We want to Protect Medway from exploitation. We feel volume housing developers who are looking to make a quick buck and leave our residents to clean up the mess. We have adult residents who are still living with their aging parents because they cannot afford to purchase homes locally and are faced with rents which are criminal. Large scale development promising to fix the housing crisis but in fact they are simply prolinging it.
Medway Green Party is working with and promoting the work of; Hoo Parish Council, High Halstow Parish Council, Ron Sands Independent Councillor, Keep Upnor Green Group, Pump Lane Steering Group, Against Lidsing Garden Development and Cliffe Woods Residents group to challenge central governments now confirmed target of 28,200 newly constructed homes here in Medway by 2035!
We have launched the Protect Hoo campaign and have launched the Protect Medway Community Group on Facebook with our aim to recruit all residents in Medway whom, like us are disgusted by these targets and are deeply concerned by the consquences to our community and natural world here in beautiful Medway.
What can you do? Sign Up to our email list or even Join The Green Party
Medway Green Party has been campaigning to protect the internationally important, Hoo Peninsula from unsustainable over-development since 2013. Marilyn Stone, Green Party Parish Councillor for High Halstow and Bernard Hyde, Planning Advisor to Medway Green Party, have worked hard with local residents to create a viable and robust Neighbourhood Plan for High Halstow.
Since Medway Council secured the Housing Infrastructure Fund in 2019 we have been deeply concerned that the fund is simply not enough to support “sustainable” development on the Hoo Peninsula. The £170m would be barely enough to improve the infrastructure needed for the existing residents, never mind the addition of at least 36k new residents, which was always a clear and unambiguous caveat to receiving the funds.
The Labour Party are now responsible for the creation and implementation of the Local Plan, a plan which both The Conservative Party and The Labour Party have been unable to deliver for the past 2 decades.
The Labour Party must recognise the importance of the Hoo Peninsula both nationally and internationally. The plan to build 12k+ houses on farm land and flood plains when we are at the beginning of climate collapse, which will see more frequent and severe crop failures and a sea level rise which will impact the Hoo Peninsula directly is both short term idealism and the road to disaster.
Not to mention that the local housing needs assessment has already identified; the types of houses needed for Medway residents, those already on the housing list, and the volume needed (half of what we currently been told to build). Needless to say, the types of houses needed will not be provided for on the Hoo Peninsula with or without the HIF funding.
Medway Green Party understands the needs of residents, the Labour Party and the Conservative Party understand the needs of housing developers.
We want to see a local plan written for local people not for the profits of internationally owned corporations, to the detriment of our priceless ecosystems of international importance, and the land we need to feed this country.
March 2023
29 March 23
MC/22/0284 Planning Application by Redrow Homes South East to construct 88 dwellings on land at Blowers Wood, Maidstone Road, Gillingham, Medway.
The forthcoming ‘Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill’ will substantially reform the National Planning Policy Framework.
The Bill has currently passed the ‘Committee Stage’ in the house of Lords and the Government has promised that the reformed National Planning Policy Framework will be ‘phased in’ from Spring 2023, ie. now.
The Bill will gradually become operational, and it is important that we acknowledge and accept the reforms in their entirety while considering live applications for planning approval.
With this in mind, there are certain comments relating to the proposed planning application by Redrow, to construct 88 dwellings at Blowers Wood, Hempstead.
The reformed National Planning Policy Framework will have objectives which
include:
The planning application site is in a rural area of the Medway Unitary Authority. It is accessed via a narrow country road called the Maidstone Road.
The land is ‘good quality’ agricultural land which will be protected under the Bill with a requirement to ‘recognise the food production value of the farmland’.
The application is premature as the Hempstead Residents have not yet produced their own Neighbourhood Plan. Under the Bill, local communities are encouraged to produce Neighbourhood Plans and these will acquire more authority within the reformed National Planning Policy Framework.
The recent Medway ‘Housing Need Assessment’ calls for 55% of all new dwellings to be affordable with a high proportion of social rented accommodation.
The Redrow Application, if approved would only offer 25% affordable dwellings in the form of maisonettes and doesn’t take into account the accommodation for the elderly that the Bill calls for.
The reformed National Planning Policy Framework also includes a requirement to explore whether past planning behaviour should be taken into account when applying for planning permission.
The Bill says that ‘Planning decisions should be based on the planning merits of the proposed development and not the applicant.’
The onus will be on the applicant to prove that they have fulfilled conditions on previous planning approvals.
However the overriding objective of the new legislation is for communities to have the right homes in the right place.
The current government rescinded legislation that would have given us 100% net zero carbon houses by 2016. Had this not happened, we would now have over 5 million people living with energy security, unaffected by world events and fossil fuel price speculation and escalation.
The purchasers of the standard Redrow house will be faced with ever increasing energy costs as the houses conform to current sub-standard Building Regulation requirements for Part L.
