Landscape Capacity Study casts doubt over viability of large scale expansion.

15 Jan 2011

The Swale Urban Extension Landscape Capacity Study carried out by Jacobs Engineering UK Limited at a cost of £10,000 considers the landscape implications of possible extensions to Swale’s principal urban settlements.

The study which examined 27 predefined areas considers whether these possible urban extensions should be contemplated. The report concedes that the area to the south of the existing Kent Science Park site, where the major expansion and motorway junction would be located is one of three of the most sensitive areas in the whole of Swale of the 27 areas examined.

The land around the Kent Science Park is according to the report highly sensitive, of high landscape value and has a low capacity for change, making it more important than large areas of Faversham and the surrounding countryside that Council has sought to protect for environmental reasons.

If development is allowed here it would set a precedent that would leave Swale’s countryside including Faversham totally unprotected.

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