Counil say yes to more housing

Well it didn’t take long for Swale Borough Council to backtrack on their refusal to allow the Meads estate to expand any further.

Last September in a blaze of publicity when they refused the extra housing due to unsustainable development that raised highway safety issues, they went to great lengths to demonstrate to voters how they were against such development. All this at the exact same time as increased in the numbers on the Fulston Mannor estate.

Only last summer Swale Borough Council put forward an extra 600 house development at Stones Farm in Bapchild to support a so-called shortfall in housing numbers. By November this predicted shortfall over a 10 year period had already reduced to just 231 houses.

Now still less than one year into this ten year plan this number has reduced again to just 44 houses. However because Swale Borough Council were so keen to push Stones Farm there is still the chance that this could go ahead. This along with other housing also included in the Local Plan could see Swale swamped with an extra 2,000 houses above the level required by government.

Swale Borough Council see housing as nothing more than a cash cow with increased revenue from Council Tax and additional section 106 contributions to be had from the developers, housing is no longer being provided solely to meet the needs of the residents of Swale, but as a mechanism to fund the various ambitions of the select few on the executive of the council.