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The Battle for Western Heights and Farthingloe
A housing estate on the White Cliffs of Dover? Surely not! Well, after Dover District Council on 13th June approved the application for development to build 521 new houses, together with a hotel and other assorted buildings in the Dover District, the iconic cliffs are looking threatened.
The plan for this large development is especially damaging as part of the site, at Farthingloe, sits within the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The other half of this coupled application is at the Western Heights, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and near to a number of other historic buildings. Despite local protest, as well as our own Senior Planner Brian Lloyd, speaking against the development, Dover’s Planning Committee decided to approve the proposals on the grounds that it may help regenerate the economy.
So, what now? The campaign to save this beautiful landscape must really begin! CPRE Protect Kent have written to the National Planning Casework Unit requesting the application be ‘called in’–that is, decided by Government. This will be a test case in many senses, as the AONB designation should http://propeciafinasteridestore.com afford this area the greatest protection against development. Under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), AONBs should only be developed in ‘exceptional circumstances’ which will be in ‘benefit of the public interest’. We do not believe that the applicant, China Gateway International Ltd, has proven that this is the case. The site is not even in the Council’s own Core Strategy, approved in 2010, which determines where development should be allowed to occur within the District. In fact, the Council themselves ruled the site inappropriate in their Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA). If it was an inappropriate site in 2010, what exactly has changed now? Why should the Council allow development on an area of nationally important land which has both heritage and landscape designations protected under national policy? CPRE Protect Kent intends to challenge this decision and we hope that we will be able to protect this iconic and historic landscape.
If you would like to help our charity fight this development, as well as others throughout Kent, then click here to join the campaign!
- 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
