• last week
Plans for more than 8,000 new homes in Sittingbourne will now be decided by the government, amid fears of "destruction" of the countryside.
Transcript
00:00Your quintessential Kentish village, but locals are fearing for the end of village life.
00:07Plans for 8,500 new homes to be built on these fields outside Sittingbourne have just been refused.
00:14But a little less than three hours before the meeting started, council were contacted by the government.
00:19They received this letter, which now means the final decision is Alicewell Borough Council's hands and in Angela Rayner's.
00:27The decision to refuse the development was made in this chamber, with councillors taking officers' advice.
00:34The harmful impacts would be particularly noticeable from the right of way.
00:38The usability of Tongue Country Park and the character and appearance of the rural landscape would be harmed.
00:45Again, had the council been the determining authority, there would have been an objection in relation to landscape and visual impacts.
00:52We've just been told we'll be meeting the 10% affordable housing target requirement.
00:59But this isn't an urban extension. It's open countryside, requiring 40% affordable housing.
01:07What this will offer, if the financial contributions are properly met, is just 15.84%.
01:17The village's main concern is infrastructure won't be in place to support such an increase in population.
01:24You get a population of around 20,000 people, which is an awful lot of people to house on farmland with no infrastructure.
01:34So I think people are thinking that, one, this is best and most versatile agricultural land that should have protection from the government.
01:44And two, we know that our sewage works are already struggling. We know that our GPs are already struggling.
01:53The Hysterd Park developers promised to make half the land publicly open space.
01:58They say despite receiving more than 700 letters of objection, the land is entirely suitable.
02:04It would reduce the pressure for housing elsewhere in the borough.
02:07It would provide a new public country park at Tongue. There is an existing one.
02:11Alongside sports facilities, it would secure a permanent green gap between City Mall and Tenham.
02:15Alongside a new primary school, it would provide land and funding for the primary care facilities the NHS and patients want for this borough.
02:21In short, this is precisely the type of sustainable infrastructure and plaid-lay growth that National Government identify as a priority for delivery over this Parliament.
02:29As the councillors head home tonight from the planning committee, they were expecting to make the final decision tonight.
02:34But it's now in the hands of the Secretary of State.
02:37For more than three years, these proposals have been in the works. Villagers will be going home as well tonight,
02:42wondering whether or not some 8,000 homes will be built on their doorstep.
02:47Gabriel Morris, CityBoard.

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