Hawkenbury Hub FAQ

The Hawkenbury Hub is a proposal to expand the facilities for sport at Hawkenbury. It will be made up of the existing  sports facilities at Hawkenbury Recreation Ground (astroturf pitch, tennis courts, cricket and football pitches) along with additional football facilities, and new facilities, including a stadium, on the adjoining land.

It is a proposal that will meet the need for additional and better quality football pitches in Tunbridge Wells together with community facilities.

See below also:
Is a Hub really needed?

How big will the stadium be?

Will the stadium be used for other events?

To move forward with the project, in November 2025 agreement was given by the Cabinet Member for Sports, Leisure & Health to use £10,000 of s106 developer contributions to appoint a project manager. The project manager will develop a plan of work for new drainage, ground levelling, bringing the former bowling green back into use for sports, layout of new pitches and other measures to improve the playing surface at Hawkenbury Recreation Ground.

Once the project plan is complete another decision will be taken about using s106 funds to go ahead and carry out the necessary work. If approved work is expected to begin in spring 2026.

The Hub would be on Hawkenbury Recreation Ground and extend on to farmland next to the ground between the football/cricket pitch end of Hawkenbury Recreation Ground and High Woods Lane.

The Council will need to acquire the farmland to develop the hub.

By using developer contributions (section 106 funds) and funds from the sale of sites the Council already owns – land at Culverden Stadium, Colebrook Sports Fields and Bayham West Sports Field.

Yes. Studies the Council completed as background work for the Local Plan concluded that many existing pitches and their facilities needed investment. Currently there is  a significant under-supply of junior pitches in Tunbridge Wells.

The proposed provision combines the need to replace existing poor quality, under-invested football provision with better quality facilities, additional junior pitches and playing capacity. The Hub will include 3G all-weather pitches that can be used more intensively than grass pitches as fewer games are cancelled because of waterlogged pitches.

The Hawkenbury Hub as a whole will continue to cater for the sports currently played at  Hawkenbury Recreation Ground, with the additional football facilities being provided to meet the growing need for more and better quality  pitches.

The Local Plan allocation sets the proposal out in the revised policy wording ‘for new and enhanced sport and recreation provision as part of a new stadium sports hub’. The Site Options report (see How was Hawkenbury selected as a location for the hub?) states ‘A stadium sports hub will primarily be used by sports clubs and leagues for training and match play. However, it is also the intention to provide activities and programmes for the general community to increase physical activity and health and wellbeing. The intention would be to provide sport and physical activity programmes for older people, young people, parents, people with disabilities and dementia etc.’

The precise uses of all the new space at the facility has the potential for discussion during future consultation.

The concept of the hub is something that has been in development by the Council for around nine years.

In 2015, as part of the work for the Local Plan, studies were commissioned to look at sport and recreation provision across the borough. One of those studies, the Playing Pitch Strategy, looked in detail at the existing provision of sports pitches, the quantity, quality, and configuration for providing for the future population, taking into account housing, population growth and demographics. The study concluded that many pitches and their facilities needed investment. The Local Plan sought to deliver on these identified needs by allocating appropriate land for new facilities.

You can see the Playing Pitch Strategy here .

Since these first studies were commissioned, the demand for pitch facilities has continued to grow. New housing, the expansion of women’s football, junior football and existing clubs’ aspirations all contribute to the growth in demand.

The background work for the Local Plan included a detailed site options analysis to identify potential sites where the improved provision could be provided. Independent consultants were commissioned by the Council to analyse the potential sites across Tunbridge Wells town.

You can read the analysis here.

After considering the analysis of some 20 potential sites across Tunbridge Wells a decision was taken by Full Council  to include the Hawkenbury site in the Local Plan as it offered the best opportunity for development.

The land was submitted as part of the Local Plan call for sites and was considered as Site 53 Plot A and Plot B.

You can see the Local Plan Site Assessment here.

The Hawkenbury site is on pages 45-47.

Plot A is adjacent to the existing Hawkenbury Recreation Ground south of High Woods Lane; Plot B was land to the east and north of Hawkenbury allotments. Plot B was considered not suitable as it was part of a large green belt parcel that would cause a greater degree of harm if released for development. However, Plot A was considered suitable for sport use, as its location, while in the green belt was assessed as causing only moderate harm and it is adjacent to the existing facilities in Hawkenbury Recreation Ground.

The main access to the site will be via High Woods Lane. There will also be access from the existing Hawkenbury Recreation Ground and its recently extended car park.

Kent County Council (KCC), as the Highways Authority, has been consulted and has advised the carriageway on High Woods Lane would need to be widened in places. Assessment carried out for the Local Plan Inspector shows that it would be possible to widen the road without impact on the allotments.

The detailed design and access arrangements, including a review of the road network, will be developed by the Council at the planning application stage. The Council will appoint consultants to explore how to manage traffic in the area as the proposals are developed. We would expect consultants to model traffic demand, consider how to mitigate that demand with alternative transport modes, and how best to ensure good traffic movement and road safety for all road users including pedestrian and cyclists with crossings, junctions and road design. There will be a requirement for the development to have measures in place to facilitate and promote use of public transport and sustainable transport.

The Highways Authority will be part of this planning process as a statutory consultee and will have to agree to the detailed improvements to the road network.

It is likely that floodlighting will be part of the development. The planning application will deal with which pitches will have floodlights, the exact hours floodlighting can be used, and mitigation measures needed to control light pollution.

