The site south of Herne Bay had been targeted by Taylor Wimpey (pic Google Earth)
Plans for 900 new homes in Herne Bay have been turned down by councillors despite officers recommending they be approved. The 136-acre site at Sweechbridge Road had been allocated for development in Canterbury City Council’s Local Plan, but concerns over open space and density saw Taylor Wimpey’s application for hybrid consent refused. Consent was being sought by the developer for an initial 193 homes of the scheme, together with access works, drainage infrastructure, open space, landscaping and street-lighting. Outline consent was also sought for up to 707 further homes, up to 27,000 square metres of employment space, a care home, shops, a community centre, a school, open space and infrastructure works. Planning officers had recommended the scheme be approved, a planning report saying the site “forms the major part of a strategic allocated site for a mixed-use development in the Canterbury District Local Plan”. It continued: “The application site will provide a significant amount of the homes that are required to meet the district’s need, as well as providing employment opportunities for local people. This application is therefore acceptable in principle.” However, the proposals were refused at a planning committee meeting on Tuesday, September 1. A council spokesman said members had concluded the scheme would not provide for “sufficient high-quality open space for active and continual use due to the amount of that space which contains attenuation ponds/features”, making it contrary to national planning policy. Further, the development “at 40 dwellings per hectare is over-dense and would amount to an overdevelopment of the site given the location of the site”, while its proposed 22.5 per cent affordable-housing provision failed to meet the 30 per cent sought by local planning policy. Members also found a “lack of sustainable infrastructure such as solar panels and electric vehicle-charging points”, against Local Plan policy, and “highways arrangements proposed would not provide safe movement within and around the proposed development”.
This hen harrier was photographed at Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve; whether the building of hundreds of homes in the area means we will lose this magnificent raptor in the area remains to be seen (pic Steve Ashton)
In another blow to Canterbury’s rapidly diminishing
countryside, a High Court judge has dismissed an attempt to stop the building
of hundreds of homes to the east of the city.
The A28 Environmental Crisis Group had sought judicial reviews of the city
council’s approval of two neighbouring developments, one for 250 homes at
Hoplands Farm, Hersden, and the other for 370 at Chislet Colliery, a site that
had not been allocated in the Local Plan for housing.
The group’s case was based primarily on the argument that the local authority
had not taken into account the joint impact of the two schemes, especially in
relation to nearby Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve.
However, on Wednesday last week (July 24) Mrs Justice Lang ruled against the
challenges, concluding that the council had made the decisions lawfully.
The judge also denied the campaigners permission to appeal. However, Antonie
van den Broek told KentOnline that his campaign group would indeed be trying to
take the case to the Court of Appeal.
“Favourable rulings would potentially have set significant precedents for local
authorities and developers throughout the UK,” he said.
“But this is not the end of the story. We think errors have been made by
Canterbury City Council and the developers.
“This particular judge has said otherwise and also refused our applications for
permission to appeal her decisions, but we are going to take this to the Court
of Appeal.
“These things are never about whether something is a good idea or not. It’s
about whether the law was followed.
“It’s an unusual situation in that there are two developments side by side and
by two different companies.
“Therefore, the law deems them as separate. We’ve been arguing you can’t do
that with the impact on the environment. The environment doesn’t care whether
it’s one developer or two.”
A Canterbury City Council statement read: “Between them, the two developments
will provide up to 620 much-needed homes for local people, together with
medical outlets, shops, open space and other benefits.”
Ian Thomas, chairman of the council’s planning committee, added: “We are
naturally pleased to have won both of these cases, which will allow these
important housing developments to go ahead.
“It is becoming increasingly common for opponents to new homes to launch these
types of legal proceedings. We are always very careful to ensure we follow all
the right procedures, so that if we do end up in court, we have a good chance
of winning.”
The decision follows a failed attempt to overturn planning permission for more
than 1,000 new homes in the Thanington area of south Canterbury.
The city council had, in July 2016, given Pentland Properties permission to
build up to 750 properties on a 73-hectare site at Cockering Farm, while in
November last year Quinn Estates was granted outline consent for up to 400
homes on a neighbouring site off Cockering Road.
Campaigner Camilla Swire then won permission to seek a judicial of the Quinn
planning permission and the council’s approval of variations to the Pentland
Properties consent, arguing that the two developments should have been
considered as a “combined masterplan”.
By the time the case came before a High Court judge, however, building had already
started on the first phase of the Pentland development, following the council’s
approval of reserved matters.
Both sites, which lie close to the Larkey Valley Wood Site of Special
Scientific Interest and in a designated Area of High Landscape Value, are
treated as a single unit in Canterbury’s Local Plan, but, with them in
different ownership and being developed separately, it was argued by Ms Swire
that the local authority had breached its own policy through failing to have
the combined masterplan.
In response, the council claimed any potential breach was merely a technicality
and that, in reality, the impact of both developments had been considered
together.
Mr Justice Stuart-Smith appeared to concur, saying all that was missing was “a
single piece of paper” showing the two planning applications had been
considered alongside each other.
He refused the judicial review, concluding that a combined masterplan “would
have made no difference whatsoever” to the outcome of the planning
applications.
A top planning barrister has judged the Canterbury Local Plan legally unsound because it has failed to properly assess sustainability and environmental impact after dramatically increasing the number of houses needed by more than 50%.
Richard Harwood QC was commissioned by Herne and Broomfield Parish Council, backed by CPRE Kent and a number of other local organisations (1), to judge whether the Local Plan was legally compliant.
He concluded that when Canterbury City Council greatly raised its housing target, it should have re-assessed the impact on habitats and the environment, and whether or not the proposed distribution of housing remained appropriate and sustainable. This it failed to do.
In January 2010, the council consulted on a Local Plan with a target of 10,200 new homes by 2026 (510 per year). In 2012, this target was revised to 15,600 new homes by 2031 (780 per year). However, despite the significant increase, the council relied on its earlier environmental assessments of where new development should be located.
