Cabinet approved the extension on 22 September: the order now runs until December 2029. ASB reports at The Vine fell from nine in 2023 to one last year.

The anti-social behaviour order covering The Vine in Sevenoaks will stay in place until December 2029, after Cabinet approved the extension on 22 September. The council report that went to councillors on 10 September says police reports of trouble at the ground have fallen from nine in 2023 to one last year, and that three quarters of consultation responses back keeping the order. (Sevenoaks District Council, PSPO extension report, The Vine)

The Public Spaces Protection Order was introduced in December 2023, after a spate of anti-social behaviour at the ground and a consultation that drew more than 200 responses. It carries two restrictions, and both would stay exactly as they are:

  • engaging in anti-social behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm and distress to people in the area
  • returning to the area within 24 hours of being asked to leave

Breaching the order is a criminal offence. It can be dealt with by a £100 fixed penalty notice or by prosecution, and fixed penalties are not issued to anyone under 16. (Sevenoaks District Council, PSPO extension report, The Vine)

What the numbers show

Kent Police logged nine anti-social behaviour reports at The Vine in 2023, covering rowdy gatherings, drunken behaviour, fireworks and vehicle nuisance. That fell to two reports in 2024, the order’s first full year, and one in 2025. The council’s Community Safety Unit took five calls about the ground over the same period, all duplicates of the police reports. Police have kept The Vine as a regular patrol tasking, alongside detached youth workers from the Kenward Trust. (Sevenoaks District Council, PSPO extension report, The Vine)

Two charts: police ASB reports at The Vine fell from 9 in 2023 to 2 in 2024 and 1 in 2025; of 143 consultation responses, 107 said yes to keeping the order, 27 were not sure and 9 said no
Graphic by Sevenoaks Online
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Who responded, and what they said

The council’s consultation on extending the order drew 143 responses. Just over half came from residents, and 60 responses, 42% of the total, came from young people under 18. The results were clear:

  • 107 (75%) agreed the order should continue for up to three more years
  • 27 (19%) were not sure
  • 9 (6%) said no
  • 129 of the 143 backed each of the order’s two restrictions

(Sevenoaks District Council, PSPO extension report, The Vine)

Sevenoaks Town Council agreed to support the continuation at its meeting on 23 March 2026. It also put the question to the Sevenoaks Youth Council, which now numbers 80 young people. According to the report, many youth councillors favoured renewal, noted that police have rarely needed to enforce the order, and suggested posters at The Vine about littering and smashed bottles. (Sevenoaks District Council, PSPO extension report, The Vine)

What happens next

The report went to the People & Places Advisory Committee at 7pm on Thursday 10 September. Members backed it, resolving to recommend to Cabinet that the order be extended until December 2029. The minutes, published on 18 September, add detail the report did not carry: the consultation drew 143 responses, 60 of them from people under 18, of which 107 supported extending the order for up to three years and 129 agreed with the prohibitions as they stand. No fixed penalty notices have been issued at The Vine in 2026, and a task and finish group has been set up to deal with anti-social behaviour elsewhere in Sevenoaks. (Sevenoaks District Council, People & Places Advisory Committee minutes, 10 September 2026)

Update, 23 September: Cabinet approved the extension on Tuesday night. The order is extended until December 2029, the decision takes effect on 1 October after the call-in period, and the new term runs from 1 December 2026. Our report on the decision has the full account of the meeting. (Sevenoaks District Council, Cabinet minutes, 22 September 2026)

Corrected 18 September 2026: this page previously said the decision had slipped to a Cabinet meeting on 20 October. The council published the 22 September agenda on 14 September. We had followed the council’s own meetings calendar, which still labels that Cabinet as moved.

What it means for you

Nothing changes on the ground: the rules at The Vine are the same ones in force since December 2023, and they target anti-social behaviour rather than everyday use of the park. The report is a rare public look at how well the order has worked, and the numbers back the council’s case that it has. For the wider picture of what police record across the town, see our monthly Sevenoaks crime figures.

The same Cabinet meeting approved an October consultation on the car-meets order at London Road, Halstead, where enforcement has been a much harder job: 91 warnings and fines in four weeks this summer.

Sources

Image: Vine Cricket Ground, Sevenoaks by Robin Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Geograph. Chart by Sevenoaks Online.