29 April 2018
Why has Medway Council excluded Option 1 from the latest Local Plan proposals? This option, which in the previous consultation phase proposed making the best use of brownfield land to build good quality homes at higher densities near town centres was clearly the most sustainable, a reality backed by the Council’s Sustainability Appraisal – the one they almost forgot to do!
Instead it seems they have taken people’s understandable concerns regarding lack of infrastructure on the Hoo peninsula to dump the majority of development there, under the guise that this would respond to these concerns. No! I doubt that anyone was calling for a new town at Hoo. We were saying we didn’t want major development there! No wonder residents (especially of the Hoo area) think that the Council’s attempts at consultation are nothing more than a paper exercise where no notice is taken of anyone’s response ever!
One relief is that development of the SSSI at Lodge Hill is no longer in all four options as previously, but this needs to taken off the table completely; alongside the recent added insult to injury of closing Deangate Ridge Golf Course against the wishes of almost everyone!
Furthermore, instead of recognising that the numbers are much too high, the Council show signs of, in all but one option, caving into demands by the Tory Government to build even more houses!
As a Hoo peninsula resident, I will be doing all I can to fight these disastrous plans.
Clive Gregory
Green Party Campaigner &
PPC for Rochester and Strood
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