Riding arena construction in Kent

The ground

Kent is mostly clay over chalk, and the two behave very differently under an arena. Wealden clay holds water and needs a drainage design that actually moves it somewhere, not just a perimeter trench. On the North Downs chalk you often get free draining ground and a much simpler build, which is one of the reasons two arenas ten miles apart can differ by five figures.

This is why we survey on foot before quoting and why our guide prices are published as bands rather than a single figure. Anyone quoting an arena in Kent without seeing the ground is either padding the price to cover the risk or is about to discover it at your expense.

Planning in Kent

Large parts of the county sit inside the Kent Downs National Landscape, where an arena is judged on how it reads in the wider view. Lighting is usually the sticking point rather than the arena itself.

Most well sited applications on land already in equestrian use are approved. Lighting is the usual sticking point. Our planning page covers the process in detail, including Biodiversity Net Gain, and we can handle the application for you.

Where the water goes in Kent

The Kent problem is usually the outfall rather than the arena. On the Weald, ditches are often the only route for surface water and many are in shared ownership or maintained by nobody, so establishing that you have a right to discharge into one is worth doing before design rather than after. On the chalk a soakaway is normally straightforward and sometimes the whole drainage cost falls by half.

This matters more than the surface you choose. When an arena fails it is almost never the surface that failed, it is that water was never given anywhere to go, and the legal and physical route out is a Kent specific question rather than a standard detail. It is the first thing we establish on a survey.

When to build here

We would rather not dig a Wealden clay site in January. Clay worked wet gives a worse formation and takes longer, and both end up in the price. Late spring through to early autumn is the sensible window on clay. Chalk sites we will build almost any time.

We will say so if we think you would get a better arena by waiting three months. A formation worked in the wrong conditions is a problem you live with for twenty years, and it is not worth a slightly earlier start.

Planning authorities in Kent

Applications in Kent are determined by bodies includingMaidstone Borough Council, Ashford Borough Council, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Canterbury City Council and Sevenoaks District Council. Policy and the appetite for lighting genuinely differ between them, which is one reason a pre application enquiry is usually worth the fee.

Where we work in Kent

We build routinely around Maidstone, Ashford, Canterbury, Tonbridge, Sevenoaks and Cranbrook, and across the rest of the county. Travel affects cost, so we would rather discuss it openly than quote as though it does not.