Thanet’s countryside “despoiled, disfigured and destroyed” by incompetence and broken promises. Green Party Councillor, Ian Driver, has warned that greenfield land in Thanet, including land on and around the Manston Airport site, has been put at risk of being “despoiled, disfigured and destroyed” because of incompetence and broken promises. His outspoken attack follows a secret meeting of Thanet Council’s Planning Committee on 18th of June at which it was decided not to contest a planning appeal submitted by East Kent Opportunities (EKO) to build 550 houses on greenfield land at the New Haine Road Ramsgate (1). EKO’s application was rejected by Thanet’s Planning Committee in November 2013 on the grounds that “the site does not constitute previously developed land and as such the proposed residential development would involve the release of greenfield land, where there is no identified need, contrary to policy H1 of the Thanet Local Plan 2006 (2).” Legal advice, obtained by TDC in preparation for defending EKOs appeal identified clauses in the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework published in March 2012 which require local councils to produce a plan identifying housing need and the supply of available building land in their areas over a five year period (3). This information is then used by planners as a basis for granting or refusing planning permission for house construction. But, unlike most other council’s in Kent, TDC does not have such a plan. In fact it is unlikely to have a plan in place until 2015 at the earliest. Thanet’s legal adviser warned that without a plan it would be impossible for TDC to demonstrate grounds for refusing permission for EKOs 550 houses on the greenfield site at new Haine Road. Said Driver,” the need to have an up-to-date housing need analysis and building land register has been a requirement of the planning system for over 2 years. Plenty of advance warning was given by the Government to prepare these documents but senior TDC managers and the ruling Labour Group did not attach a high priority to completing this extremely important task.” “This serious management failure means that Thanet’s rural open spaces and greenfield land now faces a high risk of being covered in concrete, even though sufficient brownfield land and long term empty residential properties are already available within Thanet’s urban boundaries to meet housing need over the next 5 years”. “In the short-term it’s now almost certain that permission will have to be granted for EKO to build 550 houses on agricultural land at the New Haine Road and that plans to build 850 house on 47 hectares of prime agricultural at the bottom of the Manston Airport runway will have to be OK’d (4) and housing developments on greenfield land within the Manston Airport site will also have to be agreed. . In the longer-term I suspect planning applications for housing on rural greenfield sites will now begin to flood into the Council as people try to profit from inflated land values until TDC closes this major loophole in its planning policies”. “I am especially disappointed by the role TDC’s ruling Labour Group in this matter” added Driver. “In their 2011 Council Election Manifesto (5) the Labour Party promised the people of Thanet that they would oppose “encroachment into Thanet’s green spaces and that house building will be focussed on agreed brown field sites and the renovation of existing properties. Building on green field sites will be resisted wherever possible”. By failing, as the ruling council party, to ensure prompt compliance the Government’s National Planning Policy Framework, they have broken their election promises to the public and left our beautiful countryside open to being despoiled, disfigured and destroyed”. My suspicion is that this delay in producing important planning documents is motivated by the fact that the more houses that out built in Thanet the more money the Council receives from the Governments New Bonus Scheme, which pays TDC the equivalent of double council tax for each new home built for up to six years. In effect Thanet Council decision makers have accepted bribes to sell off our greenfield sites and farmland for housing. Ends For more information contact Councillor Ian Driver on 07866588766 Notes 1.Confidential report to Thanet Planning Committee 18 June 2014 2.See Confidential report to Thanet Planning Committee 18 June 2014 3.See para 47 of National Planning Policy Framework 2012 4.See manston-green.co.uk/about-us.html 5.See thanet-labour-group.org.uk/ AGENDA ITEM 9 - Land at Haine Road, Ramsgate .pdf Download
Posted on: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 07:08:14 +0000