on the council’s wider ‘Bromley homes for Bromley people’ programme where 8 sites for almost 300 new homes have already been agreed, with the most recent development completed in West Wickham, with ongoing developments in Orpington, Bromley and Beckenham.

Subject to Planning, the proposal would see some preparation works happen in Summer 2026, including demolition of the out buildings that are not in use. The main works would then begin shortly after the Centre’s courses move to alternative locations from summer 2027 and are expected to complete in 2029.

The main entry to the homes will be a new vehicular access road from Church Hill Wood. The existing vehicle access on Poverest Road would be retained for school access and pedestrians only. No access is proposed on Tillingbourne Green, however a pedestrian crossing will connect the development to the playground.

Church Hill Wood offers the most practical, safest and least disruptive option for construction vehicle access when compared with Poverest Road and Tillingbourne Green. It is a standard two way road with unrestricted parking on both sides and can be adapted with dropped kerbs and tactile paving to ensure safe pedestrian movement during the works. It has no time based restrictions and would allow construction vehicles to enter and exit consistently throughout the day.

Poverest Road, although two way, presents several constraints that make it less suitable for construction access. It is a busy through route connecting to the A224 and Petts Wood Road, with intermittent yellow lines, informal crossing points and refuge islands, increasing safety risks for pedestrians and road users. In addition, the existing driveway access from Poverest Road is narrow, and the immediate surroundings include residential housing directly to the left and the Poverest Primary School pedestrian pathway to the right, creating a highly constrained and sensitive environment. These conditions would pose significant safety and manoeuvrability challenges for construction vehicles.

Tillingbourne Green is even more restricted. It operates as a school street with a pedestrian and cycle zone Monday to Friday between 8.20am to 8.50am and 2.50pm to 3.20pm, except for permit holders. These weekday access restrictions would prevent reliable construction vehicle entry during key parts of the day, create operational conflicts with school movements, and risk contravening school street regulations. The presence of double yellow lines along the site boundary further limits stopping and manoeuvring capacity.

For these reasons, Church Hill Wood provides the best route for construction vehicles, avoiding school street restrictions, bypassing the narrow and sensitive access on Poverest Road, and minimising disruption to local traffic and pedestrians.

No, the proposals are not expected to impact the location of the Church Hill Wood bus stop. The current stop operates as a Hail and Ride service, meaning there is no fixed infrastructure such as signs, shelters, or poles. Passengers can board or alight anywhere along a designated stretch of road by signalling the driver, who will stop at a safe location.

Yes. The proposals have been shared with staff at Poverest Primary School, and are engaging on the proposals.  Students are being included in design workshops for the playground and will also benefit from a food-growing garden including within the plans. The plans put the security and welfare of the school and importantly pupils at the heart of the design.

Although the nursery behind the church is currently closed, proposed plans position the housing with a setback from the church boundary. This allows for future flexibility should the church wish to develop their site.

The council would work with the contractor, once they are appointed, to minimise disruption from the works wherever practical. Given the proximity of Poverest Primary School, the council will look to avoid construction vehicle movements during school pick up and drop off times.

The council will always make use of available grant funding to support developments, with grant funding of £4.8m already successfully secured from the Greater London Authority to support this £23.7m development, with further opportunities being sought to save council taxpayer funds.

Impacts form part of the Planning process, and consultation is undertaken to ensure that development proposals are supported by the necessary infrastructure. Ongoing service provision and funding decisions remain the responsibility of the NHS.

Earlier engagement with local schools and a nearby GP practice also indicated that there would be capacity for additional local residents

There are 29 new parking spaces proposed within the site, which is assessed to be sufficient for the needs of new residents on site, considering the availability of parking nearby.

Parking levels have been carefully considered as part of the design, having regard to planning policy, site characteristics, and accessibility, including proximity to local services and public transport. The level of parking proposed has resulted through a detailed assessment of accessibility to public transport, local parking availability, and ongoing engagement with the highway authority. A Transport Assessment has also been undertaken, helping to identify an appropriate balance between the number of much needed new homes and parking provision.

Household waste would be collected on-street within the new internal road network for the development, with limited activity required on Church Hill Wood and Tillingbourne Green.

The proposal has been landscape-led, with a strong focus on increasing biodiversity on Site. This will be achieved through significant new tree, hedgerow, native scrub, and ornamental planting. The design has sought to retain existing trees wherever possible. Some trees will need to be removed however, this is complemented by new native planting to provide shade, structure, and ecological benefits. The overall number of trees within the development will increase by 17, so there is a gain of trees overall.

The wider plans will also see enhancements to nearby green spaces such as Tillingbourne Green Playground and Poverest Park playground.

The homes have been designed with careful consideration of security measures and in ways that help deter antisocial behaviour. Feedback received through public consultation has been reflected in the design to help ensure a safe and secure environment for residents and the wider community.

The heating systems for the proposed housing have been designed so that any external equipment would make no more than 30 decibels of noise at the nearest homes. This is below the normal background noise levels during the day and night, as informed by the Noise Impact Assessment that was carried out.

Foul water (wastewater)
We have checked with Thames Water, who have confirmed the system has enough capacity to manage wastewater from the new homes.

The area uses two separate sewer systems:

• One for foul water.
• One for rainwater (surface water). This means changes to foul water flows cannot affect the drainage of rainwater.

Surface water (rainwater)
The development includes a drainage design that meets current standards. This design stores rainwater underground and then releases it slowly into the sewer system. Sewer networks are mainly affected by how quickly water enters them, not the total amount.

The design limits the water leaving the site to 2 litres per second for each of the two connections. This means:

• Everyday storms: peak water flow into the sewer will be reduced by around 90 per cent.
• Very large storms: peak flow reduced by up to 98 per cent.