Plans for a massive “new town” have been sent to the government to decide on, amid fears of “destruction of the countryside”.
Highsted Park, with 8,400 homes to the south and east of Sittingbourne, has been in the works for years.
Swale council’s planning committee was due to decide on the application tonight, but the local authority has had the decision “ripped out of its hands at the eleventh hour”, as it was called-in by the government at short notice.
The proposals by Quinn Estates are split across two separate applications, covering land to the south and east of Sittingbourne, stretching to Bapchild and Teynham.
Up to 7,150 homes, community space, a hotel, a new tip, and primary and secondary schools are earmarked for the larger site surrounding Sittingbourne, with two halves named Highsted Village and Oakwood Village. It also includes provision for a new M2 motorway junction and completion of the Southern Relief Road.
The smaller site, known as Teynham West, is planned to host up to 1,250 homes, along with sheltered and extra care accommodation, a primary school, and the Bapchild section of a Northern Relief Road – which is already in the local plan.
Quinn Estates said in planning documents: “The proposals are entirely suitable for the site in terms of land use, amount of development, access, layout and appearance. Ultimately it will become a vibrant garden village settlement within the borough, transforming the local area, as well as adding regionally significant benefits to the surrounding area as a whole.”
The firm also writes that it would be “the most sustainable development in the south east.”
However, the bid attracted more than 700 letters of objection to the council.
Speaking before the meeting, Carol Goatham, from the campaign group Farm Fields & Fresh Air, said: “Our sewage works are already struggling, we know that our GPs are already struggling – there aren’t enough GPs for the population as it stands and we can’t magic them out of thin air.
“This proposal joins up seven outlying villages on the edge of Sittingbourne between Sittingbourne and Teynham, and there’s a rural way of life here.”
“There’s going to be an awful lot of destruction of the countryside that goes along with that. This is not about local need, this is about a developer’s greed.”
Swale planning officers were recommending members vote against the plans, with one at the meeting explaining that it would harm numerous heritage and archaeological assets.
He also told councillors “there are concerns about the validity of the environmental impact assessment” for the development.
Their report also slated the “urbanising impact” it would have on the countryside.
A letter explaining that it had been ‘called-in’ by the government was circulated at the meeting – with the council only being told at 3pm, three hours before the meeting started.
Chairman Cllr Elliot Jayes (Swale Ind) said: “As such the council has had power of decision on this application ripped out of its hands at the eleventh hour.”
Angela Rayner MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, made the decision to hold a local inquiry into the plans.
The council’s vote now does not mean the application was officially rejected. Instead, it will inform the case that their representatives will make at the inquiry.
Such inquiries are run like a planning committee, with representatives of developers, the council, and local communities making their case.
The final call however, will be made by the Secretary of State.
The site is not allocated in the council’s previous Local Plan, so ordinarily, it could be safely refused.
However, the authority’s last Local Plan was in 2017, and is therefore considered out of date – meaning that as far as the government is concerned, it cannot demonstrate it has enough land allocated for housing.
This gives developers the ability to seek to build on sites which aren’t officially allocated, with a greater chance of approval.
