The article in this month's Sellindge News, submitted by Ronald Lello - Chairman of the Sellindge Residents Association, is as follows:
Sellindge and District Residents Association
KCC are going to list the Countrystyle Application to turn Otterpool Quarry into a huge Waste Treatment and Anaerobic Digester site on 20th January 2011 at County Hall Maidstone. This means much preparation in December and early January. Urban Initiatives, the planning consultants who Shepway DC have appointed to reshape our village, are going to present their findings in the Village Community Hall on the 10th (pm) and 11th December. We can vote for one of two proposals or, instead, we can tell them we do not want any change. Whatever we decide to do, crucial planning developments, which will radically change our village permanently, will all be determined during the next two months.
Here in Sellindge most villagers have a real sense of responsibility and a concern for future generations to come, as is clear from the response to our Questionnaire. Completed Questionnaire forms are still arriving but provisional results indicate a huge majority – some 85% - for establishing a new Village Green opposite the Post Office and Co-op in the field that once, was our common land until the Reverend Champney with others ‘enclosed’ it in the early 19th century. Another huge majority – a mega 95% - have voted for keeping our open spaces and existing views between houses. After all, this is the character of our village. Oh yes, and many many thanks to the anonymous person who sent me a suspicious bundle of Questionnaires all voting against the Village Green idea, yet un-typically not one name appears on them – anyway we are honest and we have included them in the statistics. Were these suspicious Questionnaires not included then the percentage of villagers voting positively for a village green would be over 90%. In short, while some of us are prepared to accept limited change towards a real improvement in the village – only the land owners and their associates appear to think that selling large chunks of their land for mega development, where ever it is, will make us a more beautiful and safer village. No surprise there then. Many thanks to all who have completed the Questionnaire and, to those who have just not got round to it, please do so. We shall reply to all messages sent to us although there are so many, it may take a while.
It continues to amaze me that serious consideration is being given to a proposal to build a large industrial site for the purpose of processing dangerous waste – it really is a danger to water, air and earth, let alone to people – right in between three villages all regarded as major areas for housing development and population growth. This dreadful proposal could have been halted by the Environment Agency. Their duty is to protect the Environment so as to protect us here in Sellindge, Lympne and Stanford. They are failing to do so. Julie and Patrick Breen who run the Airport Café are just 50 metres from the site and directly opposite the entrance so that everyone of the 170 HGV’s entering and leaving the Quarry each day will be belching fumes and filth over anyone still brave enough to eat there. Julie serves up to 300 customers each day and her family have run that Café for over 70 years. Surely, the Environment Agency have a duty to protect the Breens and their Café along with the rest of us?
Ronald Lello – Chairman Sellindge Residents Association
