Dover

Dover district features steep-sided North Downs valleys and the famous white cliffs, as well as less hilly countryside to the north. With the world’s busiest ferry port, Dover has to cope with large volumes of traffic, especially HGVs, using the A20 and A2. It is therefore especially important that the district’s tranquil and unspoilt areas are safeguarded from inappropriate development as much as possible.

CPRE Dover is involved in the following issues:

Housing
Although 6,100 new homes are already planned for Dover district by 2026, the council has, in recent years, consistently pressed for an increase in number, in the hope that this will lead to economic regeneration. Now Dover is recognised as a 'Growth Point' they are pushing for over 10,000 houses. CPRE Dover is concerned that there will be an overprovision of housing in the district, and that much of it will be greenfield. We have raised these issues in several meetings with council leaders, and will continue to stress to them the importance of preserving the district’s natural environment.

Dover Local Development Framework
On 7 May we submitted detailed comments on the Dover Core Strategy and Site Allocations Development Plan Document (DPD) - part of the LDF - in which we pointed out that Dover's aspirations for a target of 10,000 new homes during the South East Plan period (to 2026) had been rejected by the South East Plan inspectors, and that Dover's housing plans therefore had no basis in strategic planning guidance (the inspectors favoured a target of 8,100 dwellings).

We believe there will be a considerable degree of out commuting from Dover should the 10,000 new dwellings be built, as the council can give no guarantee that the residents of the new houses would seek to work in the District, or that the employment development proposed would keep pace with housing development.   

Read our Dover LDF Consultation Response

North Dover wind farm
On 24 September 2007 Ecotricity submitted an application to Dover District Council to build five 120-metre-high wind turbines on a greenfield site near Whitfield. The turbines would particularly affect the villages of East Langdon and Guston and the hamlet of Pineham, generating noise and ‘flicker’ which would affect quality of life locally. The visual intrusion on the landscape would, however, affect a much wider area.

While CPRE Dover supports the drive to increase renewable energy generation, this must not lead us to degrade our natural landscape in the name of its salvation. Offshore wind farms, such as the planned London Array scheme in the Thames Estuary, do not scar the landscape visually. As we wrote in our submission responding to the wind farm application: “CPRE supports the construction of small onshore turbines to power individual properties or industrial operations but has reservations about large onshore turbines contributing to the National Grid. Their contribution to the nation’s total electricity is so slight as to be totally out of proportion to the inconvenience they cause.”

Download our full submission to Dover District Council below.

The scheme was thrown out by a planning inspector in March 2009.

Planned growth in Aylesham
Having taken part in forums which fed into the masterplan for the expansion of the village of Aylesham, CPRE Dover was broadly happy with the scheme. However, the committee disagreed with the planning application in a couple of respects – notably that the developer proposed a larger number of houses than CPRE Dover had agreed (1,100 instead of 1,000) and that there is an unacceptable amount of encroachment on green space within the village. Please contact us for CPRE Dover’s full submission.

If you are concerned about a potential development in Dover district, please contact our committee.

Glyn Thomas, Chairman: 01304 822321

Attachments:

District Issues

• Tomorrow's Kent