Town waking up to becoming dormitory

I am sure your readers choked with disbelief when they read your report (May 19) on the proposed expansion of the research centre and found that the number of people opposed to it was “actually quite small”. One has to wonder under which sand dune the developers have been burying their heads.

If there has been little organised protest, it is mainly because until now the people of Sittingbourne and surrounding villages have had precious little information about the plans. Even now, the map you showed fails to convey the full impact of the scheme.

What is planned is that the whole area between the centre and Highsted Quarries will be covered in thousands of houses, industry, etc needed to pay for the road, which can be justified only if it id projected north-eastwards to meet the Northern Relief Road at Radfield, near Teynham.

The whole of this area is designated in the new draft Local Plan as a Special Landscape Area to be protected from development. Fine words, but how effective will they be against avaricious developers and ambitious politicians?

Sittingbourne has already lost much of its surrounding countryside to housing. Must we lose more to provide houses for thousands of new residents who certainly won’t find work in or around Sittingbourne?

Or is it the grand plan that Sittingbourne should be the dormitory town for the rest of the Thames Gateway?

Malcolm Moore,
Chairman, the Sittingbourne Society