A former hotel and wedding venue that closed 18 months ago has been targeted by vandals, while the owner’s efforts to redevelop the building have also been plagued by delays.
Geoffrey Goddard previously applied to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council in June 2022 to repurpose the Hadlow Manor Hotel in Goose Green, but has since been without a decision for two years.
Now a frustrated Mr Goddard has appealed to the Spatial Planning Inspectorate, because he believes no decision has been made. Municipalities must decide on applications within eight weeks.
He is seeking permission to convert the original, listed Georgian hotel building into six apartments.
He also wants to demolish an extension from the 1980s and build six detached houses on that site, making a total of twelve.
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The building has been empty since the end of January last year and has been the target of vandalism, despite security cameras.
Villagers have expressed concern about the future, with one saying: “It would only take one idiot to get in there and start a fire and the listed building could be lost.”
In his application to the inspectorate, Mr Goddard claims the council has been inefficient as his case has already been dealt with by several planning officers.
His agent said: “The first planning officer made a number of statements which were subsequently confirmed by subsequent officials to be incorrect or misleading.
“Communication was difficult throughout, with long wait times between email responses and the inability to reach officers by phone.”
Mr Goddard made a formal complaint to the council about the delays, following which a new officer was assigned to the application and the original officer left the authority.
However, the new official asked for an extension of the deadline so that additional consultations could take place.
The officer said: “Communication remained extremely difficult throughout this period, with over 50 calls to the local authority during designated calling hours not being answered by the assigned officer, and repeated requests for meetings being ignored.
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“Emails were rarely answered immediately and often contact was only re-established to request further extension.”
Ultimately, in November last year, Mr Goddard was told that the planning officer would recommend the application for approval in his report.
But there were still problems with the council drafting a Section 106 agreement, a legal contract that requires Mr Goddard to commit to certain mitigation measures.
However, to date the Council has still not submitted a draft agreement for signature.
Mr Goddard eventually appealed, arguing that the council had acted unreasonably, causing him to incur significant additional costs.
A spokesman for Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council said: “This is a complex application for a major development which required a section 106 agreement, which has taken up a significant amount of officers’ time.
“While we attempted to process the application within the time limit, additional factors including staff turnover and the implementation of a new IT system caused delays.
“The application is now being assessed by the Planning Inspectorate.”
Curiously, after Mr Gooddard lodged his appeal, and two years after the application was first submitted, the council posted a message on its Facebook page alerting people to the application and inviting them to comment.
A spokesman said: “There is nothing unusual about this – we routinely advertise important projects like this.”
To date the council has received only one additional comment, from a resident of Darwins Drive, who said: “I have no objection to the development of this site.
“Anything is better than a dilapidated building.”
The original part of Hadlow Manor Hotel was built in 1790 as a replacement for a former half-timbered building dating from the 1500s. It was then known as Leaver’s House.
Details of the planning application can be viewed on the Tonbridge and Malling website, application number 22/01237.
In the Public Notice Portal you will find information about planning applications that are relevant to you.
Mr Goddard’s company, CQK Ltd, owns two other hotels, both in Surrey: the Reigate Manor Hotel and the Hartsfield Manor Hotel.
In its latest accounts, to March 2023, the company reported a profit of £788,000 on turnover of almost £8m.
When Hadlow Manor Hotel closed suddenly in January last year, 37 couples who had booked the venue for their wedding reception were left in dire straits, although they did get their deposits back.
Twenty-nine staff lost their jobs, with the company saying the site was no longer economically viable.