MP damns KCC's plans for science and housing

THE EXPANSION of Kent Science Park and its associated housing is a "wretched scheme", says Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Derek Wyatt.

In a speech in the House of Commons, the Labour MP took the opportunity to criticise the Kent and Medway Structure Plan, a blueprint for development in the county for the next 20 years.

The plan created on behalf of Kent County Council and Medway Council has identified Kent Science Park as one of four science centres. Its owners want to expand the site, creating thousands of new homes, a new junction with the M2 and a link road to the A2. But Mr Wyatt suggested the county's planners should look elsewhere.

He said the two major science companies in Kent are Pfizers at Sandwich and Abbott's at Queenborough, American companies that should be worked with to create learning centres similar to those in the States.

Mr Wyatt pointed out that in this country all science parks are attached to universities. He thinks a partnership should be sought with Imperial College to give the county a chance of creating a world-class university.

But the formation of a science park at Ashford — near Imperial College's base at Wye — is not part of the Kent and Medway Structure Plan.

Mr Wyatt also attacked KCC's housing policy, which he said allowed the creation of vast new estates without enforcing planning agreements (known as section 106 agreements) that force developers to help fund vital infrastructure such as schools and health centres.

He said: "At Warden Bay, we were promised a primary school. It never happened. We were promised another on the Meads estate at Bobbing. That never happened, either. Now I learn that the large Thistle Hill estate being built on the Isle of Sheppey will not after all have a primary schooL

"Three different developers have reached - a section 106 agreement with Kent County Council but have walked away smiling.

"They have lined their share-holders' pockets, but they have not improved the quality of life of my constituents."

He added that housing of the quality of developments such as New Earswick, near York, widely acknowledged as an example of best practice, should be pursued, instead of the "rabbit-hutch estates that currently adorn the north Kent coast".