Dartford & Gravesham
Backdrop
The Dartford and Gravesham districts are intersected by the A2 and high-speed Channel Tunnel Rail Link and home to Bluewater shopping centre and Ebbsfleet International railway station.
The area north of the A2 forms part of the Thames Gateway, incorporating more than 12 miles of Thames waterfront. This riverside is largely a built environment interspersed with the natural areas of the Dartford, Swanscombe, Shorne and Higham marshes. The land south of the A2 is primarily rural and has a high agricultural, landscape and conservation value. Villages, woodland and downland make up the distinctive heritage landscape character associated with north-west Kent. Some 78 per cent of Gravesham sits within the Metropolitan Green Belt, while 24 per cent forms part of the Kent Downs National Landscape.
Chairman
Alex Hills
Issues
Kent and Essex county councils have long lobbied for another Thames crossing downstream of Gravesend. The site selection for Option C was made by the government in 2016 and the project included in the Roads Infrastructure Plan. If the proposed Lower Thames Crossing goes ahead, it will substantially impact the remaining open countryside and residents’ way of life in north Kent between Gravesend and Medway.
Our view is that freight transport through Kent needs to be looked at strategically, including current crossings, rather than addressing the symptoms with substantial civil-engineering projects.
Nevertheless, the scheme has laboured on until examination of the National Highways application for a Development Consent Order closed on December 20, 2023.
The Examining Authority has written its recommendation report and the Secretary of State for Transport was due to review it and make a final decision by June 20, 2024. This, though, was delayed by the general election and expected to be issued by October 4, 2024… when it was delayed again. The new date is Friday, May 23, 2025. We await…
The proposed London Resort theme park threatens the SSSI on the Swanscombe peninsula. This scheme achieved NSIP status (and attracted government funding) but failed to define either its environmental impact or produce a detailed design in the nine years since it obtained that status.
The application for a Development Consent Order was finally withdrawn in May 2022 after years of delay and obfuscation; however, the parent company is still trading and thought to be selling new investments in the project. The government has failed to clarify (remove) the NSIP status of the project.
CPRE and other conservation groups have been highlighting the lack of clear assessment of the project’s impacts through the consultation process. The scheme’s status has impinged on Ebbsfleet Garden City, due to the uncertainties it has created and the lack of clear plans provided.
The new Ebbsfleet Garden City (15,000 houses) is a massive development that will utilise brownfield sites as well as greenfield in Dartford and Gravesend – but the importance of sustainability and environmental protection in the decision-making process is critical. We monitor new development proposals for the ‘city’ as they arise. Although the build-through rates for this project have been extremely slow (20 years from plan to first completions), there is significant danger of urban sprawl as further plots become absorbed by it.
Where we are today
The Dartford Local Plan was adopted on April 22, 2024.
Meanwhile, a partial review of Gravesham’s Local Plan Core Strategy, Site Allocations and a Development Management Policies Document has been undertaken. Regulation 19 consultation is awaited pending resolution of issues surrounding traffic modelling in connection with the proposed Lower Thames Crossing.