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Come rain or sunshine, water is important!
As I drove towards the Kent Events Centre on the 26th of last month, it seemed like a particularly bad day to talk about water sustainability in the South East! The rain lashing down (as it has for what seems like months now) made talk of drought in Kent appear laughable. But as the day progressed, listening to the various presentations made me realise that actually, water sustainability needs to be on all of our minds throughout the year, not just when we have a drought. As the press officer at CPRE Protect Kent, I’m not technically versed in watery issues within the county; however our Campaigns Manager Andrew Ogden, is very much a specialist in the field. Earlier in the year, when the county was facing severe water shortages, we decided that as a leading conservation and environmental charity, CPRE Protect Kent should bring the key players in the water industry together to kick off some real changes in water resource planning. Our aim was to achieve more synergy between these organisations and create a more sustainable water framework for Kent.
The conference was extremely well attended by a variety of planning consultants, councillors, local authority officers, environmentalists and even the Chairman of Kent County Council, Richard King! We heard from some truly excellent and extremely knowledgeable speakers on a variety of issues; from the supply side through Southern Water (who also sponsored the conference), to those who use water in industry such as the brewer Shepard Neame. We also had a fascinating insight from the Environment Agency who are on the front line managing the critical water situations that both our county and the whole country face at times. Unfortunately, whilst we were supposed to be hearing from the Minister responsible for water in the UK, Richard Benyon MP, due to the extreme weather we have recently had he was required to be in the South West. However, we were lucky enough to be treated to one of his colleagues at DEFRA who gave an excellent talk and then answered questions from the floor.
We were treated to a sumptuous buffet lunch, although I barely had time to eat anything as we ran a series of roundtable discussions on different watery issues. I think that I had one of the more ‘impossible’ questions on my table, which was seeking to address the further reaching global issues of water shortages, but my group gave a lively and spirited effort at giving a solid answer to this problem!
If there were one over-riding lesson that I personally took from the day, it is that even when it is raining and pouring outside, we still need to keep one eye on water sustainability in Kent. Whilst we all tend to think that water is plentiful when experiencing this kind of weather, it only takes a few dry months to create a serious problem with our water supply. We are an incredibly water stressed county and now is the time for us to really get a solid plan to ensure that Kent can become water efficient and ensure that it isn’t wasted and we can move into the future a more sustainable county. Hopefully yesterday has got participants thinking and will be the catalyst required to ensure real change for the future. However, whilst the various agencies and others were all there, a lot of the real change needs to come from you, the public. So, I would like to ask you to think “what am I going to do today to make sure I don’t waste water unnecessarily”! It’s only when we all begin to ask ourselves this question that water sustainability will become less of a problem, although whilst we have a growing population, all competing for the same resources, it’s unlikely to ever go away…
- A number of important documents have yet to emerge. For example, a rigorous transport plan and a finalised air-quality assessment. The latter is critical given that allocations at Teynham will feed extra traffic into AQMAs.
- There seems to be no coherent plan for infrastructure delivery – a key component of the plan given the allocations being proposed near the already crowded Junction 7.
- There seems to have been little or no cooperation with neighbouring boroughs or even parish councils within Swale itself.
The removal of a second consultation might have been understandable if this final version of the plan were similar to that being talked about at the beginning of the consultation process. It is, however, radically different in the following ways:
- There has been a major shift in the balance of housing allocations, away from the west of the borough over to the east, especially around the historic town of Faversham. This is a move that raises many concerns.
- A new large allocation, with accompanying A2 bypass, has appeared around Teynham and Lynsted, to which we are objecting.
- Housing allocations in the AONB around Neames Forstal that were judged “unsuitable” by the council’s own officers have now appeared as part of the housing numbers.
- Most of the housing allocations being proposed are on greenfield sites, many of them on Grade 1 agricultural land – a point to which we are strongly objecting.
Concerns about the rush to submit the plan
The haste with which the plan is being prepared is especially worrying given the concentration of housing in Faversham. If the town is to take a large amount of new housing, it is imperative that the policies concerning the area are carefully worked out to preserve, as far as possible, the unique nature of the town. The rush to submit the plan is likely to prove detrimental.
As Swale does not have a five-year land housing supply, it is open to speculative development proposals, many of which would run counter to the ideas contained in the current plan. Some are already appearing. This is a common situation, and one that, doubtless, is a reason behind Swale’s haste.
Our overriding fear, however, is that this emphasis on haste is ultimately going to prove counterproductive. This is because it is our view that the plan, in its current form, is unlikely to pass independent examination. We are urging Swale to listen to and act upon the comments being made about the plan and to return the plan to the council with appropriate modifications before submitting it to the Secretary of State.
Essentially, this means treating the current consultation not as the final one but as the ‘lost’ second consultation.
The consultation ends on Friday 30 April and we strongly urge residents to make their opinions known if they have not already done so.
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