It is evident from the site plan that, no thought is given to the orientation of the houses. One house may benefit from solar gain and a nearby house might lose heat through north facing glazed areas.
The Redrow standard house types are not designed to be ‘retrofitted’ with additional insulation and other energy saving measures to reduce carbon emissions and save on the use of fossil fuels.
The roof shapes, for example, are over-complicated with changes of direction and not designed to accommodate solar panels which would be the occupants’ one hope of off-setting the impacts of the current standard with its lower level of thermal insulation.
According to the new legislation, the proposed development is in the wrong place as it is on farmland, has a negative impact on both our food security and our natural environment.
The additional residents, living on the site, will bring with it the prospect of more cats preying on the wildlife in the adjacent woodland and surrounding countryside.
The Medway Green Party urge you to reject this application, to encourage the residents of Hempstead to produce their own Neighbourhood Plan and cooperate with Medway Council on finalising the Medway Local Plan, all as is now required by the emerging reformed National Planning Policy Framework.
Bernard Hyde
Dip Arch. RIBA. Dip TP
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24 March 23
MC/23/0531 Planning Application by Redrow Homes South East to construct 45 dwellings on land south of Buckland Road, Cliffe Woods, Rochester, Kent.
Case Officer: Hannah Gunner.
Customer Details
Name: Bernard Hyde
Comment Details
Commenter Type: Medway Green Party
Stance: Objection to the Planning Application
Comment Reasons:
The forthcoming ‘Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill’ will substantially reform the National Planning Policy Framework.
The Bill has currently passed the ‘Committee Stage’ in the house of Lords and the Government has promised that the reformed National Planning Policy Framework will be ‘phased in’ from Spring 2023, ie. now.
The Bill will gradually become operational, and it is important that we acknowledge and accept the reforms in their entirety while considering live applications for planning approval.
With this in mind, there are certain comments relating to the proposed planning application by Redrow, to construct 45 dwellings on land South of Buckland Road, Cliffe Woods
The reformed National Planning Policy Framework will have objectives which
include:
The planning application site is in a rural area of the Medway Unitary Authority. It is accessed via a narrow country road called the B2000.
The land is ‘excellent quality’ agricultural land which will be protected under the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, with a requirement to ‘recognise the food production value of the farmland’.
The application is premature as the Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Residents have produced their own Neighbourhood Plan and it is close to being adopted. Under the Bill, local communities are encouraged to produce Neighbourhood Plans and these will acquire more authority within the reformed National Planning Policy Framework.
Christopher Lockhart-Mummery KC, in his role as Independent Examiner of the Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Neighbourhood Plan, in his report of January, 2023, states, in his summary, that ‘ The high quality of the Plan has resulted in the very limited number of instances where I have recommended modifications’ and ‘I recommend that, subject to those modifications being made, the Plan proceed to referendum.’
In his overall assessment and conclusion, Christopher Lockhart-Mummery KC states ‘I conclude that, overall, the NP (Neighbourhood Plan) is well researched, well evidenced, and clearly laid out and written. If made, the NP (Neighbourhood Plan) will become a key part of the statutory development plan applying to the area.’
According to the reform of the National Planning Policy Framework, outlined in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, the key role that the Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Neighbourhood Plan plays, came into being in Spring 2023 which commenced, this year on Monday, 20 March 2023.
Another key element of the statutory development plan is the recent Medway ‘Housing Need Assessment’ which calls for 55% of all new dwellings to be affordable with a high proportion of social rented accommodation.
The applicant states that ‘the proposed development includes 45 dwellings, 12 affordable homes (25.53%) and 33 market homes. The housing mix includes a range of 2-5 bedroom houses and 1-bedroom maisonettes. Houses and maisonettes are to be 2-storeys in height.’
In terms of bedrooms, the Schedule of Accommodation has 137 bedrooms in the 33 Private Residential Units and the 12 Affordable Units have 18 bedrooms.
The 18 bedrooms in the Affordable Units represent 11.6% of the total 155 bedrooms being applied for.
The Redrow Application, if approved would, in reality only offer 11.6% affordable accommodation in the form of maisonettes and doesn’t take into account the accommodation for the elderly that the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill calls for.
The reformed National Planning Policy Framework also includes a requirement to explore whether past planning behaviour should be taken into account when applying for planning permission.
The Bill says that ‘Planning decisions should be based on the planning merits of the proposed development and not the applicant.’
The onus will be on the applicant to prove that they have fulfilled conditions on previous planning approvals.
However the overriding objective of the new legislation is for communities to have the right homes in the right place.
The current government rescinded legislation that would have given us 100% net zero carbon houses by 2016. Had this not happened, we would now have over 5 million people living with energy security, unaffected by world events and fossil fuel price speculation and escalation.
The purchasers of the standard Redrow house will be faced with ever increasing energy costs as the houses conform to current sub-standard Building Regulation requirements for Part L.
