Helen Whately, Member of Parliament for Faversham & Mid Kent, has written to every member of Swale Council's planning committee expressing serious concerns about the Highsted Park housing application. You can read her letter HERE
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The two applications to build a total of 8,400 new dwellings in the area known as ‘Highsted Park’ will be determined by Swale Council’s planning committee at an extraordinary meeting on Thursday November 7, to be held at Swale House commencing at 6pm. Two ‘reserve’ days have also been allocated in case the meeting overruns.
Since our original transport review was submitted, the applicant has made some changes to the proposals and responded to comments from KCC and National Highways. In collaboration with Teynham, Tonge and Doddington Parish Councils we have therefore published an addendum to our review.
Our objections are unchanged on the following transport grounds:
• Sustainable Travel Deterred by the Physical Layout of Development
• Barriers to Movement on Foot and by Bicycle
• Poor Bus Provision
• Poor Access to Rail Services
• Failure to Consider Induced Traffic
• Failure to Engage with Important Transport Issues
• Failure to Consider Poor Safety Record on Lower Road, Teynham
• Sensitivity of Lower Road and A2 Under-Estimated
• Failure to Mitigate Increased HGV Movements on the A2
• Failure to Acknowledge or Assess Severe Congestion on the A2 through Teynham and Elsewhere
The addendum to our transport review can be read HERE
We had a terrific turnout to this evening’s Annual Meeting of Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council. Nearly 70 residents listened to an excellent presentation by planning consultant, Alison Eardley. She gave an update on national planning policy, what’s happening at Swale Council level and highlighted two current proposals - Highsted Park and the Duchy of Lancaster plans near Faversham.
Alison also explained how to influence planning applications and the importance of focussing on ‘material considerations’.
Her presentation can be found here: HERE
Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council is holding its Annual Parish Meeting 2024 on Monday 30th September. The event starts at 7pm at Lynsted Church.
Our guest speaker is planning consultant, Alison Eardley. She will present an overview of housing developments proposed for our local area - including 8,400 new dwellings at Highsted Park and 2,500 on the 'Duchy of Lancaster' site near Faversham. Alison will also explain how best to respond to planning applications.
All residents of Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish are welcome. Complimentary drinks and snacks will be provided.
Swale Borough Council has launched a survey, inviting residents to give their views on bin collections since the new waste contract commenced on 25 March. Responses will be fed into the scrutiny review, set up to investigate how the new service has been implemented.
The survey can be accessed via the following link: https://swale.gov.uk/news-and-your-council/consultations/waste-and-street-cleansing-survey
The deadline is 2 October 2024.
The Cellar Hill and Greenstreet Conservation Area has undergone a further review and character appraisal. The Parish Council has now responded to the second round of public consultation. The recommendation is to retain its status with some extensions to the boundary, in particular to the West towards Frognal Lane.
Conservation Area designation is an important way of recognising special architectural or historic character, so that appropriate steps can be taken to preserve or enhance it.
The Parish Council supports the report’s conclusion that Cellar Hill and Greenstreet continues to be an area of special architectural and historic interest - the character and appearance of which should be preserved and enhanced. It should indeed continue to be a designated Conservation Area of high importance to the Borough of Swale.
We agree that Cellar Hill and Greenstreet should be removed from the Historic England "Heritage at Risk Register" - although we emphasise the importance of household alterations being brought under control through an Article 4 Direction and planning enforcement being prioritised.
You can read our full response HERE
Following the far-from-satisfactory start to the new waste contract, a major review of the collection routes has now been completed by Swale Council. Letters will be sent out to 9,000 properties across the Borough this week advising them of changes to either the day or week of collection (or both).
The new routes are intended to improve the service significantly, particularly in rural areas like Lynsted and Kingsdown with their many narrow roads and properties off the beaten track - as well as removing anomalies such as different sides of a cul-de-sac being emptied on different days.
The re-routing applies to green, blue and food bins - not garden waste.
Inevitably there will be a few more “teething problems” with the new routes. But at least this time it’s just some routes being changed, not all of them. The crews are also not having to get used at the same time to new vehicles, new ways of working, new colleagues, new management and new technology.
The revised routes will come into effect on Monday 16 September.
Fingers crossed for a better service moving forwards!
