Kent Voice Spring 2018

KENT VOICE Protecting Kent’s Countryside SPRING/SUMMER 2018 How the Battle of Farthingloe was won www.cprekent.org.uk Hello! some new faces at CPRE Kent Director’s Introduction Contents Hilary Newport Pages David Mairs Thanet boy David joins CPRE Kent 4-7 Reasons to be cheerful… the Battle of Farthingloe as communications and PR manager, Having been involved in two recent public inquiries into refused having spent most of his professional planning permissions, the CPRE Kent director outlines her 8 Something in the air… career as a journalist in both national growing concerns that we are living in an era of planning by success at Pond Farm and local newspapers and magazines. appeal 9 Hilary Moorby... He has worked for publications an appreciation I’ve written many times here about the failings of our planning system, which as varied as Kent on Sunday, increasingly leaves local planning authorities powerless to direct the development 11 Quiz YourThanet, Birdwatch and The Sun, they need to the right places. 12-13 The dark side of the sun… while he played an integral part in the Planning authorities are required to continually identify and allocate enough sites plans for the country’s development of multimedia news biggest solar farm services across the county. to deliver at least five years’ worth of their annual housing targets; in those cases 14-15 From the Frontline… No stranger to CPRE Kent, David where they can’t demonstrate enough available sites, ‘the presumption in favour campaigns update was Thanet district chairman for some of sustainable development’ that runs through national planning policy takes hold. four and a half years at the turn of the In simple terms this means that a speculative housebuilding application will 16-17 Laying into Litter… century(!), while he also served on be far more likely to succeed, even on a site that might have been rejected youngsters give us their the committee of Manston Airport comprehensively for inclusion in a Local Plan. ideas on tackling a growing Julie Davies Group and is on the Pegwell and above picture was taken in Uganda’s This has not gone unnoticed by land agents and major housebuilders, who problem Julie joined us at the beginning of District Association committee. Bwindi Impenetrable Forest after an know that if a speculative application is refused they can appeal to the Planning 18 Chairman’s Update… January, taking over Jillian Barr’s He has had a passion for wildlife encounter with mountain gorillas. Inspectorate for an independent decision. the latest word from role. since childhood, travelling to some of David has high hopes his 12-year- We have taken part in two such inquiries in just the first three months of this Christine Drury She has lived in Kent since the world’s remotest places seeking old son Edward might one day be a year, giving evidence in support of Ashford Borough Council’s rejection of 19 Feedback… a view from 1990, having moved here from out the rare and the wonderful; the leading light for CPRE Kent… unsustainable applications for housing in the countryside. the shooting fraternity on the Mid-Sussex District Council to We’ve seen first-hand the extraordinary (and expensive) lengths that land agents issue of lead shot start work in the Local Plans team will go to in justifying the need for their development above all others, and in 20-21 Local hero… a celebration at Canterbury City Council. “a proud 10 years as chief technical challenging the complicated mathematics that goes into the calculation of a five- of a very special volunteer After several years at Canterbury officer for Stafford Borough Council”. year housing land supply. 22-25 Around the districts… (and a transfer into what was In 2015, David and wife Pat moved This so-called ‘planning by appeal’ news from our committee then known as Development to Thanet because “it has the best is time-consuming and it ties up the chairmen Control) she moved on to coastline in the South East and a resources of council planning offices. 26-27 Local Plan overview… Shepway District Council and relaxed lifestyle”. The sooner this loophole is closed, essential reading for planners then became team leader at David soon became embroiled in the sooner we can regain our 28 Cross purpose… Tonbridge & Malling Borough protests against the draft Local Plan; looking through the groups involved confidence that planning decisions recognition for a popular Council. will respect valued landscapes and monument After a short spell in the private in consultative planning, he realised CPRE Kent offered the most cogent deliver sustainable solutions. 