As you can imagine our residents have been copying us in with emails 'sent' and emails 'received'. Here is a flavour of a typical email sent to our representatives by a local resident.
Dear Ms Hollingsbee and Ms Carey
I feel compelled to write to express my deep concern about the proposed garden town.
I want to leave you both and David Monk in doubt as to how I feel that you have treated the local community, you should all be ashamed of the underhanded tactics that have used to attempt to ruin the community and environment in which we live.
How you can justify making decisions of this magnitude without consulting your electorate is beyond belief. You purchase land using our money, you refute that the land will be used for development and then announce your bigger plan. Dirty, underhanded tactics by anyone's standards.
Where is your moral commitment to us the electorate. You are representatives of the people who elected you and you are making decisions which will affect our lives for by your own admission 20 - 30 years. It's all very well crowing about the high standard of design of houses that you will be able to influence the jobs you will create and the green spaces you will provide. What about the green spaces we all enjoy at present which you are quite happy to bury under concrete, tarmac and bricks. You are making it sound as if you are going to be creating a piece of heaven for the lucky new home owners (all of whom you are suggesting will be local). Incidentally, are there 12,000 people looking for homes in the immediate areas being affected.
You should be ashamed of yourselves for letting the local people down so badly. You should be working to protect the environment and communities in which we live. I only hope that prior to the next local elections you all have the good grace to stand aside and give people who truly care about their electorate stand for the positions you hold. You are all a disgrace and the next local elections will be our 'unmissable opportunity' to ensure that none of you return to the positions you hold. You are elected to reflect the views of the electorate and I see very little evidence of that.
Perhaps you would like to raise my issues and concerns with your cabinet colleagues and form a suitable reply at the earliest opportunity.
Yours sincerely
We anxiously await a reply.
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Now, if you are thinking of writing to Damian Collins MP, on the subject of a Garden Town (Bonkersville), this is the reply that you will receive. So why not copy and paste this to Mr. Collins requesting it not be sent, but ask for a dedicated response to address the issues that you individually raise.
Thank you for your recent correspondence about Shepway District Council's proposals to submit a bid to the government for support to create a new 'garden town' on the land surrounding Otterpool Park Farm. The council has my full support in its decision to launch this debate, but it is also important that we all have our say on the proposals.
I have said before that I believe the creation of high quality homes and business properties on land close to junction 11 has the opportunity to give a significant economic boost to our area. It could allow Westenhanger to become a modern parkway railway station, accessed directly from the motorway junction, rather than by the narrow lane through the village. This development could fund a new design and layout for the Newingreen junction on the A20. Also, by creating a masterplan for where development in this area could, and also shouldn't take place, we can protect ourselves from future plans being brought forward by speculative developers.
There are also important points to note now about the council's 'garden town' bid. Firstly, whilst there will be considerable discussion about the total of 12,000 homes which could be included in the development, that is the upper limit of what would be allowed, and not a target that has to be met. If the 'garden town' bid proposal was successful, no building would start until 2020, and the development would take place over a thirty-year period. In this regard, we are not only considering the demand now for family and affordable homes, but the requirements in future decades as well.
The 'garden' style design of a development like this will also be of the utmost importance; the proposal is certainly not one to create a densely constructed urban community. The council has stated that at least 30 per cent of the land that would be included as part of the 'garden town' would be kept as green space. Importantly, this also includes a commitment that green space between Lympne village and the 'garden town' development would be preserved.
If Shepway District Council is successful in securing support from the government to create a new garden town at Otterpool Park, it can also receive financial backing to fund community infrastructure like new schools and health centres. The existing facilities would not be required to stretch to cope with the demands placed upon them by a larger local population. The government could also make funding available to build affordable homes to buy for local people, at a discount from their market value.
This proposal is bold, and could create a large number of new jobs for local people over many years, as well as providing substantial investment into local services. However, if this plan is to go forward we have to get it right, and ensure it is designed in such a way as to create the maximum benefit for our communities. It would be wrong however to reject this proposal out of hand, and not to give it serious consideration.
Our Association would still prefer to look out onto a field and watch old bullocks roaming as opposed to being sent electronically. We are sure you feel the same.
S&DRA