In the meantime, residents experiencing missed bin collections should continue to report via the Swale Council website:
You can check your scheduled collection days here:
Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish Council has published its third report on the proposed Highsted Park/West of Teynham developments. Having already submitted an air quality report and transport assessment, this latest document is a general planning overview. We worked in conjunction with Teynham, Tonge and Doddington Parish Councils in order to pool resources and to keep down the costs of engaging professional advisers.
The impacts of these two developments will be felt by residents of the parishes for decades to come. The potential environmental, ecological and historical losses; impacts on our roads and infrastructure; and general impact on our health and wellbeing is of great concern.
NPPF Para 73 recognises that the supply of large numbers of new homes can often be best achieved through planning for larger scale development, such as new settlements or significant extensions to existing villages and towns, provided they are well located and designed, and supported by the necessary infrastructure and facilities. In this case the combined Highsted Park and West of Teynham applications offer development which is not well located and requires significant transport infrastructure to support it.
The impacts of introducing this infrastructure are considerable and there is overriding uncertainty as to whether those impacts can be satisfactorily and acceptably mitigated. The existing road infrastructure particularly around the A2 is not capable of accommodating the 1,250 homes and additional commercial, community and recreational development proposed in 21/503906/EIOUT - nor the 7,150 homes with commercial and community uses in 21/503914/EIOUT. We are very concerned to see that by the applicant’s own admission the proposals for land West of Teynham, in isolation, will certainly increase traffic using the A2, adding to existing traffic congestion and poor Air Quality.
Neither application accords fully with the adopted Development Plan, and we contend there are no material considerations of sufficient magnitude as to outweigh the actual and policy harm caused by the proposals.
Lynsted with Kingsdown, Teynham, Tonge and Doddington Parish Councils strongly urge Swale Borough Council to refuse both applications.
You can read the planning report HERE
The Cellar Hill and Greenstreet Conservation Area has undergone a further review and character appraisal. This is now out for a second round of public consultation. The recommendation is to retain its status with some extensions to the boundary, in particular to the West towards Frognal Lane.
Conservation Area designation is an important way of recognising the special architectural or historic character of an area so that appropriate steps can be taken to preserve or enhance it.
You can read the review document HERE
The public consultation ends on 18 September 2024. Email your comments to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by the deadline. Please use the following subject line in your email: Cellar Hill & Greenstreet CA Review feedback.
If you prefer, you can send your comments to the Parish Council and we will include them in our response. Email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
In collaboration with Teynham, Tonge and Doddington Parish Councils we have now submitted a transport report which assesses the traffic impacts of the proposed Highsted Park development - which would see 7,150 houses built on the southern site and 1,250 on the northern site (land to the west of Teynham).
The report concludes that the applicant’s highways modelling is deficient and leaves too many unanswered questions, with numerous discrepancies in the technical work.
There has been no assessment undertaken of the poor highway safety record on Lower Road, Teynham (an accident rate four to seven times the national average). Lower Road is currently used as a rat-run for motorists seeking to avoid congestion on the A2 corridor. The predicted significant increases in traffic along the A2 east of the site means the proposed development will significantly increase traffic flows on Lower Road and thus exacerbate the poor safety record.
The A2 through Teynham and Lynsted is already congested. It is an Air Quality Management Area, cars park on footways and there are very limited safe pedestrian crossing facilities.
This stretch of the London Road is predicted to carry traffic flows that will lead to very severe congestion. The northern site will generate around 5,000 additional daily vehicle trips on the A2. This will cause London Road to exceed its capacity. Despite this, the assessments suggest that the impact will be ‘neutral or slight’. This conclusion is not justifiable since it does not reflect the sensitivity of this road to increased traffic flows.
The modelling work for the northern site also identifies a very significant increase in HGV movements (+56%) on the A2 leading to permanent moderate to large adverse impacts. Despite this, no mitigation is proposed.
There are already over 1,500 committed dwellings in this area. From the information that has been submitted it is not possible to confirm whether or not all of these have been taken into account in the traffic modelling work - meaning the impact could potentially be far worse.
The report from the four parish councils also highlights the poor bus provision and poor access to infrequent rail services at Teynham station, which will increase reliance on the car.
To read the full report, click HERE