The Highsted Park development, proposed more than a decade ago, would engulf rural communities near Sittingbourne and put significant pressure on roads and services, say critics.
We spoke to Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, on The Kent Morning Show.
We spoke to Helen Whately, MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, on The Kent Morning Show.
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00:00Helen Waitley, thank you very much for joining us on the Kent Morning Show. It's good to
00:04have you on. First of all, can you just explain to me why you've been objecting to this development?
00:10I've been objecting to the Highstead Park developments because it's so huge. So it's
00:168,400 new homes coming to my constituency. That will be around 20,000 people moving into
00:25the area over the next 10, 20 years. And that's on the back of multiple other developments
00:31also coming to my constituency. There's one called Heathlands just near Lennon, which
00:35is thousands of homes. Lidsing, Winterbourne View, potentially the Duchy near Faversham.
00:40So that will increase the population by possibly even as much as 40,000 people out of 80,000
00:46people or so constituency. That's an extra 50% the number of people living in the area
00:52that I represent. And that will just have a huge, huge impact, an impact on the character
00:59of the area, which is rural, which is agricultural, which is countryside, an impact on the infrastructure
01:05on the roads, so much traffic we can expect, an impact on public services. It's going to
01:11make a huge difference. And my constituents are very, very unhappy about this development.
01:19Well, I think you can guess what the argument opposing it would be is that the country is
01:24in need of more houses. What's your sort of response to that? People would say as well,
01:29this would help the council meet its local plan targets as well.
01:34So I recognise the need for more housing, but already many hundreds and thousands of
01:40homes, new homes have been built in my constituency over recent years. We've had lots of new developments.
01:48So it doesn't seem to make sense to just build more and more on the wonderful agricultural
01:53land that we have in this area, which actually is a very precious and it is scarce resource
01:59around the country. What I would like to see is more homes being built in the urban areas
02:06of the country, places that are already towns or cities like London, that are brownfield
02:11sites, that are opportunities to build at greater density and still have really high
02:15quality housing to make our cities more like a city like Paris, which is much denser than
02:20London, for instance. So that's where we should be building, not in the countryside, not on greenfields.
02:25We've been hearing from a lot of business owners in the area who say that they're crying
02:30out for this development and that they need new homes in the area. I'm just wondering,
02:34what have you heard? Have you been speaking with your constituents on the matter?
02:38I've had many conversations with my constituents and I've been doing meetings around the area
02:44that I'm newly elected to represent between Favresham and Sittingbourne and the number
02:51one topic in those meetings I've been having, often in local pubs and cafes, has been high
02:56stead and how desperately people don't want to have that development on their doorsteps.
03:03We know the inquiry is obviously set to take place this week. It's going to be beginning.
03:08Lots of people criticising it, saying that it's a waste of money for the council to have
03:11to go along to it and sort of defend itself, defend its decision. What's your take on that?
03:17Yeah, I mean, it's hugely expensive for local councils to hire the legal representatives and
03:22take part in this kind of inquiry. I mean, one of the things that I'm really unhappy about is
03:28that this decision was taken away from our local council. So literally within hours of the planning
03:36meeting, where I know that local councils were going to decide against the development,
03:43the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey wrote and got the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to
03:51call in the planning decision. So that means that instead of it being decided locally,
03:56it's being decided nationally, which means that local people don't get a say. And I think it's
04:02imperative and it's that we do get a say. It's one reason why I'm supporting some of the fabulous
04:08campaign groups who are opposing this development. We really want the planning inspector and indeed
04:13the Deputy Prime Minister to listen to local people.
04:16Well, I think we've heard from Quinn Developments, as well as I know the Football Club,
04:20for example, who are set to benefit from it, say that they would have appealed against the decision
04:25anyway. So is it, you know, regardless of sort of the MP and the infighting and the,
04:30you know, this party says this, this party says that, we would have maybe ended up in this
04:33situation regardless. So I wonder, when the government says that there is a lot of red
04:38tape around planning and it wants to kind of get rid of some of these barriers, is there a sense
04:42that there is a lot of bureaucracy around it? Well, I mean, you called it infighting. I think
04:48it's a really important job of a Member of Parliament to represent their constituents.
04:55That's what we are elected to do. And my constituents are very, very unhappy about this
05:02development. So I actually think it's really important that I speak up for them.
05:07And that's what a Member of Parliament, yeah, that's what a Member of Parliament should do.
05:12You mentioned, of course, that the developer is keen on the development. Well, that's no surprise.
05:17And I know that, as you mentioned, the Football Club is because they could get a new ground out
05:21of it, which, I mean, fabulous to have new football facilities, but that's not a good enough
05:26reason to build thousands and thousands of homes on our countryside in an area which
05:34doesn't have the infrastructure to support it. And while I know the developer says they're going
05:38to invest in infrastructure, we know that so often those promises are made in the planning stage,
05:44and developers just don't get on them. And the worst of all worlds is what we could end up with,
05:49which is new housing development, basically housing estate just in the middle of nowhere,
05:54very poorly connected, with people living isolated, totally reliant on cars to get around,
06:01instead of blocking up the local roads, putting extra pressure on public services
06:05and destroying what is at the moment lovely countryside and important agricultural land.
06:10Yeah, it's interesting what you mentioned about parking there. I wanted to, sorry,
06:12traffic there. I wanted to come on to that because part of the development, I know it's
06:16quite a big one, as you mentioned, is to introduce this new relief road. People would
06:20say that that would free up some of the roads and lessen traffic.
06:27Well, I support, in general, investment in infrastructure, including in local roads. That's
06:32really important. But that doesn't make it worthwhile building a whole new development
06:39of this kind of scale, over 8,000 new houses. That could be like 20,000 more people in the
06:45area. That's a town the size of Faversham. So if we do get the relief road out of it,
06:50I don't think, you know, that doesn't make it worthwhile. And then the big question is,
06:55when would that actually be built? And would it actually come good? Because so often,
07:01developers say they'll build infrastructure and then it doesn't happen in practice.
07:04Well, lots still to discuss as the inquiry begins this week.
07:08Helen Waitley, thank you very much for joining us today.