Sevenoaks Online is published by the GOB Media Group. Our about page says who we are and what we cover. This page is the policy behind it: where the facts come from, what happens when we get one wrong, and what you can hold us to.
Where our facts come from
Nearly everything we publish starts in a public record that anyone is entitled to see but few people have time to read. In practice that means:
- Sevenoaks District Council’s planning register, committee agendas, decision notices and consultations
- Kent County Council for schools, roads, registration and social care
- HM Land Registry sold-price data, for house prices
- Companies House and The Gazette, for insolvencies and company filings
- Ofsted inspection reports, the Food Standards Agency hygiene register, and police.uk open crime data
- The Environment Agency and the Met Office for flooding, drought and severe weather
We link to the source on every story that rests on one, and we name it in the text rather than hiding it behind “reports say”. Where something comes from a press release, an organiser’s own listing or a single interested party, the story says so. If we cannot stand a claim up in a first-party document, we leave it out.
Two rules we apply constantly, because getting them wrong is the commonest way a local story misleads. A proposal is not a decision: a notice of intent to close a road, or a recommendation to a committee, is not the thing itself. And the date a policy is adopted is not the date it starts to bite. We report both dates when they differ.
Who writes it
Stories are filed under Sevenoaks Online Newsdesk, our house byline, with a line naming the beat the story came from. We do not invent reporters, and we do not put a person’s name on something they did not write.
We use software to watch those public sources and to draft routine, structured updates from them: planning lists, crime figures, roadworks, hygiene ratings. Every fact in one comes from the named record. Anything involving a named individual, a business’s finances, a court matter or a death is read by a person before it publishes. We do not generate photographs of real events or real people, and we never invent a quote.
Corrections
When we get something wrong we correct the article itself, add a dated note saying what changed, and leave that note on the page. We do not quietly rewrite a published story, and we do not delete one to make a mistake go away.
To report an error, email hello@sevenoaksonline.co.uk with the link and the passage you are querying. We aim to reply the same working day.
Complaints
If you believe something we published is inaccurate, unfair or intrusive:
- Email us with the link, the passage, and what you say is wrong with it.
- We acknowledge within two working days.
- We go back to the original record, investigate, and reply with what we found and what we are going to do about it, normally within ten working days.
- If we were wrong, we correct it and say so on the page.
We do not belong to a press regulator, so we cannot offer you an appeal to one. If our answer does not satisfy you, tell us and we will look at it again. Nothing on this page affects your legal rights.
Right of reply
If we report a refusal, an inspection, an enforcement notice or an insolvency that names you or your business, you can send us your response and we will add it to the story, dated and attributed, whether or not the original report was wrong. You should not have to argue for that.
Comments and reviews
Readers can comment under a news story, reply to another reader, and review a business in our directory. Nothing appears until it has been checked, usually within the hour, and we publish it if it passes these rules:
- It is about the story or the business, and written by a person, not a bot or a marketing service.
- It carries no advertising, links, promo codes or search-engine filler.
- It contains no abuse, slurs or threats.
- It does not accuse a named private person or small business of a crime, dishonesty or incompetence that we cannot check. Criticising a council, a councillor’s decision, a road scheme or a national chain is fine; that is what comments are for.
- It gives out no phone number, address or other personal details of anyone else.
- It does not repeat a comment already on the page.
A review must also come from someone who has used the business, and it must not read as if the owner or a rival wrote it. Disagreeing with another reader is welcome; a reply is checked by the same rules as any other comment.
We publish your own words. We fix obvious typos and capital letters, and we take out email addresses, phone numbers and sign-offs. If one sentence breaks a rule and the rest is fine, we cut that sentence rather than turn down the whole comment, and a published comment runs to no more than 1,200 characters. It appears under the name you sign it with, or as “A reader” if you give none; we never add a name. A comment we turn down gets no reply.
A question for the newsdesk, a correction or a story tip sent through the comment box is not published as a comment. It comes to us as a message and we answer it, or follow it up, the same way as one sent through our Got a story? form.
If a comment or a review is about you or your business and you think it breaks these rules, or you want your own comment taken down, email us with the page it is on. We will look at it again and take it down if it should not be there. Likes and dislikes on a comment are a count and nothing more; they do not decide what is published or the order comments appear in. What each form collects, and how long we keep it, is on our privacy page.
Paid-for content
Some of what we publish is paid for. When it is, it is labelled Sponsored wherever it appears: on the article, on the card that links to it from the front page or a section, and in the weekly email, where sponsored items sit under their own Sponsored heading and never lead. The byline reads “Sponsored feature”, and the first line of the piece names who paid for it. Paid content is never presented as our own reporting, and it never leads the front page.
Our business directory is free to appear in. Listings are built from public records, not bought, and a business can claim or correct its page at no cost. A firm can pay to upgrade its entry with photos, a description, opening hours and a website link, but nothing on this site buys a higher position in a list, a better review, or a place in a story. What we sell is set out on our advertise page.
Advertisers get what they bought and nothing else. They do not see stories before publication, they get no say in how we cover them, their competitors or any decision they are involved in, and buying from us does not buy protection from us. If we ever report on a business that has paid us, the story will say so.
Images
We publish a photograph only where we took it, licensed it, were given it for that purpose, or it is openly licensed, and we credit it as the licence requires. We do not republish other outlets’ photographs. Where we illustrate a story with a chart or a diagram, we drew it from the data cited beneath it.
Independence
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. No public money or grant funds this site.
Your data
What the site collects, how long it keeps it and how to opt out is set out in full on our privacy page.
Contact
Corrections, complaints, right of reply and news tips all go to the same place: hello@sevenoaksonline.co.uk.