Money talks, locals demand to be heard

Thank you for bringing more light to the proposed idea of expanding the newly-named Kent Science Park.

The impact to the local villages of Bapchild, Rodmersham, Tunstall, Bredgar and Borden would be catastrophic, to say the least.

Your interview with Andrew Bull, Nick Sharp and Simon Reynolds (May 19) was of great help to the people who live within the so-called proposed expansion area.

Mr Bull says the science park must go forward and not backwards, but destroying the local communities and the surrounding countryside is not the way forward, but a profit-only exercise.

The science park has been in the area for many years now and for those of us who have put up with the sight of ugly buildings in a beautiful setting, it is certainly unthinkable to consider the owners want to expand the complex, build an unwanted road and put up more low-rate housing.

It is a simple question to ask, but do any of the three people that you interviewed live in the area? Will their house be blighted by a road? Will their houses be under the barrage of continual noise? Will their lives be wrecked by someone building in their back garden?

It is easy for those three to say it is the way forward, because it most probably does not affect their home lives.

I and many others moved here to get away from the noise and destruction of people like these and I will not let them tear apart a peaceful community.

To say that Sittingbourne id a “deprived” area is a statement from someone who obviously does not live here.

Continually building houses has not made Sittingbourne any better a place to live, nor has it brought prosperity to the town, so adding thousands of houses will not make an ounce of difference to the local community, except for more traffic, noise and pollution.

Sittingbourne will not prosper by adding more office space and, ultimately, more houses. The only people who will benefit from this will be the farmer who sold hid land and the owners of the science park.

Please remember that the majority of people do not live within shouting distance of their workplace. In fact, most people commute to work and will still want to be able to rid themselves of the stress of work on the journey to and from the workplace.

The town centre of Sittingbourne will not change in the slightest by adding more to the science park site and the building of more houses. People in general like to “travel and shop”, especially when we have Canterbury, Maidstone and Bluewater within easy reach.

To state that change unnerves a lot of people  is certainly correct, but to build more unwanted houses, expand an industrial estate and plough a road through a peaceful setting is a total disgrace.

If the company wants to redevelop the area, it should find more suitable, already built-up brownfield site, rather than a greenbelt community. How sad of Mr Sharp to say “the children of Sittingbourne would never forgive us if this did not go ahead”. I think you will find, Mr Sharp, that the children will feel the same as the adults about the destruction of land – especially if the natural inhabitants of the woods and surrounding fields are wiped out.

Come on, Mr Reynolds. Have you seen the Pfizer site at Sandwich? It has destroyed the countryside. We will not let you do this to Sittingbourne, enough damage has been done already in our town.

The noise created by the link road would cause irreparable damage to the community and the wildlife, let alone the extra pollution that everyone would have to endure.

I live in Cromers Road and would have a great deal of trouble selling a house that I have worked hard for if this plan goes ahead. The poor people in Highest Valley would be almost definitely be blighted. After all, who would buy a house next to a major road link?

I am not interested in the renaming of the science park, because it is almost certainly a marketing ploy.

Today, my family and I were out walking and the noise from the motorway could easily be heard in the fields and woods. Imagine if you built a link road, what it would be like then.

Think again, Kent Science Park: the communities are ready for a fight!

Lance Fincham,
Cromers Road,
Tunstall