A six-bed HMO on Fulwich Road would be the fourth in a row, its own statement says. Plus cladding works at 152-flat Phoenix Court: all 17 new applications.

Dartford Borough Council’s weekly planning list for the week of 5 October holds 17 applications, validated between 28 September and 5 October. (Dartford Borough Council, weekly list, Public Access) Most are extensions, sheds and tree work. Four are worth a closer look.

The ones to know about

  • A six-bed HMO on Fulwich Road would be the fourth in a row. The owner of 13 Fulwich Road, a mid-terrace house near Temple Hill, wants to turn it into a six-bedroom house in multiple occupation. Each room would have an en-suite, and the rooms range from 7.9 to 10 square metres. There is no parking. The applicant’s own planning statement accepts that the scheme would put more than 10 per cent of homes within 50 metres in HMO use. It also says it would create a run of four HMOs next to each other. Both are tests in the council’s new HMO rules, adopted in June. The statement argues they should not apply here. Comments close on 21 October. (26/01107/FUL)
  • New cladding for 152 flats at Phoenix Court. The management company of Phoenix Court, Black Eagle Drive, wants to strip out combustible cladding and replace it with non-combustible materials. The four-storey block near Ebbsfleet station has about 152 flats. Its postal address is Northfleet, but the application is on Dartford’s register. A fire risk appraisal of the walls rated the building “medium risk”, the statement says. The council’s private sector housing team “strongly” supports the work. Comments close on 23 October. (26/00991/FUL)
  • A one-bed flat in a gym that never opened. At The Cloisters, 52 Kent Road, a ground-floor room approved as a gym when the block was built in the late 1980s has never been used, according to the planning statement. The owner wants to join it to a parking space and make a 44 square metre flat with a rear balcony. A similar plan (DA/23/00482/FUL) was refused in 2023 as cramped, short of parking and at risk of flooding. The building is on the edge of the town centre conservation area. Comments close on 27 October. (26/01103/FUL)
  • A new house in Sandy Lane, Bean, again. A house next to 4 Barnfield Cottages already has permission (25/01035/FUL). The same scheme has been submitted again, the agent says, to remove the biodiversity net gain requirement, because the plot is under 0.2 hectares. Four representations had been logged by 9 October. Comments close on 26 October. (26/01006/FUL)

Why the Fulwich Road numbers matter

The council adopted its HMO supplementary planning document on 25 June 2026. Among its tests, it counts against an HMO that would:

  • push HMOs above 10 per cent of homes within 50 metres
  • create a run of three or more HMOs side by side
  • convert a mid-terrace house

The Fulwich Road statement accepts all three are engaged. It argues the 10 per cent test misleads here, because the railway runs along one side of the street and so there are fewer homes within 50 metres. It treats the mid-terrace rule as a starting presumption rather than a ban. Its case rests on a parking survey. Overnight, 81.47 per cent of spaces nearby were taken, below the 85 per cent level its surveyor treats as a concern. On Wednesday the council refused a similar six-bed HMO on Priory Road, partly on parking.

The full list, by area

Dartford town

  • 13 Fulwich Road: house to six-bed HMO, with bike and bin storage (26/01107/FUL)
  • 52 Kent Road: unused gym to one-bed flat, with infill extension (26/01103/FUL)
  • 21 Lawson Gardens: main entrance door moved to the front (26/01139/FUL)
  • 8 Clearwater Lane: single-storey rear extension and garage conversion (26/01120/FUL)
  • 15 Couzins Walk: garden home office with solar panels on the roof (26/01038/FUL)
  • Next to 31 Shiers Avenue: surface roots removed from a protected plane tree (26/01132/TPO)
  • 72 to 80 East Hill: delivery and service management plan, required by an earlier permission for a customer car park (26/01104/CDNA)
  • Elite Foods, 118 The Brent: lighting details for refrigeration units and storage at the rear (26/01059/CDNA)

Stone and Greenhithe

  • 139 Charles Street, Stone: conservatory replaced by a side extension (26/01063/FUL)
  • 24A Hedge Place Road, Greenhithe: timber shed (26/01128/FUL)

Darenth, Hawley and Bean

  • Next to 4 Barnfield Cottages, Sandy Lane, Bean: one new house (26/01006/FUL)
  • 45A Alfred Road, Hawley: wraparound single-storey extension (26/01134/FUL)
  • 7 Latham Close, Darenth: conservatory roof alterations (26/01129/FUL)
  • Meadowcroft Farm, Green Street Green Road: roof linking two farm buildings used for cattle and feed. A prior approval check, decided by 30 October (26/01100/AGR)

Longfield

  • 5 North Riding, Fawkham Avenue: protected hornbeam reduced from about 11.5 to 10 metres (26/01119/TPO)

Southfleet

  • 1 Church Cottages, Church Street: mortar mix details for listed chimney repairs (26/01130/CDNA)

Ebbsfleet

  • Phoenix Court, Black Eagle Drive: combustible cladding replaced (26/00991/FUL)

What it means for you

  • Use the earliest date. Dartford prints two deadlines for each application. The dates above are the earlier “standard consultation” dates. Neighbour deadlines run later: 25 October for Fulwich Road, 27 October for Phoenix Court, 31 October for Kent Road and 2 November for Bean.
  • How to comment. Open the application link, choose “Comments”, and say what the effect would be on you. Comments on planning grounds carry weight: parking, overlooking, noise, flooding, the look of the street.
  • Look up your own street. Our Dartford planning applications page explains how to search the register and set up alerts.