The Saga of Neonics & Bees the Housing Crisis
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KENT VOICE Protecting Kent’s Countryside SPRING/SUMER 2016 The saga of neonics & bees The housing crisis - a builder’s view www.cprekent.org.uk Hello & Goodbye Director’s Introduction Hilary Newport There has been a lot of coming and going at CPRE Kent – our two new planners, Jillian Barr and Paul Buckley, are working hard on local plan examinations, responding to local and national consultations and dealing Implemented in 2012, the National Planning Policy Framework was designed to significantly boost the supply of housing and with planning queries from members and the public. make it easier and quicker for planning authorities to generate local plans so they could direct much-needed development to We have welcomed Helen Whately MP (Faversham and Mid Kent) as the most sustainable locations. However, the economic downturn has scuppered the delivery of new homes and, step by step, extra layers of guidance and advice have sought to force planning authorities to up their game in delivering more homes. Paul Buckley and Jillian Barr vice president. Helen said: “In this part of the South East there’s enormous pressure to build and develop, but CPRE battles to preserve the open The problem with this, of course, is that local authorities can’t build homes; all that they can deliver is local plans with land spaces of Kent for future generations. I look forward to working with CPRE allocated for housing, and then grant or deny planning applications according to those plans. But, if not enough houses are built Kent on future campaigns.” to meet the targets, the planning authority must designate even more land. The result is that developers can cherry pick the most profitable sites, with the planning system powerless to ensure - for example – much- Rose Lister has worked as an intern producing a guide on “Looking after needed regeneration of town centres or a focus on genuinely affordable homes for those most in need. heritage through the planning system”, writing for the CPRE Kent website and attending events. Meanwhile proposed changes to the NPPF, such as the inclusion of starter homes within the definition Rose Lister of affordable housing, raise significant concerns about the availability of properly affordable homes in John Wotton is the new chair of the Kent Historic Buildings Committee our rural areas. This impact will be even more pronounced if ‘right to buy’ is extended. It is becoming (KHBC). John said: “Kent is exceptionally rich in listed buildings and heritage ever harder for planning authorities to say ‘no’ to inappropriate developments when they really should Helen Whately assets. Many are at risk through neglect, redevelopment, or harmful be able to. Whither localism? alteration and, at a time of intense infrastructure and housing development, the setting of many historic buildings is under threat. We will continue to work to protect Kent’s built heritage, which speaks eloquently to us of the unique history of our county.” Contents We have said goodbye to: Brian Lloyd, our senior planner since 2007, who leaves his parting Page 2 Hello and Goodbye thoughts on p16. Brian brought professional planning and expertise to Page 4-5 Keeping it together: Conserving Kent’s Historic a whole new level for CPRE Kent, made a huge impact on local plans, Environment was involved in the early development of neighbourhood planning and Page 6 Your feedback – Romney Marsh and Green Belt contributed to CPRE national work on planning policy. Page 7 Chairman’s update John Wotton Barrie Gore, chairman of the Canterbury Committee since 2008. Page 8-10 The housing crisis – a builder’s perspective Lullingstone Park by Timelapsed At the 2015 AGM he was awarded for “challenging the unsympathetic Page 11 The great airport debate development around Canterbury World Heritage Site buildings and its Page 12-13 Interesting times - could we one day run out of water Conservation Areas”. Alan Holmes is the new chair. and food? Robert Baxter joined CPRE Kent in 1995 as conservation officer before Page 14-15 Headlines from the campaigns frontline becoming director and then chairman of the Kent Historic Buildings Page 16-17 A time of change and challenge in planning Committee. He was awarded “for his fantastic commitment”. Page 18-19 The saga of neonics and bees Paul Smallwood was chairman of the Shepway Committee for nearly ten Page 20-23 Local Plan round-up A greener printer...headley brothers years. Val Loseby is the new chair. Page 24-27 Around the districts Sheep be by Kol Tregaskes amazed CPRE Kent thanked Alan Mepstead for his work as treasurer over the last Page 28 Dates for your diary Brian Lloyd receives award from Christine Drury two years. The new treasurer is Michael Moore. Page 29 Historic gardens Page 30-31 News round-up It’s fashionable these days to be eco-friendly, but at Headley