This is one of many details that would be included in any planning application for the hub.

Noise mitigation will be part of the planning application for the hub. The hours that the pitches could be in use will part of the proposals. It may be possible to locate the more heavily used pitches at the furthest end of the site, but these are some of the many details that would be included in the planning process.

The planning application will contain details of the measures proposed to protect the environment near the site, including for example the woodland.

The development will need to conform to the Government’s rules on increasing Biodiversity in developments over a certain size. This is known as Biodiversity Net Gain which now has a mandatory requirement for new developments to include a minimum 10% gain in biodiversity by the end of construction.

How this would be put in place would be one of many details that would be included in the planning application for the hub.

An indicative project timeline was published in September 2022 in the Local Plan which indicated an approximate timeframe for delivery of 2029.

Time has elapsed since the indicative project timeline was published. This means the  starting point is slightly over two years later than the indicative timeline.

The timeline remains a reasonable outline indication of how the Hawkenbury Hub project might progress, although it will need to be reviewed. There are many factors that might affect this timing, some in our control, some not, particularly the site acquisition and the possible Compulsory Purchase Order process. It is highly unlikely that these factors will significantly shorten the timing, and some may lengthen it (for example, consultation on options for the facilities could add additional time). Obviously, the dates (months/years) across the top of the chart are no longer correct but the tasks listed and the amount of time allocated to them are still an indicative guide.

To move forward with the project, in November 2025 agreement was given by the Cabinet Member for Sports, Leisure & Health to use £10,000 of s106 developer contributions to appoint a project manager to develop a plan of work for new drainage, ground levelling, bringing the former bowling green back into use for sports, layout of new pitches and other measures to improve the playing surface.

Once the project plan is complete another decision will be taken about using s106 funds to go ahead and carry out the necessary work. If approved work is expected to begin in spring 2026.

The Council will need to ensure that the proposals result in traffic being managed properly (see How will the Hawkenbury Hub be accessed?). Detailed design and access arrangements, including a review of the road network, will be developed by the Council at the planning application stage.

There will be a requirement for the development to have measures in place to facilitate and promote use of public transport and sustainable, environmentally friendly transport especially on match days.

The detail of how sustainable, environmentally friendly transport will be managed and encouraged will be part of the design and access arrangements.

This work will need to be agreed by the Highways Authority (Kent County Council) as the proposals are developed.

We expect the first period of consultation and discussion will ask residents and interested parties for their views on initial plans. Feedback will inform the development of the planning application. At the formal planning application stage, there will be another opportunity to comment.

These consultations will cover all aspects of the development, including access, where the pitches lie, what buildings are necessary, what they will be used for, how floodlighting will be managed and where the parking area will be located.

The hub proposal is reliant on funding from developing the Culverden Stadium site, the home of Tunbridge Wells Football Club (TWFC). The Culverden site will be sold to provide much needed homes for the borough, and the necessary finance. This means TWFC will need a new home ground.

A new ground for TWFC at the hub will give them purpose-built facilities and an improved playing surface.

The word stadium conjures up pictures of the Premier League or international venues like Wembley or Old Trafford. The reality is much smaller. Tunbridge Wells Football Club (TWFC) has a stadium with a capacity for 3,750 spectators at Culverden and typical attendance there is currently approximately 250. The spectator area consists of a single storey, covered area at the side of the pitch, some of which is seating, some standing. There is also an area for standing at one end of the pitch behind the goal which consists of four or five shallow concrete steps.

The Hawkenbury Hub development is at an early stage, despite it having been proposed in the Local Plan several years ago, which means that the precise plans are yet to be drawn up, either in terms of the location of pitches or the size and style of facilities. The facilities at the new location could directly replicate the existing ones, or they could be changed and modernised, but they will remain similar in scale and size. These details will form part of the planning application.

The current plans do not impact the allotments.

One of the options for widening the road might involve very small sections of the hedge being removed to allow for additional parking. If necessary that option that will be considered and discussed at the planning stage. According to analysis by independent consultants the road can be widened to the 6.2m that the Highways Authority (KCC) says is necessary, without affecting the hedge. If the hedge is affected the allotment land would not be.

Work carried out so far shows that around 150 spaces can be accommodated on site and accessed via High Woods Lane. More detail on parking will be delivered before any planning application.

Parking has been identified as an issue and TWBC will have to satisfy the Highways Authority (KCC) that sufficient parking will be provided as part of the hub. In addition, the policy is to include overspill parking which will also have to be provided to the satisfaction of the Highways Authority. Residents and allotment users should not lose out.

Detail of this kind will be decided in the planning stages. It is likely that there will be only controlled public access to the stadium section of the hub – there is no unrestricted public access to the Culverden Stadium now.

Depending on how the site facilities are managed, there should be full public access to the rest of the site. Some parts may be free to access any time, others may be available through a booking or rental system.  As the proposals are put forward, options for the use of the facilities will be discussed and specified at planning application stage.

Tunbridge Wells Football Club do not currently use theirs for anything other than playing football and training. The facilities they need for football do not create the kind of arena that would be suitable for large scale events such as pop concerts.

Even if the stadium could be used for non-sporting events, this would be strictly controlled by permission, both at the time of planning application and subsequently through licensing applications. As the proposal is developed, options for the use of the facilities will be discussed and specified at planning application stage. Non-football uses are not being ruled out at this stage if for example including facilities that would be used by the community was an option.