It is evident from the site plan that, no thought is given to the orientation of the houses. One house may benefit from solar gain and a nearby house might lose heat through north facing glazed areas.
The Redrow standard house types are not designed to be ‘retrofitted’ with additional insulation and other energy saving measures to reduce carbon emissions and save on the use of fossil fuels.
The roof shapes, for example, are over-complicated with changes of direction and not designed to accommodate solar panels which would be the occupants’ one hope of off-setting the impacts of the current standard with its lower level of thermal insulation.
According to the new legislation, the proposed development is in the wrong place as it is on farmland, has a negative impact on both our food security and our natural environment.
The additional residents, living on the site, will bring with them the prospect of more cats preying on the wildlife in the adjacent woodland, surrounding countryside and nearby Special Protection Areas.
The Medway Green Party urge you to reject this application, to encourage the residents of Cliffe and Cliffe Woods to enjoy the benefits of their own Neighbourhood Plan and to cooperate with Medway Council on finalising the Medway Local Plan, all of which is now required by the emerging reformed National Planning Policy Framework.
Bernard Hyde
Dip Arch. RIBA. Dip TP
Nov 2022
Letter to Kelly Tolhurst
24 November 22
Dear Kelly,
Further to your email of 21 November 2022 we can see from the results of the 2021 National Census that there is a marked contrast in the population densities between the local authorities in our area.
Medway has 1,444 residents per square kilometre, Gravesham has 1,080, Maidstone 447, Swale 406 and Sevenoaks 326, with the average for Kent being 445 residents per square kilometre.
From the above, you can see that, apart from Gravesham, Medway has three to four times the population density of the majority of the local authorities in our area, and Medway is consequently doing more than its share to house people.
The pressure on our land resources, for development, are therefore much higher than in some other nearby areas, and this is one reason why housing need must be decided locally, to take into account different circumstances.
The National Census of 2021 also informed us that Medway’s population is growing by around 0.6% a year.
This meant that our then existing 111,458 households would also increase by 0.6% giving us a baseline need for around 670 new dwellings each year.
When we add an allowance to cater for the existing unfulfilled need for social housing, we arrive at a figure close to the 2003 Medway Local Plan housing target for Medway of 870 new dwellings each year.
We can contrast this with the former ‘standard method’ government target for Medway of 1,586 new dwellings each year.
The Office for National Statistics has been saying for some time, that the ‘standard method’ formula devised by Homes England would result in roughly twice as many housing units being demanded as are actually needed.
There is no doubt that we need to build houses. Everyone has a right to a secure, comfortable and affordable home, whatever their circumstances.
Building more housing units than are actually needed will not necessarily bring down the cost of a new dwelling to the purchaser.
The actual building cost is only one factor among many that determines the final purchase price and the availability of infrastructure and services is a big factor.
The Medway Housing Infrastructure Fund grant, would be a good example of where only a small amount of the actual infrastructure costs would come from the public purse and the real cost of the majority of the infrastructure and services needed, would have to be paid for by the purchasers.
The house prices become way beyond the reach of the majority of local people and way beyond the means of those who need ‘affordable’ accommodation and by definition couldn’t afford to live in a rural location anyway.
The Housing Infrastructure Fund money would allow volume house builders to develop relatively inexpensive grade one farm land largely at the cost to the end purchasers who pay for the shortfall in infrastructure and services.
These same infrastructure and services would have been readily available on a brownfield site in an existing urban area at much less additional cost.
The purchasers pay over the odds, while the local community are deprived of what Rishi Sunak, at his first Prime Minister’s Question Time, called ‘our precious green spaces’.
When two weeks later he stated that there would be no more Government imposed housing targets, it was assumed that the message had got through.
However, some argued that this didn’t accord with a previous manifesto election pledge.
When you have made a basic error in your arithmetic and you are on course to damage the country’s economy and food security, by destroying farmland, before eventually crashing the housing market by over-supply, it is better to change direction, rather than stick to outdated manifesto policies.
In an email to Rishi Sunak, I said it was important that we could trust what our politicians said and that I had had both Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill as my Prime Minister, and they didn’t disappoint.
Thank you for the stand that you have taken, regarding Medway’s HIF bid and Government imposed housing targets, it is much appreciated.
Yours sincerely,
Bernard Hyde
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Letter to Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister
14 November 22
Dear Prime Minister,
As a Medway Council resident, I was delighted to hear you say, last Wednesday, that there will be no Government imposed housing targets.
Our local authority, intend to spend 170 million of public funds to concrete over a large area of grade one agricultural land on the beautiful Hoo Peninsula.
I was equally delighted that a fortnight earlier you had stated that all housing development must be on brownfield sites and that we must protect our green spaces.
In this case, by following your instructions, we could also be reducing our food imports and protecting our national food security while at the same time, not damaging special protection areas for wildlife.
