Nizels Golf and Country Club wants a 10-metre outdoor pool, hydropool, plunge pool and sauna beside a Grade II listed cottage. Comments close on 12 September.

Nizels Golf and Country Club in Hildenborough has applied to build an outdoor spa garden with a 10-metre swimming pool, a hydropool, a plunge pool and a sauna. The site sits in the Green Belt and the Kent Downs National Landscape, and it is immediately next to a Grade II listed cottage.

Comments close on 12 September. The council has until 14 October to decide.

Two applications were validated on 19 August. One is for planning permission, reference 26/01551/FL, and one is for listed building consent, reference 26/01552/LB. The applicant is The Club Company UK Ltd, which runs the club.

What is proposed

The spa garden would go inside an existing fenced area of the health club garden, next to the buildings that are already there. The planning statement lists:

  • a swimming pool, 4 metres by 10 metres and 1.2 metres deep
  • a hydropool
  • a plunge pool
  • a sauna of 30.5 square metres
  • a fire pit seating area
  • a lounger relaxation area
  • a plant room of 53 square metres

The sauna would sit at the northern end, with the plant room in red and brown brick to match the existing buildings. New timber hit and miss fencing would enclose the garden, and aluminium pergolas with bioclimatic roofs would cover the seating. (Planning statement, Maze Planning Solutions, 17 August 2026)

What the Nizels spa garden application includes, and the dates that matter Chart of the proposed spa garden at Nizels Golf and Country Club. The plant room is the largest element at 53 square metres, followed by the swimming pool at 40 square metres, being 4 metres by 10 metres and 1.2 metres deep, and the sauna at 30.5 square metres. A hydropool, plunge pool, fire pit seating area and lounger relaxation area are also proposed, with no floor areas given in the application. Key dates: applications validated 19 August 2026, consultation comments close 12 September 2026, and the council's determination deadline is 14 October 2026. The Nizels spa garden, by floor area Square metres, as stated in the applicant's planning statement. Four further elements are proposed with no area given. Plant room 53.0 m² Swimming pool 40.0 m² 4m × 10m, 1.2m deep Sauna 30.5 m² Also proposed, no area given Hydropool Plunge pool Fire pit seating Lounger area The dates that matter 19 Aug 2026 Applications validated 12 Sep 2026 Comments close 14 Oct 2026 Determination deadline Source: applications 26/01551/FL and 26/01552/LB, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council. Graphic by Tonbridge Today
The plant room is the largest single element in the application, at 53 square metres.

Why the Green Belt matters here

Nizels is in open countryside between Hildenborough and Leigh, and the council’s policies map covers the whole site with two designations at once: Green Belt and what used to be called the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, renamed the Kent Downs National Landscape.

The applicant’s case is that this is not a new building in open countryside. The spa garden would go in an area already fenced and already used as outdoor amenity space, tight against the existing club buildings, so it argues there would be no meaningful expansion of the developed footprint.

The application also lands against a rewritten national rulebook. The government published a new National Planning Policy Framework in August 2026, and the planning statement runs the proposal against its numbered policies, including GB7, which allows appropriate facilities for outdoor sport and recreation in the Green Belt, and N4 on protected landscapes.

There is a wrinkle the applicant flags itself. The heritage report and the tree report were both written before the new Framework was published. The planning statement argues the conclusions still stand, and offers to supply a supplementary heritage assessment if officers want one.

The listed cottage next door

The site sits immediately next to The Cottage on Nizels Lane, a small estate house listed at Grade II on 19 February 1990. (Historic England, list entry 1248260)

The applicant’s heritage consultant looked at 11 listed buildings within the study area, ten of them Grade II and one Grade II*, the last being Nizels Cottage about 75 metres to the north. It concluded that The Cottage is the only one with the potential to be affected, that nothing would be physically altered, and that the spa garden would cause no harm to its significance.

That is the applicant’s assessment, not the council’s. The council’s conservation officer has yet to comment.

No trees to be felled

One of the drawings is titled Tree Removal Plan, which reads alarmingly. The arboricultural assessment behind it says the opposite: no trees need to be removed for the scheme, and no category A trees were found on site.

The report does flag one thing to watch. The root zone of a tree recorded as T4, the tallest on site at 9 metres, will be excavated, and it says roots must be located by air spading and the damage kept to a minimum.

What it means for you

If you live near Nizels Lane, or you use the footpaths through the estate, this is your window.

  • Comments close on Saturday 12 September. The wider consultation with statutory bodies closes on Thursday 10 September.
  • Comment on either application at the council’s planning register, searching for 26/01551/FL or 26/01552/LB.
  • Planning officers can only weigh planning matters: Green Belt openness, landscape impact, heritage, trees, noise and lighting. Whether you like the club, or are a member of it, is not one of them.
  • The determination deadline is 14 October. Most applications of this size are decided by officers under delegated powers rather than by the planning committee.

The club has held permission since 1990, when application 90/00369 allowed the golf course to be formed and the main house to be converted and extended as a hotel. Its two most recent approvals, both in 2025, were retrospective consents for roof-mounted solar panels.

Sources

Applications and dates are as recorded on the council’s register on 24 August 2026. Consultation dates can be extended, and the register is the authoritative record.