Campaigners raise £11,000 to fight proposals

A FIGHTING fund of some £11,000 has already been raised by campaigners opposed to the expansion plans.

Some 300 opponents of the development were in the Wyvern hall, Sittingbourne, lastd Friday night to air their concerns during a public meeting.

Speakers included Sittingbourne and Sheppey Labour MP Derek Wyatt who said afterwards: "This is a second rate deal for the county Kent County Council does not have a proper vision for science parks. Sittingbourne's infrastructure will collapse if this scheme goes ahead."

Representatives from the five parishes directly affected Bredgar, Bapchild, Tunstall, Milstead and Rodmersham each spoke to condemn the scheme.

Among them was Bredgar Parish Council chairman Cllr Beverley Willis who said: "We hope our fighting fund will raise £20,000 by next April to pay for the fees of planning consultants and other legal advisors. The parish councils have all contributed to the fighting fund too.

"It was a very good meeting and we are determined to fight this scheme all the way."

After the meeting, project director Simon Reynold said the public's concerns were understandable but added: "We are not deliberately holding back the detail of our plans.

"We are not yet at the planning application stage so cannot be precise about the scheme.

"Thames Gateway plans are now really beginning to take off but we are only a small proportion of the greenfield sites due to be built on.

"The Government has only paid for two motorway junctions leading to single businesses one is the Channel Tunnel terminal near Folkestone and the other is Greenham Common in Berkshire that is why we have to find the funding from the housing development to pay for a new junction to serve an expanded science park and the road scheme."

This article is used with the kind permission of The Kent Messenger Group