I am surprised that we have not heard from our Conservative led council that they will be complying with your wishes.
We have to be able to believe what our elected representatives tell us. I have had both Clement Attlee and Winston Churchill as my Prime Minister in my lifetime, and they did not disappoint.
Bernard Hyde
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13 November 22
Hoo Development Framework
PUBLIC CONSULTATION
Vision for Hoo St Werburgh
The proposed vision for Hoo St Werburgh is presented on page 48.
Q1a. To what extent do you agree / disagree with the proposed vision?
Strongly disagree
Q1b. Please explain your answer to Q1a:
I think our Local Authority should bear this in mind when they are spending public money.
Key principles
The proposed key principles are listed below and presented in full on pages 50 to 69.
Q2. Please tell us what you think about any aspect of the proposed key principles.
1 Landscape led development
2 Accessible and well-connected settlements.
3 Vibrant and sustainable communities.
4 Attractive and tailored built form.
Overall Framework Plan
The proposed Overall Framework Plan is presented on pages 72 to 75.
Q3a. To what extent do you agree / disagree with the Overall Framework Plan?
Strongly disagree
Q3b. Please explain your answer to Q3a:
AND
Neighbourhoods
The proposed neighbourhoods are presented on pages 78 to 114.
Q4. Please tell us what you think about any aspect of the proposed neighbourhoods.
Any other comments
Q5. Do you have any other comments?
The Office for National Statistics says Medway’s population is increasing by 0.6% a year.
This means that our existing 111,458 households (2021 census) will also increase by 0.6% giving us a baseline of around 669 dwellings annually.
To this we need to add an allowance to reduce the existing Council House Waiting List, to arrive at a realistic figure closer to the 2003 Local Plan housing target of 867 dwellings.
Medway’s Housing Infrastructure Fund bid fails on three out of the four criteria.
Happily, the Housing Infrastructure Fund money will no longer be necessary.
Bernard Hyde
Dip Arch RIBA Dip TP
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Letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer - Jeremy Hunt
9 November 2022
The Right Honourable Jeremy Hunt MP
Dear Mr Hunt,
I heard on the BBC recently that you have been looking down the back of the sofa for money to plug the huge hole in Government finances and help to fulfil the Prime Minister’s promises to protect the most vulnerable in our society.
As a rate payer in the Medway Unitary Authority, I would like to offer you the opportunity to redeem £170 million that was erroneously awarded to Medway Council under the Housing Infrastructure Fund.
The money in question is for road widening and a passenger rail link towards London to enable over 10,000 houses to be built on Grade One agricultural land on the Hoo Peninsula.
You will already know that the 2021 National Census shows beyond doubt that far fewer dwellings are actually needed than the 300,000 per year target touted by Boris Johnson.
The Office for National Statistics has been saying for some years that the need for houses is closer to half the target that was produced by Homes England. The census indicates in round figures that a target of 155,000 houses per year would be more realistic.
At Prime Minister’s Question Time today, the Prime Minister stated that Housing Need Assessments would be decided locally and you were nodding in agreement.
The Medway Council Housing Infrastructure Fund bid fails on three out of the four required eligibility criteria. The bid is not part of a current Local Plan, Medway hasn’t got one, it is not supported locally but actively opposed, and it can’t be completed within the required time frame.
The Prime Minister at his first PMQs said housing development should be on brownfield sites and not on our precious green spaces.
Medway Council already has a population density over four times that of some of the neighbouring authorities but still has enough previously developed land to fulfil the actual needs of its residents, the majority of whom need social housing with one or two bedrooms.
Medway Council have pre-empted the planning process, volume house builders have taken out options to buy farmland and consequently these farms are now standing abandoned with a serious potential impact on our national food security.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Bernard Hyde
Dip.Arch. RIBA Dip.TP.
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Feb 2022
21 February 2022
Dear Ms Crouch,
RE: Land at East Hill, Chatham. MC/19/0765, APP/A2280/W/21/3280915
Further to the Planning Inspector’s ruling on the above and the consequent granting of planning approval, I am enclosing a copy of a recent parliamentary briefing document from the House of Commons Library on assessing Housing Need, following the 2021 National Census.
You will see from the document that the Office for National Statistics, are now responsible for housing need assessments, and are saying that the housing need assessments previously made by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government were wrong and only half the number of the housing units are required.
This number is 150,000 housing units per year instead of the 300,000 units per year that Boris Johnson has been promoting. The Prime Minister is aware of the new figure based on the Census Data and has responded by saying it would only ‘confuse people’ to know the truth.
I attended much of the Planning Inquiry for the land at East Hill, and was disappointed by the case that Medway Council put to the Inspector.
Medway Council’s Planning Vision for the Hoo Peninsula, completely undermines any attempts to preserve our former Conservative Housing Minister’s ‘Precious Green Spaces’ that lie to the south of the River Medway. Paul Brown QC, the Planning Barrister for the Appellant, highlighted this point when he said that for many reasons Medway Council has no hope of fulfilling their plans for developments on the Hoo Pennisula and might as well allow developments to the south of the river.
