Swale council calls on housing secretary Angela Rayner to visit Sittingbourne and Teynham before she decides on Highsted Park plans

30 Jan 2025

A council is calling on Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to visit a site earmarked for thousands of homes before she decides on whether they should be built or not.

Swale council has invited the secretary of state for housing communities and local government to the area ahead of an inquiry into the Highsted Park development near Sittingbourne which begins on March 11.

Plans for the 8,400 home estate were controversially called in by Ms Rayner just hours before the council’s planning committee was expected to reject them.

It means Ms Rayner has the ultimate decision on the Quinn Estates scheme which is split across two applications and covers the edge of the town and Teynham.

Last night (January 29), councillors representing the village called on Swale council to ask her to travel from Westminster to the borough to find out what impact her decision will have.

Cllr Julien Speed, who was behind the request alongside Conservative colleague Cllr Lloyd Bowen, said prior to the meeting: “Looking at the planning report does not bring what the area is like to life.

“Highsted Park, which has been called a garden village but is really a town the size of Faversham in terms of expected population, is a test case for the government and its housing targets.

“So it is important for the secretary of state to come and see it for herself and listen to the views of people living here before she makes her decision.”

The motion passed with a comfortable majority with 35 councillors voting for it and three against. Three councillors abstained.

One of the Labour government’s manifesto pledges is to build 1.5 million new homes across the country over the next five years.

But Ms Rayner told a housing select committee on January 7 that this number of new builds would only make a “dent” in the housing crisis.

The scheme is split across two applications, the first of which includes community space, a hotel, a new recycling centre, and primary and secondary schools.

This is for land surrounding Sittingbourne, with two halves named Highsted Village and Oakwood Village.

There is also a provision for a new M2 motorway junction and the completion of the Southern Relief Road.

The second application is for a smaller site, known as Teynham West, which is proposed to take up to 1,250 homes, plus sheltered and extra care accommodation, a primary school, and the Bapchild section of a Northern Relief Road which is already allocated in the Local Plan.

There was a backlash against the decision for a public inquiry, with Cllr Speed accusing the government of “ripping it away” from the “democratically elected local council.”

It later emerged Labour MP Kevin McKenna – who was elected in July – had personally asked Ms Rayner to intervene.

The call-in sparked chaos within the council’s ruling coalition which collapsed within a matter of days.

Swale Green party pulled out after it accused Labour of “putting profit above people and the planet” following the call-in.

Three days later Labour decided to go it alone, leaving Swale Independents as the largest opposition party.

Labour council leader Tim Gibson said he and his party felt the cross-section of councillors was no longer “fair” following the exit of the Greens.

Article by Joe Crossley for Kent Online




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