Science park will be a disaster

Readers may be interested to see a copy of the letter we have sent to Swale Council planning department about the proposed development of Sittingbourne Science Park.

We wish to record our strong opposition to the plans for the link road from the M2 to the proposed expanded science park and on to Radfield, with the supporting high-density housing.

We attended Swale House on the first day the Local Plan was made available for public consultation. There was no mention of the above proposal in the plan, so we asked to speak to someone from planning.

We were told that no such proposal had been submitted to the council, so they were unable to comment.

However, we were led to believe the counsil had earmarked brownfield sites and the area to the north of the town for development.

We agreed in principle, but voiced our reservations regarding adequacy of education, health and water to cope with the proposed expansion.

The plans were published in the East Kent Gazette of June 2.

We note in addition to increasing the size of Sittingbourne Research Centre by 450 per cent, the proposed housing already in the Local Plan. This would be unsustainable without major investment in education, health and water services.

The term ‘science park’ is itself misleading. A science park does not house scientific research, bio-technological or pharmaceutical enterprises, but simply IT/telecoms companies, which could surely be housed on the industrial parks in the Local Plan.

The East Kent Gazette (June 9) reports that the Environment Agency has joined forces with water companies to issue a warning to householders and gardeners to use water wisely, to avoid shortages becoming a way of life.

Howard Davidson, the south east regional director of the agency, was reported as saying: “As a region, we have a very high population and rely heavily on rainfall to keep water levels high”.

“Ours is one of the lowest areas of rainfall distribution in the country, so how can we sustain all this proposed new demand on the scant resource?”

The Sunday Telegraph (June 13) published statistics from the Environment Agency showing there are only 58,000 gallons of water available  for every person in south east England per year, as opposed to 95,000 gallons per person in Syria, 269,000 gallons in Sudan and 610,000 gallons in Spain.

One of the main charms of Sittingbourne for many is the proximity (only 30 minutes on foot from the High Street) to rolling countryside of orchards, grazing land, arable land and ancient woodland, with a good network of footpaths allowing easy access for all.

If the proposed development of the science park, road and housing is allowed, this will be lost and the pretty and historic villages of Rodmersham, Bapchild and Tunstall will be absorbed into urban Sittingbourne – a rape of the landscape that will be irreversible.

Micheal and Jill Godfrey
Woodstock Road
Sittingbourne