You will be aware that the Medway Council Unitary Authority currently has a population density three times greater than Swale Borough Council, Maidstone Borough Council and Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, and one and a half times that of Gravesham Borough Council.
With such a high population density, we cannot afford to lose any more of our precious green spaces, including grade one agricultural land, and we do not need to.
Under the ‘Housing Need Assessment’ adjustments, Local Authorities with Local Plans in place will have to fulfil the Housing Targets laid down in their Local Plan.
Local Authorities like Medway, that do not have an approved Local Plan, will only be required to build on a wholly sustainable basis. This means that in reality, that Medway must build far fewer housing units than half of the original Government quota and only on previously developed land. (Brownfield Sites)
As the majority of Local Authorities fulfil their Local Plan commitments, it is imperative that Medway Council and other authorities without a Local Plan, severely restrict their housing supply, if we are to avoid a ‘Spanish Style’ collapse of the housing market in the near future.
The houses currently being built, do not help us meet our net zero carbon commitments by 2050 and will all need retrofitting with renewable energy and additional insulation in the intervening years.
The professional institutes associated with construction and town planning are saying that we need to build net zero carbon developments sooner rather than later, and the Government’s programme is too little, too late. The Royal Institute of British Architects believe that all new buildings must be carbon neutral and that we should now be building our houses to Passivhaus standards.
The retrofitting of the existing housing stock, including sub-standard houses currently under construction, will cost an enormous amount of money. The remedial works cannot be afforded by individual property owners and will have to be funded by the Government.
More than a million properties, now needing to be retrofitted, have been built since the previous Conservative Government abolished the former Labour Government’s ‘Code for Sustainable Homes’.
The Government has the imperative to re-think its housing needs, based on the recent Census Data and to act decisively to respond to the Climate Emergency.
The Government now has an opportunity to produce a realistic housing need assessment based on the actual situation of housing need, particularly for those in most need, and in doing so, guarantee the protection of our precious green spaces.
Your constituents know, as their representative in Parliament, that they can rely on you to ‘speak truth to power.’
Yours sincerely,
Bernard Hyde
DipArch.RIBA.DipTRP
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13 February 2022
Dear Mr Jarrett,
RE: Land at East Hill, Chatham. MC/19/0765, APP/A2280/W/21/3280915
Further to the Planning Inspector’s ruling on the above and the consequent granting of planning approval for 800 houses, I think many of your constituents will now be very concerned. I know that, one, who contacted me about this decision, is extremely upset.
I attended much of the Planning Inquiry for the land at East Hill and was disappointed by the case that Medway Council put to the Inspector.
Your Planning Vision for the Hoo Peninsula, completely undermines any attempts to preserve what a former Conservative Housing Minister called ‘our precious green spaces’. This particularly relates to the land to the south of the River Medway, such as the Capstone Valley. If you are prepared to risk destroying internationally protected habits and grade one agricultural land, then any attempts to protect other green spaces will be made even more difficult.
Medway Council has created a perception that it is insensitive to our natural environment, while the vast majority of people hold these very special areas of farmland and marshes to be extremely valuable and important.
This point, about popular feeling, was made very succinctly by the Planning Barrister for the Appellant during the Inquiry. To paraphrase, Paul Brown QC he said that for numerous reasons, Medway Council had no hope of fulfilling their plans for development on the Hoo Peninsula and might as well allow developments to the south of the River Medway, such as East Hill, instead.
In the New Year 2022 issue of Medway Matters, regarding house building, you say that Medway Council are ‘continuing to challenge the number that the government is demanding we provide.’
You will be aware that the Medway Council Unitary Authority currently has a population density three times greater than Swale Borough Council, Maidstone Borough Council and Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, and one and a half times that of Gravesham Borough Council.
With such a high population density, we cannot afford to lose any more of our precious green spaces, including grade one agricultural land, and we do not need to.
I am enclosing a copy of a recent parliamentary briefing document from the House of Commons Library on assessing Housing Need, following the 2021 National Census.
You will see from the document that the Office for National Statistics, are now responsible for housing need assessments, and are saying that the housing need assessments previously made by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government were wrong and only half the number of the housing units are required.
This number is 150,000 housing units per year in England, instead of the 300,000 units per year that Boris Johnson has been promoting. The Prime Minister is aware of the new figure based on the Census Data and has responded by saying it would only ‘confuse people’ to know the truth.
Under the ‘Housing Need Assessment’ adjustments, Local Authorities with Local Plans in place will have to fulfil the Housing Targets laid down in their Local Plan.
