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Thanks for your support on Farthingloe
CPRE Kent certainly hit the headlines last week with our great news on Farthingloe. We won an important victory in our lengthy legal battle to save an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and two judges at the Court of Appeal quashed the planning application to build 521 homes and a 90 apartment retirement village.
Not only were we on all the local radio and television programmes but the press coverage ranged from the lead story in specialist planning magazines to a prominent three-quarter page feature in The Times. It was covered well in all our local newspapers (with some good supportive comments) and featured in publications as far away as Portsmouth and Scarborough. Plus tens of thousands of Twitter interactions and hundreds of Facebook engagements.
You may be particularly interested to read the following UK Human Rights blog by clicking here.
We also wanted to share some of the positive comments with you – below is just a snapshot:
“My goodness, that is a tiny membership subscription well spent.”
“… just fantastic news! ”
“What a splendid result.”
“It is terrific that the Appeal Court ‘saw through’ the efforts of Dover DC to pretend that they were taking proper account of the AONB.”
“Wow, it has made our day. What a day for all those of us who want to protect our glorious countryside.”
“It is indeed a very gratifying outcome and makes campaigning on such developments worthwhile,”
“Hooray . Well done indeed!”
“This is indeed a landmark ruling and one which offers a lot of optimism for the future.”
“A brave move for CPRE to take this so far through the courts, but vindicated by absolutely the right result.”
“What a fantastic result – great news for the CPRE and the Kent Downs.”
“Hats off to @CPREKent for its fight to save beautiful countryside in the Kent Downs AONB. Campaigning works!”
“Great news, well done @CPREKent”
“Well done @CPREKent We need orgs like u to protect our countryside”
“So pleased for @CPREKent after saving Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty outside Dover from developers.”
“Too right! Congrats @CPREKent Councils should develop brownfield sites & protect countryside”
“Fantastic legal victory for countryside & important precedent requiring decisions to include adequate reasons”
“This is brilliant! Thank you so much! I spoke against this at the original, shambolic planning meeting and I’m over the moon!”
“Restores faith in our legal system”
“I am so glad the hard work has paid off. It is very good news and I finally can celebrate a victory which means hopefully beautiful Kent countryside stays that way.”
Thank you once again to everyone who supports us.
September 19th 2016.
- 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