Brothers, Page 32 Developing homes and heritage taking our environmental responsibilities seriously comes as second nature. n We hold the international standard ISO 14001. n We hold both FSC and PEFC ‘Chain of Custody’ certifications. n 96% of our solid waste is recycled. n We use vegetable-based inks for all of our sheet-fed printing, except that which requires special or metallic colours. n We use mineral oil-based inks for our web presses, enabling us to condense and filter emissions and use them as fuel for the presses’ ovens. Tel: 01233 714540 [email protected] Brothers offers complete print solutions: web, sheet-fedTulip and digital by Jill printing Catley services, web-to-print and online file delivery systems, design and web design, finishing and fulfilment services, mailing and subscriptions. Barrie Gore receives award from Christine Drury Robert Baxter Tel:01233 623 131 Email: [email protected] www.cprekent.org.uk Website: www.headley.co.uk Photo credits: Thank you to our supporters who have taken the photos used in this issue. 3 2 3 Protecting Kent’s Countryside www.cprekent.org.uks0959 green ad A4.indd 1 18/12/08 3:01:29 pm 2 Cover picture Stock Photo Library Cartoons and illustrations by Vicky Ellis For more information on our innovative print and marketing solutions, please contact: the sculptor worked, and the memorial was instead shoe- horned into a chapel in the nearby All Saints Church and became a family monument. Without the physical survival of both the tower and the monument, neither this new explanation nor any future reinterpretations would be possible. Records simply cannot replace the real thing. We all know that radar made a Sound Mirrors Denge by Paul Kestenbaum major contribution to saving the nation’s bacon in 1940. Near sorrow and understated pride felt to safeguard what matters most Greatstone on the extraordinary by communities in the aftermath about the historic component of gravelly wastes of Dungeness, of terrible wars. Few are more the landscape? Here are a couple the Heath Robinson predecessor powerful than the naval memorial of ideas. As the recent case over to radar was being worked on in high above Chatham, but each one, development at junction 8 near the 1920s. Huge experimental however modest in scale, speaks Leeds Castle showed, not all concrete sound mirrors were volumes. councils are consulting Historic Keeping it together: built to test the technology of These four examples show the England when they should be concentrating the soundwaves of four headings under which Historic over development affecting Grade incoming aircraft, providing early England champions the value of I and II* Listed Buildings, and Conserving Kent’s Historic Environment warning of air attack. As aircraft historic environment to society: the CPRE Kent’s eagle-eyed planning increased in speed, it soon became potential for new understandings, team was able to alert us when Shining down on the fallen by Andy Flood Photography apparent that an attack would have the stories of how we became, the Maidstone Council slipped up. In Looking out from the spirelet- protection (https://historicengland. arrived by the time it had been pleasure we take from beauty and return, Historic England will be sure festooned crown of Hadlow Tower org.uk/listing/the-list/), but unlisted pinpointed by this technology and the bringing together of people into to alert CPRE colleagues to our free across the patchwork quilt of green heritage assets also need to be the Air Ministry switched horses communities through collective training events so that, together, we fields and tree-lined lanes, it is taken into account in the planning to invest in radio wave technology. experience. We use these headings can do more to ensure that Kent’s hard to contest the assertion that process. A few of my favourite The rest, as they say, is history. when we offer advice to owners wonderful historic environment will Kent’s landscape and its history are examples of heritage assets in Perhaps Kent’s most unusual art on how to look after their heritage be there for others to learn from inextricably entwined. This is not Kent will serve to illustrate how gallery is the wonderful little All assets and when we advise local and to enjoy in the future. by Dr Andy Brown about the sort of heritage that you we explain the significance of the Saints Church at Tudeley, near planning authorities on proposals Planning Director visit or that you pay to experience; historic environment. Tonbridge. Here the Russian émigré for development. Of course, we Historic England South East this is the history all around us, On the northern edge of Marc Chagall was commissioned cannot and need not give detailed in the interstices of daily life – the Waldershare Park lies an enigmatic in the 1960s to design the glass advice on every case; we have to coppiced woods, the isolated squat brick tower – The Belvedere.