Local Authorities like Medway, that do not have an approved Local Plan, will only be required to build on a wholly sustainable basis. This means that in reality, that Medway must build far fewer housing units than half of the original Government quota and only on previously developed land. (Brownfield Sites)
As the majority of Local Authorities fulfil their Local Plan commitments, it is imperative that Medway Council and other authorities without a Local Plan, severely restrict their housing supply, if we are to avoid a ‘Spanish Style’ collapse of the housing market in the near future.
Any new houses must be sustainable and designed to help us meet our net zero carbon commitments by 2050.
The professional institutes associated with construction and town planning are saying that we need to build net zero carbon developments sooner rather than later, and the Government’s programme is too little, too late. The Royal Institute of British Architects believe that all new buildings must be carbon neutral and that we should now be building our houses to Passivhaus standards.
With only a handful of exceptions, all our current housing stock will need to be retrofitted with additional insulation and renewable energy sources for heating and lighting.
The retrofitting of the existing housing, including sub-standard houses currently under construction, will cost an enormous amount of money. This remedial works cannot be afforded by individual property owners and will have to be funded by the Government.
More than a million properties, now needing to be retrofitted, have been built since the previous Conservative Government abolished the former Labour Government’s ‘Code for Sustainable Homes’.
Medway Council has the imperative to re-think its housing needs, based on the recent Census Data and to act decisively to build sustainably, with an appropriate balance of affordable houses rather than an excess of executive style houses.
Medway Council now has an opportunity to produce a Draft Local Plan based on the actual situation of housing need, particularly for those in most need, and in doing so, guarantee the protection of our ‘precious green spaces’.
As Chairman of Medway Council, you have the potential to create a legacy worthy of the name.
Yours sincerely,
Bernard Hyde
DipArch.RIBA.DipTP
Dec 2021
Medway Green Party responds to Maidstone Council's Local Plan to destroy Lidsing
21 December 2020.
Dear Sir / Madam,
Maidstone Borough Council: Local Plan Review Regulation 18b Preferred Approach.
Policy SP4(b) Development North M2 / Lidsing
I am writing on behalf of the Medway Green Party to strongly object to any proposal to identify agricultural land around the hamlet of Lidsing as a future ‘garden village’.
The site is adjacent to the Medway Council Area and part of a swathe of open countryside that was intended to link the Kent North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with the Medway Estuary.
We recognize that recent misguided pressure, from Central Government to build more and more houses, has led to a frenzy of planning applications being made on agricultural land all over the South East of England.
Maidstone Borough Council, no doubt, now realize and acknowledge that the philosophy driving the demand to build more houses in the South East was mistaken and the housing need assessment algorithm generating the numerical demand was totally ill-conceived.
The Government has now had the good sense to recognize the errors associated with their previous housing policy and on Wednesday 16 December, 2020 issued details of a new policy that while creating homes for people to live in, will address many of the social problems and inequalities in society that have been highlighted by the current Covid-19 pandemic.
During the current pandemic we have realised how fragile our food supply chain is and in a post Brexit Britain we will need every square metre of available farmland to grow or own food.
The new housing policy calls on Local Authorities to make the most of vacant buildings and underused land in order to protect green spaces, with a focus for building on previously developed sites.
This approach will protect our farmland and at the same time make our urban areas more viable in terms of community with people once more living in our towns and cities. It will also help us to make our journeys more environmentally friendly, reduce carbon emissions and improve our air quality.
A housing needs assessment designed around population growth rather than mutant algorithms would show that Maidstone Borough Council needs to build many fewer houses than are currently shown in the Local Plan.
The population growth assessment produced by the Office for National Statistics suggests that Maidstone Borough Council would need to build
According to information from the House of Commons Library, 1,192 houses per year have been built in Maidstone over the past three years.
Apart from how many houses we build, what is more important for the future is how we build. The current Building Regulations are inadequate and we urgently need to reinstate the standard of insulation and construction that the previous Labour Government introduced under the UK Code for Sustainable Homes.
We were on track to be building net zero carbon houses by 2016. In the years between the policy being scrapped by the previous Coalition Government, millions of houses have been built that will now need to be expensively retrofitted to meet our international binding commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050.
The need to retrofit virtually every single building that has ever been built, is a salutary recognition that not only helps us appreciate the naivety of constructing buildings with such a reliance on fossil fuels to make them tolerable, but the accumulative impact on our environment and health.
Yours faithfully,
Bernard Hyde. DipArch.RIBA.DipTP
Nov 2021
This month saw the residents of Rainham celebrating the dismissal of the AC Goatham & Son's application to destroy 126 acres of profitable, fruitful orchard in Rainham. The full appeal decision document can be viewed here.
KMTV Interviewed Kate Belmonte and other key campaigners about their win in the fight to protect the Pump Lane orchards from utter destruction and how the Secretary of State's appeal dismissal decision will impact Rainham and Twydall residents.
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Bernard was interviewed by Rainham News in relation to Medway Council's Local Plan. "Everywhere you look there are sites, which should have never been developed".
