c/o 29 Honeywood Close
Lympne
Kent
CT21 4JS
Tel: 01303 230525
23rd June 2016
The Rt Hon. Greg Clark MP
Secretary of State for
Communities and Local Government
2 Marsden Street
London
SW1P 4DF
Dear Mr. Clark
You will by now have received an application from Shepway District Council (SDC), for building a New Garden Town.
Lympne Parish Council has understandable concerns in connection with this proposal and its potential impact on our community and environment.
However, the purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention the lack of transparency and underhand conduct of SDC in this matter.
We would like to draw your attention to the following points:
1.The agricultural land that they intend to use for the New Town was purchased for £5.3 million by Shepway District Council in December 2015 (in excess of £1000/acre above the going rate using tax payers' money that they borrowed).
2.This purchase was completed before either a cabinet meeting or a full Council meeting. Our two District Councillors who represent our ward were also not aware of the purchase.
3.In January we received the following email from county councillor Ms Susan Carey
'I believe it is a very sound investment. In the immediate future it will continue to be farmed. I am very pleased we have control over this land. There are as yet no plans for what we might do and I am sure you will want to let us know what you want/don't want.
4. In April rumours started to circulate about 450 houses being built on the recently purchased land; again our local district councillors were unable to give us any information.
5.On May 6th 2016 the following announcement was made (on Shepway Council website):
Otterpool Park - A Garden Town for the future:
"Leader of Shepway District Council, Cllr David Monk, has announced the council's intention to bid for a garden town in the area surrounding Otterpool Manor Farm."
6.The application made clear that it would be for a garden town of 12,000 houses, which would include the recently purchased land and the old Folkestone racecourse.
It did not mention that in 2013 an application for 800 houses to be built on the racecourse was turned down by the planning inspector, or indeed, that Shepway Council turned down an application for 250 houses on the former Lympne airfield site, which is within the proposed area, and the decision was upheld on appeal in 2014
"I consider that there is no overriding requirement for a development of this size within this location. The appeal proposal would have serious and harmful consequences, especially in terms of the environmental dimension of sustainability….my overall conclusion is that they would be significantly and demonstrably outweighed by the adverse impacts….in the circumstances I conclude that the appeal scheme would not be a sustainable form of development."
Christina Downs, Government Planning Inspector: September 2014
7. The leader of Shepway Council is on record as saying:
"It's not green space. Most of the time it's brown, it's mud, brown mud. It's cockalooloo land. Its agricultural fields. You can't say we can't build on fields. It hardly affects anyone"
Against this background, and together with the other surrounding parish councils, we were invited to a meeting convened by Councillor Monk and the Chief Executive of Shepway Council, Alasdair Stewart, on June 7th, where we were informed that the application would go to the Shepway Council cabinet the following evening.
At the meeting with the parish councils there was a request by a member of the audience for a show of hands in support of SDC's proposals of an expression of interest. Cllr Monk refused this. However, on the insistence of the same member of the audience, an indication of support was again requested.
The show of hands, unsurprisingly under the circumstances, was 100% against the proposal.
This meeting was not minuted, instead a feedback sheet was produced by SDC, which did not adequately reflect the tenor of the meeting.
This underhand process and ludicrous timetable has given us no time to have any sensible discussions with either residents or our local councillors, who we feel should be/are our locally elected representatives.
We have received numerous objections in the last 2 weeks from residents who understandably consider that they have had this thrust upon them without any consultation.
In your criteria for support (Para55 and 56) you say 'expressions of interest should set out how the local community is being engaged ….to help win local support'.
Not only has this not occurred, but also local support will be very difficult to achieve after the council has displayed such a degree of secrecy and duplicity with this proposal.
In relation to paragraph 61, this area may be well placed for the M20 and have a station, but not all traffic will use these. The surrounding roads are mainly small lanes and unsuitable for a large increase in traffic.
In your prospectus you state that you are not looking to support places which merely use "garden" as a convenient label."
We are not convinced that the area included in the site map of approx. 600 hectares, will accommodate 80 hectares of light industrial land, a large car park for the station, 12,000 houses, schools, shops etc and 30% green space.
The area surrounding the proposed garden town is largely AONB and therefore, because of this proximity, was not in the past thought suitable for large-scale development.
You will appreciate that if this development goes ahead there will be major problems with infrastructure - water, sewage, energy etc. We appreciate that if asked to provide water, the water companies have, by law, to agree to provide it. However, we would like to remind you that this is one of the driest areas in the country.
This development was not part of the Local Plan and will subsume the surrounding villages increasing the local population by 30,000, and that of Shepway by 30%.
We recognize that some new development is required but not on this scale. What we are being asked to provide is an overflow for the population, not of Kent, but of London.
We consider that this proposal has not been prepared in accordance with your policy document and the process (or lack of it) should therefore be of major concern to you.
This is not the way that councils should behave towards their residents and you will understand that we have completely lost all faith and trust in Shepway district council.
We look to you to assess this proposal in the light of all the evidence, in particular, the September 2014 report of the Planning Inspector Christina Downs.
Yours sincerely,
Cllr Sally Edwards
Chair Lympne Parish Council
