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Green Belt champion to address Gravesham meeting
(pic KMTV)
Richard Knox-Johnston, CPRE Kent vice-president, is joining the fray as campaigners step up their efforts to protect Green Belt land in Gravesham.
Mr Knox-Johnston, who is also chairman of the London Green Belt Council, will be speaking at a public meeting about housing development in the borough at Istead Rise this month.
The meeting is being organised by Gravesham Rural Residents Group because it says Gravesham Borough Council is not holding any such events as it reviews its Local Plan core strategy.
The council appears to be suggesting that 2,000 more homes than previously anticipated will need to be built in the borough and GRRG, of which Gravesham CPRE is a member, says the majority of options to cater for them entail the release of land from the Metropolitan Green Belt for development.
Although it has not set up any meetings about its proposals, GBC has produced a questionnaire asking residents for their views. However, the rural group believes this is flawed and “designed to make [respondents] support building on the Green Belt”.
As such, it is asking people not to fill in the questionnaire until they have been to the Istead Rise meeting, where they will be advised how to complete it if they do not wanting building on the Green Belt.
In a bid to attract as wide an audience as possible, the group is posing the following questions via social media:
Do you want more air pollution?
Do you want to wait longer for medical treatment?
Do you want your journeys to take longer? (traffic on the A227 is set to increase by 10,000 vehicles a day due to the planned Lower Thames Crossing)
Do you not want your children to attend the school of your choice?
Do you want to live in an extension of London?
Alex Hills, Gravesham CPRE chairman, said: “Gravesham Borough Council wants to build 2,000 homes on your Green Belt that they do not need to build.
“If you value your Green Belt, now is the time to fight for it!”
- The meeting is being held at Istead Rise Community Centre on Friday, May 18, at 7pm. All Gravesham residents are welcome.
- For more on this story, see here https://archive.cprekent.org.uk/green-belt/gravesham-green-belt-grabs/
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
- A number of important documents have yet to emerge. For example, a rigorous transport plan and a finalised air-quality assessment. The latter is critical given that allocations at Teynham will feed extra traffic into AQMAs.
- There seems to be no coherent plan for infrastructure delivery – a key component of the plan given the allocations being proposed near the already crowded Junction 7.
- There seems to have been little or no cooperation with neighbouring boroughs or even parish councils within Swale itself.
The removal of a second consultation might have been understandable if this final version of the plan were similar to that being talked about at the beginning of the consultation process. It is, however, radically different in the following ways:
- There has been a major shift in the balance of housing allocations, away from the west of the borough over to the east, especially around the historic town of Faversham. This is a move that raises many concerns.
- A new large allocation, with accompanying A2 bypass, has appeared around Teynham and Lynsted, to which we are objecting.
- Housing allocations in the AONB around Neames Forstal that were judged “unsuitable” by the council’s own officers have now appeared as part of the housing numbers.
- Most of the housing allocations being proposed are on greenfield sites, many of them on Grade 1 agricultural land – a point to which we are strongly objecting.
Concerns about the rush to submit the plan
The haste with which the plan is being prepared is especially worrying given the concentration of housing in Faversham. If the town is to take a large amount of new housing, it is imperative that the policies concerning the area are carefully worked out to preserve, as far as possible, the unique nature of the town. The rush to submit the plan is likely to prove detrimental.
As Swale does not have a five-year land housing supply, it is open to speculative development proposals, many of which would run counter to the ideas contained in the current plan. Some are already appearing. This is a common situation, and one that, doubtless, is a reason behind Swale’s haste.
Our overriding fear, however, is that this emphasis on haste is ultimately going to prove counterproductive. This is because it is our view that the plan, in its current form, is unlikely to pass independent examination. We are urging Swale to listen to and act upon the comments being made about the plan and to return the plan to the council with appropriate modifications before submitting it to the Secretary of State.
Essentially, this means treating the current consultation not as the final one but as the ‘lost’ second consultation.
The consultation ends on Friday 30 April and we strongly urge residents to make their opinions known if they have not already done so.
Further information