Oct 2021
This month we joined joined fellow campaigner Ron Sands and many other residents on Thursday 7th October outside the Full Council meeting at St George's Centre, Chatham. Cat and our Green Team are calling for the HIF Project to be scrapped, a project which would see more than 12,000 homes built on this beautiful Peninsula putting at dire risk; multiple Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Protection Areas, World Renowned RAMSAR sites and the National Nature Reserve at High Halstow. The developments would also drastically change the lives of existing residents across the Peninsula agricultural land would also . And to add insult to injury the Conservative led administration at Medway Council have also earmarked Deangate Golf Course for the residential development, Cat, Julian and the Medway Green team believe this should be made a Community Asset not a financial asset for Medway Council! They want to see a local plan for local people where housing need not developer greed is the driving force and where our precious green assets are protected with the same vigor as financial assets.
Kate Belmonte collected the Guardian's of Green Spaces Community Eco Award along with fellow Pump Lane Steering Group member Ila on behalf of the community and Steering Group.
July 2021
The Government are hell bent on squeezing every last penny out of the land Medway has to offer, but there is a group of 80 Rebel Backbenchers who are working together to fight the proposed planning reforms, highlighted in the Queen's speech in May 2021.
Please take the time to join our Letter Writing campaign requesting that our 3 Medway MPs; Kelly Tolhurst, Tracey Crouch and Rehman Chishti, join this group and fight against the "Build Build Build" mentality exhibited by central government under pressure from their party donors.
SEND YOUR 'JOIN THE REBELS' EMAILS HERE
June 2021
InFebruary 2021 MP for Gillingham & Rehman Chishti wrote a letter of support to Medway Council planners for a planning application in Second Avenue Gillingham. The letter of support did not mention that the proposer, a local businessman, had donated to his parliamentary campaigns in 2015, 2019 and 2020. This was reported to the parliamentary standards commission. Kate Belmonte talks to Sandy from Rainham news about the findings of the commission and how we need to ensure that decisions in local and national government are undertaken ethically and without the interference of financial gains.
Medway Green Party responds to Housing Infrastructure Fund Consultation
Medway Council
ME4 4TR
Ref: HOUSING INFRASTRUCTURE FUND – CONSULTATION
Date of Submission: 5th April 2021
Dear Sir/Madame,
At either the last General Election or Local Election, I don’t recall Bellway, Berkley Homes, Countryside or Redrow being on the ballot paper, yet these are the names that are controlling our Central and Local Government.
We have a Housing Crisis. There are homeless people sleeping on our streets, homeless people staying with friends and relatives and people living in cramped and squalid conditions. There are thousands of people on waiting lists for social housing and thousands more waiting to find affordable accommodation to buy.
Over the last fifty years, the functions of both central and local government have been gradually handed over to the private sector to use as their own money-making enterprises. This is because the authorities won’t charge sufficient taxes, to pay for an equitable society, for fear of losing votes.
As part of the volume house builders’ money-making enterprise is a market led premise that shortages increase demand and raise prices.
Following this business model, the volume house builders have created a housing shortage and vast sectors of the population have suffered and continue to suffer as a consequence.
Part of the strategy is to obtain planning approvals and then not to construct any houses until their revenue can be maximised. In this way the volume house builders can completely control demand and ultimately price.
In Medway, the volume house builders have seen an opportunity to obtain approval to build on agricultural land, which is much cheaper to build on than brownfield sites, thus maximising their profits even more.
In 2020 a report by the CPRE, the countryside charity, stated that there is enough brownfield land for 1.3 million houses, and that what we need is a genuine ‘brownfields first’ policy from the Government. In the same report it was noted that the Local Government Association had found that over one million homes had been granted planning permission but not yet built out.
Medway Council is currently faced with a very small population growth that cannot sustain the services that it is obliged to deliver and needs new residents to provide much needed council tax revenue.
Unfortunately, Medway Council cannot see the longer-term implications of their acquiescence to the volume house builder’s antisocial and environmentally disastrous demands.
Medway Council have acknowledged that we are facing a climate emergency yet haven’t apparently decided to act on the reality staring us in the face.
The Medway Council area has a stunning physical geography inextricably linked to water, in the form of the River Thames and River Medway Estuaries.
Scientists tell us that globally there is, potentially, the equivalent of 70 metres of sea level rise, in the form of ice floating around in the polar regions of the earth.
This ice is slowly melting and the best-case scenario is a 300 mm rise by the end of the century. Unfortunately, there is also a more realistic worst-case scenario for a 2.5 metre rise by the end of this century.
As decisions about our future well-being are being taken in the boardrooms of volume house builders rather than by our elected representatives, it must be up to the volume house builders to now pay for the damage that they have had a major role in creating.
The housing infrastructure included in the Medway Council bid will generate a massive carbon footprint which presumably must be offset by other means, as asphalt doesn’t sequester carbon. To be in line with Government policy, the infrastructure’s carbon footprint would need to be offset, by the houses being carbon negative.
