T Wells Today is an independent news and information site for Royal Tunbridge Wells and its borough. We work from documents, we cite them, and we are not connected to the council or to anybody we write about.
The borough
The town itself, with the Pantiles, the Common, Mount Ephraim and the High Street; then Southborough, Rusthall and Pembury on its edges; Paddock Wood out towards the Medway; and Cranbrook, Hawkhurst, Goudhurst and the Weald villages to the south. About 147,000 people live across the borough, and the difference between the town and the Weald villages is real: one has a parking problem, the other has a bus problem.
Tunbridge Wells is not Tonbridge
Worth saying plainly, because it decides who answers your question. Tonbridge is a separate town in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling, with its own bin rounds, its own car parks and its own planning register. Nothing on this site about council services applies there. We spell out which town and which council we mean every time.
What we report
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s planning register and committee papers, licensing notices, police.uk crime data, HM Land Registry sold prices, Food Standards Agency hygiene ratings, Environment Agency flood warnings for the local rivers, and company filings in The Gazette. Kent County Council is responsible for roads, schools and social care, and we name it when a decision is theirs.
What changes in 2028
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is due to be abolished in April 2028 and replaced by a new West Kent unitary authority, formed with Maidstone, Sevenoaks and Tonbridge and Malling. That would, among other things, finally put Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge under the same council. We will report each stage from the published documents and keep our reference pages pointing at whoever actually answers on the day you read them.
Tips and corrections
Email hello@twellstoday.co.uk with a tip, an event worth listing, or a correction. Tips are treated in confidence, and corrections are made quickly and noted on the page.
T Wells Today is published by Future Business Media.