Everyone's voices must be heard
02 Aug 2006
HAVING attended the Kent Science Park presentation on Thursday, July 13, it seems plain that it is now urgent that everyone in Sittingbourne — not just the five south-side villages — should get involved to register their opposition to this plan.Kent Science Park proposes the expansion of the "science" park, allied to a new junction for the M2 and 5,000 new houses, ostensibly to pay for the junction, telling us they will produce new jobs. How many of these will be ephemeral, connected only to construction work? How many will go to Swale residents?
The "science" park is an industrial estate based on a formerly dedicated scientific research centre. The current tenants have, generally, only a tenuous claim to being scientific — publishing scientific journals, or housing the admin HQ of a health trust. Is that scientific?
The owners of the park, without any interest from any university (which is one of the major factors of success in other science parks), are proposing a massive expansion of an industrial estate of the type which Swale Council is supposed to be promoting in north Sittingbourne and on Sheppey, now that we have the Northern Relief Road and the new Swale crossing.
Why is this scheme on greenfield land on the other side of Sittingbourne being encouraged by Swale Council?
Southern Water is required by law to supply water for new homes. It has no say in whether it thinks this is feasible and has admitted it does not have the water for current needs, let alone 5,000 new houses. There are not enough NHS doctors and dentists in Swale and falling primary school rolls means KCC will not sanction a new secondary school north of the A2.
I am not a nimby, but feel that there is no justifiable business need to expand the park outside its current perimeter when there are other, much more viable, sites within Swale which would not require the permanent destruction of the countryside.
Sara-Louise Stark.
Albany Road. Sittingbourne.
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