Sevenoaks Online is an independent news and information site for Sevenoaks and the surrounding villages. Our aim is simple: report what is changing in the district, and make the everyday local information people need easy to find. Beyond the news we also keep a guide to what is on across the district and a directory of local businesses.
Where we cover
Our patch is the Sevenoaks district in west Kent: the town of Sevenoaks itself, the neighbouring towns of Edenbridge, Swanley and Westerham, and the villages around them, among them Otford, Kemsing, Seal, Riverhead, Dunton Green, Chipstead, Shoreham, Eynsford, Farningham, Halstead, Brasted, Sundridge and New Ash Green. If something affects daily life here, from a planning decision or a road closure to a new place to eat, we aim to cover it.
How we report
Most of what we publish comes from public records that anyone is entitled to see but few people have time to read: planning applications and decisions from Sevenoaks District Council, open crime data from the police, sold-price data from HM Land Registry, school inspection reports, and official alerts on flooding, weather and roadworks. We turn those records into plain-English stories and we link to the original source on every one, so you can check the facts for yourself.
We use software to help us monitor those sources and draft routine updates quickly, the same approach the large regional publishers now use, but the facts always come from the named source, never invented, and anything sensitive is checked by a person before it is published.
Our bylines
Stories are filed under Sevenoaks Online Newsdesk, our house byline. The small line beneath it names the beat the story came from: council and planning, crime, transport, data, what’s on. It describes the subject the story belongs to, not a job title held at another organisation, and we are not part of any shared or funded reporting scheme.
Tell us what is happening
Some of the best local stories start with a resident who noticed something first: a notice on a lamp post, a shop with paper over its windows, a site that has gone quiet. The quickest way to reach the newsdesk is the short form on our Got a story? page, which also explains what happens after you send it. A person reads every tip, we treat them in confidence, and we do not publish your name unless you ask us to. Photos and documents can go to hello@sevenoaksonline.co.uk, and an event for the listings can go the same way.
Comments, reviews and the weekly email
You can comment under any news story, reply to another reader, and review a firm in our directory. Nothing goes live until a person has read it, usually within the hour, and we publish your own words under the name you sign with. We turn down advertising, abuse, and accusations against a named private person or small business that we cannot check; criticising the council, a councillor’s decision or a road scheme is fine. The full rules, and how to ask for a comment about you to be taken down, are in our editorial standards.
The weekly email goes out on a Tuesday morning with the seven days behind it. A quiet week makes a shorter email, a week with no stories means none, and every past issue is on the newsletter page so you can read one before you sign up.
Images
Where we use a photograph we either took it ourselves, licensed it, used an image supplied to us for that purpose, or used an openly licensed image, and we credit it as required. We do not republish other outlets’ photographs. Charts and diagrams are drawn from the data cited beneath them. The full rule is in our editorial standards.
Corrections
We would rather be accurate than first. If you spot an error, email hello@sevenoaksonline.co.uk with the link and the passage you are querying; we aim to reply the same working day. When we get something wrong we correct the story and add a dated note saying what changed, and we do not delete a story to make a mistake go away. How we handle complaints and right of reply is set out in our editorial standards.
Who we are, and how this is paid for
Sevenoaks Online is published by the GOB Media Group, a UK media company, which meets the cost of running it. We are not owned by, funded by or affiliated with Sevenoaks District Council, Kent County Council, any political party, or any other body we report on.
There are no banner ads or pop-ups here, and nothing on the site earns us a commission: when we quote the price of a Chartwell ticket or a pumpkin patch, there is no affiliate link behind it and we get nothing if you go. What we do sell is a small, labelled set of things, set out on our advertise page: sponsored features, upgraded directory entries, job adverts and a slot in the weekly email. Anything paid for is marked Sponsored wherever it appears.
The site counts page views with Google Analytics, which sets two cookies and tells us that a story was read rather than who read it, and that is the only tracking on a page you simply read. Sending us a comment, review or tip records a little more, to keep spam out; our privacy page sets out what each form holds, for how long, and how to opt out of the analytics.
Our directory of local businesses is free to appear in. We do not charge a firm to be listed, to claim its page, or to have its details corrected; a paid upgrade adds photos, a description and a link, and that is all it adds. No payment moves a business up a list, improves a review, or buys it a mention in a story. Our editorial standards page sets out where the line sits and what happens when we get something wrong.