At the invitation of the Chairman, Mr Rob Atkin MBE of the Save Our Heath Lands Action Group addressed the meeting.

In making his statement, Mr Atkin advised the Committee that:

·  The Group’s core message was that the proposed Council-led Garden Community at Heathlands was in the wrong location and should not be pursued any further.

·  The Group understood the Council’s position in terms of having to build more houses and knew that the Council was trying to think more strategically in how they might be delivered through new settlements or significant urban extensions, but did not understand why Lenham Heath was being considered.  The Group had asked the Council to publish its Borough-wide analysis to explain its decision making but to no avail.

·  Despite being in such an unsustainable location, up to 1,000 new homes were already planned for Lenham, doubling the size of the village.  The area was isolated from urban facilities and residents were reliant on the use of their cars for journeys, but the Council was pursuing a Garden Community in the middle of the countryside.

·  There had been mixed reviews about Garden Communities across the country and one of the success factors of the good ones was the simplicity of land ownership.  These typically involved a small number of major land owners.

·  The Group did not understand why the Council was considering a site with over 130 land owners, traveller sites, an industrial estate, a quarry, nature reserves, two railway lines and a motorway.  It was the most complicated site that the Group could find of all the Garden Community proposals across the country.

·  The Group considered that the Officers were painting an optimistic picture in their report to the Committee.  Taking transport as an example, a motorway junction was not deliverable and to rely on the A20 to accommodate the extra traffic from the development was not realistic.

·  Apart from one or two principal land owners, no others appeared to be interested.  The Group believed that there were significant concerns and questions to be answered about the viability of the project.  Investing further taxpayers’ money in this project when there are more pressing financial priorities for the Council to address would be irresponsible.

·  The Group also considered that proceeding with the project would attract legal challenges from other developers as it would be interpreted that the Council was putting its own interests and those of a small number of major land owners ahead of other proposers of sites.

To conclude, Mr Atkin urged the Committee not to pursue the project further.

After Mr Atkin had addressed the Committee on behalf of the Save Our Heath Lands Action Group, the Director of Regeneration and Place introduced his report, the purpose of which was to provide an update on the progress made on the Council-led Garden Community proposal known as Heathlands since the last report to the Committee on 18 September 2019 with specific reference to the following topics:

Community Engagement

Environmental and Technical Surveys;

Landowner  ...  view the full minutes text for item 167