The Five Parishes Group campaign

The Scheme

Two separate planning applications comprising 1,667 acres of open countryside including 8,400 dwellings, 170,000 sqm (1.7m sqft) commercial development, a motorway junction, a link road from M2 to A2 etc weaving there way around the villages of Bapchild, Rodmersham, Tunstall, Milstead and Bredgar. 

Facts

  • This development is not in any Local Plan.
  • This development is not policy compliant
  • This development is not on brownfield land.
  • This development is not on Green Belt or or Grey Land

This development is on prime agricultural land, ancient woodland, partly in a National Park engulfing our Kent villages and decimating thousands of acres of prime agricultural land, the National Park, historic landscape, ancient woodlands, conservation areas, water protection zones and hedgerows. 

What’s the latest?

At a Planning Committee meeting held at 6pm in Swale Borough Council on Thursday 7 November, planners, parish councils, residents and specialists voiced grave concerns over the potential strain the proposals would have on local infrastructure, roads, healthcare, and education facilities - many of which are already overstretched. There is a whole suite of Statutory bodies objecting to the schemes from Highways England, KCC Highways, Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England etc

The planning applications were lodged in late 2022 however the applicants failed to submit proper evidence and as a result the local authority as well as many of the statutory agencies said they couldn’t support the schemes for lack of transparency and evidence. On number occasions the applicant revised the evidence, changed the scheme yet in the end failed to provide the relevant information, satisfy officers, locals and statutory agencies of the evidence and detail.

We find it astonishing that the local MP Kevin McKenna could support such a scheme that is such low quality with such devastating impact not just on the immediate area but also on Sittingbourne and the wider area. As well as the proposals lacking clarity and detail, they contravened current local planning guidelines, Environmental law etc, leading the Planning Committee to unanimously support the officers recommendations had it been making a decision on the night. 

This call in by Government is extraordinary, for a speculative scheme to bypass the local authority’s recommendations prior to a meeting.  What is has done is triggered a full scale public planning inquiry starting on 11th March, expected to last for approx 3 months. This will cost Swale council a huge amount of money to defend and it has to pay for Public Inquiry Programme officer as as specialist representation.  It’s totally outrageous. 

Clearly the local parishes are totally aghast and want to fully take part in the inquiry but its going to costs thousands of pounds, we need specialist representation, including legal representation with barristers.