29 Attraction… sector, processing planning Mount Ephraim Gardens applications on behalf of councils support and professional advice and David Morrish made the decision to join. 30 News round-up… across the county, she returned David was born and bred in It wasn’t long before Thanet had its from Vicky Ellis to local government and took Birmingham and had his epiphany in own CPRE committee, with David a job much closer to home, at 1959 when despatched for a three- elected as chairman. Swale Borough Council. day Scouts expedition through the “It has been a pleasure to have the After the birth of her daughter ‘Blue Remembered’ Shropshire opportunity of meeting fellow CPRE Sasha, Julie went back into Hills, where began his love for the members from across Kent and to be planning policy and comes to us tranquility of the English countryside. made to feel so welcome,” he said. after a 10-year spell of working He enjoyed a successful career in civil For more on David Morrish’s route to Tel: 01233 714540 [email protected] on the recently adopted Swale engineering, with an emphasis on becoming Thanet chairman, visit the Borough Local Plan. transport planning, winding up with CPRE Kent website. www.cprekent.org.uk FSC® CU 816914 Cover picture: Solicitor Kristina Kenworthy and CPRE Kent chairman Christine Drury at the Supreme Court after the announcement of the Farthingloe judgment 2 Cartoons and illustrations by Vicky Ellis 33 Protecting2 Kent’s Countryside www.cprekent.org.uk We make no apologies for revisiting Unfortunately, the SoS declined to the longest and most significant call in the decision (and we found campaign CPRE Kent has ever out much, much later that this was Reasons fought: the saga of Western Heights contrary to the advice he was given). and Farthingloe. The council’s planning officers must It began in 2012, when we were be applauded for the hard work they alerted to an application for more went to in order to suggest changes to be than 500 homes, plus a 90-apartment that would limit the harm to the retirement village, in the Farthingloe landscape this development would Valley in the Kent Downs Area have caused. of Outstanding Natural Beauty They suggested that cutting the (AONB), together with associated number of homes in the scheme, cheerful development at the nearby Scheduled The message from the Supreme Court is clear: reducing the harm to the most Ancient Monument that is Western our solicitor Kristina Kenworthy and CPRE Kent sensitive part of the landscape Heights. chairman Christine Drury show their delight within the site, would still result in a after the announcement of the judgment on the Alarm bells began to ring immediately; financially viable scheme that would Farthingloe Valley we were pretty certain there had secure the £5 million the developer never been an application of this scale promised towards the stabilisation of for development in an AONB. the Napoleonic fortifications at nearby Western Heights. The designation of AONB does not mean there can never be any However, the developer rejected development but, to succeed, an those suggestions and the planning applicant must demonstrate three committee resolved by a majority to tests are met: grant the original application. This is where the legal challenge began. • There must be pressing After lengthy negotiations with the national interest applicant, Dover District Council • There must be no possible issued the planning permission on On one of the most alternative site April 1, 2015. momentous days in • Every step must be taken We could not agree that it was CPRE Kent’s recent to limit any harm to the acceptable to despoil a nationally history, the Supreme landscape designated landscape for profit when so many other and more sustainable Court confirmed in sites were available locally, and when December that planning nothing at all had been done to limit permission for more We were equally certain this the harm to the landscape… in other than 500 houses in the application failed to pass any of those words, spectacularly failing all the tests Farthingloe Valley, in tests and we put in a strongly-worded necessary to make development in an AONB acceptable. the Kent Downs AONB, objection to Dover District Council (DDC). A legal challenge to a planning remains quashed. Here decision can only be made once the our director Hilary We also wrote to officers in the Department for Communities and permission is issued and, with no call- Newport relates what Local Government to alert them to in from the SoS, that remained the happened over a long- the application and to request that only option left to us. running, and ultimately they ‘called in’ the plan for then- The legal challenge was a lengthy and successful, saga Secretary of State Eric Pickles’s bumpy ride. consideration if Dover were minded to permit it. (continued overleaf) 4 5 Protecting4 Kent’s Countryside www.cprekent.org.uk At the first stage, the Judge at the written judgment that concluded the supporting the Court of Appeal’s Our determination to fight for this site indictment of the planning system High Court rejected our challenge committee had “failed to give legally decision.

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