Many will by now have heard that our planning application to Sevenoaks District Council, to build a new vicarage and church hall, was refused.

Kemsing's PCC would like to thank all those who wrote in support the application. It would seem that many in the village are disappointed at the news that our application was refused, but had remained silent during the public consultation period. Hopefully, many of them will write and support us when the next time comes to apply for some planning permission.

Clearly, the PCC is disappointed at the outcome. However the main thing to focus on is that the needs remain. We still need a new church hall, and we still need a vicarage that is laid out for purpose and is affordable to maintain.

That said, we have received a lot of feedback in this process. We've had feedback both on the plans themselves and on the process we went through in submitting those plans for approval.

We will now take our time, in conversation with the Diocese of Rochester (who were the joint applicant for these plans). We want to make sure we've learnt all the lessons there are to learn from this time around. We also want to make sure we work out the right way forwards, because there are many options before us.

In the meantime, if anyone has any ideas as to how these needs for a hall and a vicarage can be met, please pass them on to a member of the PCC. We want to garner as much of the collective wisdom as we can.