Our volume house builders haven’t seemingly got a clue how to make houses carbon neutral, let alone carbon negative. So, until they have, let’s build where we already have roads leading to our brownfield and urban sites.
Rather than spend tax payers’ money on highway engineering works to open up grade one agricultural land for exploitation by the volume house builders, we should assess the damage that they have inflicted on the population and environment and, at the very least, force them to build out the planning approvals that they already possess.
In February 2020, The Local Government Association found that over 1 million homes have been granted planning permission, but not yet built. Currently, according to Shelter, 40% of homes granted planning permission go unbuilt.
We are told that the post covid-19 bill to the tax payer is greater than anything seen since the end of World War Two.
A bankrupt country in 1945 didn’t prevent the introduction of the National Health Service, the introduction of free education for all and a massive social house building programme.
There would be no reason why similar heroic undertakings cannot be made now to save our environment while still housing all those who are in need.
We have gone a long way down the road to being subservient to business interests.
People who have worked hard to acquire professional qualifications are now expected to ignore their professional ethics and agree to proposals that they know are wrong and not in the interests of the people they aspire to serve.
It is not too late to put the genie back in the bottle, see some sense and protect our environment and our children’s future.
Bernard Hyde
Dip Arch RIBA Dip
Town Planner for Medway Green Party
Medway Green Party opposes Chapter Farm application:
Planning Department
Gravesham Borough Council
31 December 2020
Dear Sir / Madam,
Gravesend Borough Council: Local Plan Regulation 18 (Stage 2) Consultation.
Site Allocation reference GBS-K
I am writing on behalf of the Medway Green Party to strongly object to the allocation of 200 acres of Grade One agricultural land at Chapter Farm for the construction of 1400 houses.
The site is adjacent to the Medway Council Area and part of the Green Belt that is intended to provide open countryside both around London and between Gravesham and the Medway Unitary Authority.
As such the land enjoys legal protection and any development other than for agriculture would be against the National Planning Policy Framework and current Government Policy.
The lack of connection of the site to existing urban areas and infrastructure within Gravesham and the proximity of the site to the Medway Council Area will put an undue strain on the existing facilities in Strood.
Medway Council will inevitably be faced with costs both financial and social when they are forced to share scarce resources with the new residents, of Chapter Farm, needing to access doctors, schools, shops and other services close to their new homes.
We recognize that recent misguided pressure, from Central Government to build more and more houses, has led to a frenzy of planning applications being made on agricultural land all over the South East of England.
Gravesham Borough Council, no doubt, now realize and acknowledge that the philosophy driving the demand to build more houses in the South East was mistaken and the housing need assessment algorithm generating the numerical demand was totally ill-conceived.
The Government has now had the good sense to recognize the errors associated with their previous housing policy and on Wednesday 16 December, 2020 issued details of a new policy that while creating homes for people to live in, will address many of the social problems and inequalities in society that have been highlighted by the current Covid-19 pandemic.
During the current pandemic we have realised how fragile our food supply chain is and in a post Brexit Britain we will need every square metre of available farmland to grow or own food.
The new housing policy calls on Local Authorities to make the most of vacant buildings and underused land in order to protect green spaces, with a focus for building on previously developed sites.
This approach will protect our farmland and at the same time make our urban areas more viable in terms of community with people once more living in our towns and cities. It will also help us to make our journeys more environmentally friendly, reduce carbon emissions and improve our air quality.
A housing needs assessment designed around population growth rather than mutant algorithms would show that Gravesham Borough Council needs to build many fewer houses than are currently shown in the Local Plan.
Apart from how many houses we build, what is more important for the future is how we build. The current Building Regulations are inadequate and we urgently need to reinstate the standard of insulation and construction that the previous Labour Government introduced under the UK Code for Sustainable Homes.
We were on track to be building net zero carbon houses by 2016. In the years between the policy being scrapped by the previous Coalition Government, millions of houses have been built that will now need to be expensively retrofitted to meet our international binding commitment to be carbon neutral by 2050.
The need to retrofit virtually every single building that has ever been built, is a salutary recognition that not only helps us appreciate the naivety of constructing buildings with such a reliance on fossil fuels to make them tolerable, but the accumulative impact on our environment and health.
The Royal Institute of British Architects and other professional institutes are calling on the Government to legislate for all new buildings to be net zero carbon from now on. The longer this change to our construction methods is left, the more expensive will be the measures needed to rectify it.
It is apparent that the volume house builders do not acknowledge the terrible legacy that they are creating while concreting over our farmland and countryside.
We are, however, confident that Gravesham Borough Council understand the need to conserve our resources and make better use of what already exists.
Yours faithfully,
Bernard Hyde. DipArch.RIBA.DipTP
On behalf of Medway Green Party
