Only 13% of jobs at Kent Science Park for people living in Sittingbourne
The housing
4,500 houses over 230 acres of Swale countryside to be constructed with the sole purpose of funding a road that is also not required.
If that's not bad enough this equates to 49 properties per hectare on average, which is the kind of density only found in inner city developments. KCC's own consultants concluded that this was not appropriate for a development of this size even if you were to accept this very high density.
To put this into perspective Sonora fields one of the largest developments in the Swale has only 950 dwellings on 37ha (91 acres) of land giving a density of 25.68. We have five times as much housing on just a site just two and a half times the size.
Kent County councillor Keith Ferrin called the proposed development of 4,500 homes the equivalent of a modern day slum.
Click for enlarged image of housing sites
We barley have the infrastructure to cope with the existing community needs and Swale are to build another 9,100 homes in the next ten years. Another 4,500 in additional to this would make a difficult situation intolerable.
With no new secondary school until at the very least 2016 its not a question of which school are my children to go to, but which town? The development at Iwade already forces extra traffic on the roads with their daily trips to Faversham, the only place with capicty left. But are we building new homes in Faversham where the school places are? Well yes but only 1,000 out of the 9,100 new homes will be built in Faversham.