Unsustainable, Undeliverable and Unviable
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Heathlands Garden Community, Lenham Heath: Unsustainable, undeliverable and unviable Contents 3 Introduction 14 Unviable 4 Location 15 Viability Assessment 5 Policy Context 6 Unsustainable 16 In Summary 7 Employment & Economic Need 17 Community Engagement 8 Biodiversity & Environment 18 Garden Community principles 9 Water 19 What your experts say 10 Undeliverable 11 Transport 13 Land Ownership & Assembly Introduction Lenham is not the right place for a garden community Save Our Heath Lands (SOHL) is an Our findings are conclusive. The independent volunteer-led campaign council-led Heathlands development is group made up of concerned residents unsustainable, undeliverable and of Lenham and the surrounding unviable. villages, under threat by Maidstone This document sets out evidence- Borough Council (MBC)’s Garden based, factual information that must Community proposal to build a new be considered by MBC’s planners and town of over 5,000 homes on those politicians responsible for beautiful, green heath lands at the making strategic planning decisions. foot of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. MBC’s role as scheme promoter has created significant mistrust in the Our work over the last twelve months community it seeks to serve. since MBC announced their intentions to investigate Lenham Heath as a It is time for our local council to start prospective development site has listening to local residents. explored the constraints and opportunities of this location. Location Lenham’s rural setting and distance from existing major settlements makes it an unsuitable location for new major development. Lenham is located at the centre crossed east-west by the A20, of Kent, the heart of the garden the M20, the Kent mainline of England. railway and the High Speed 1 line which run approximately The parish largely comprises parallel to, and south of, the high quality rural landscape, Kent Downs AONB. being roughly equidistant Our work over the last twelve months since MBC announced their intentions to between Faversham, Ashford, The area to the north of the A20 investigate Lenham Heath as a prospective development site has explored the Headcorn and Maidstone, forms part of the Kent Downs constraints and opportunities of this location. approximately 15km from each AONB, while the area of these locations. immediately south of the A20, to the east of Lenham village, Lenham is the source of two of provides the setting of the the county’s most important AONB and is a very attractive rivers; the Stour and the Len. area of open countryside. Lenham village has the only The area to the south of the working medieval village square mainline railway, to the east of in Kent, which has remained Lenham village, lies in an area of without significant change to more intricate but still very the enclosing buildings since the attractive scenery, including 16th century. areas of woodland, agricultural Lenham has historically fields and the hamlets of benefited from east-west routes Lenham Heath, Sandway and including from London to the Platts Heath. continent and the Pilgrims Way Lenham Heath is where (North Downs Way). Maidstone Council propose This pattern continues to this siting the Heathlands Garden day, and the Parish is now Community. Policy Context The Heathlands Garden Community proposal is not in conformity with national, borough or local neighbourhood policy. It will place new residential development in an isolated location with heavy reliance on the private car and with insufficient mixed use to reduce the need to travel. Lenham Neighbourhood Plan National Planning Policy Maidstone Local Plan (MLP) (LNP) Framework (NPPF) The NPPF is focused upon achieving The Maidstone Local Plan recognises The Neighbourhood Plan demonstrates sustainable development and promoting Lenham as a Rural Service Centre. how the Parish can deliver a notable travel by sustainable modes. amount of development with supporting The 2017 Local Plan focused new infrastructure while at the same time The NPPF sets out a range of objectives for development ‘principally within the protecting the countryside, by ensuring achieving sustainable development including Maidstone urban area and at the strategic growth is in appropriate locations. the potential impact on the transport network development locations at the edge of town and opportunities for sustainable travel. It and to a lesser extent at the five rural service In particular, the LNP makes provision of also states in paragraph 17 and 21 that new centres of Harrietsham, Headcorn, Lenham, Policy CP1 (Countryside Protection). This developments must: Marden and Staplehurst consistent with their states that “development proposals should range of services and role.’ seek to protect the rural environment of the “actively manage patterns of growth to make Parish, such that there are no adverse the fullest possible use of public transport, Lenham has an allocation of approximately impacts upon the character of the walking and cycling , and focus significant 1,000 new homes in the current plan period countryside. Proposals which fail to development on locations which can be made which along with the 364 new units already demonstrate that any such impacts can be sustainable.” and “set out a clear economic committed nearly doubles the size of the mitigated will not be supported.” vision and strategy for the area which village. No other rural service centre has positively and proactively encourages committed such relative growth. The Heathlands proposition is beyond the sustainable economic growth.”. Lenham parish settlement boundary and The Heathlands proposition would swell the consumes the hamlet of Lenham Heath, one Selecting Heathlands as a future parish to nearly seven times the existing of which this specific policy seeks to protect. development site as part of the emerging number of households. This is clearly review of the Maidstone Local Plan would be unacceptable and a divergence from existing Heathlands is not policy compliant at a deliberately selecting a pattern of borough policy, even with Lenham as an neighbourhood planning level. development and land use which is heavily identified broad area of growth. unsustainable. Employment & Economic Need Unsustainable Lenham is an inherently unsustainable location Employment & Economic Need There is no evidence to support the proposition that the market would be able to provide close to 5,000 jobs, or indeed any significant employment, at such an isolated location. Lenham Heath is not the right location for a sustainable employment settlement. Heathlands’ promoter currently Such few jobs will lead to the The Council’s Sustainability system and the promoter is yet propose around 850 new jobs true vision and purpose of a Appraisal notes that the to make any case as to how the for the site. This is made up of garden community not to be strategic location to the scheme could cope with the 420 jobs in the B1c/B2 and B8 realised. Government guidance motorway network of residential motor car trips before use classes, a further 230 non-B requires garden communities to Heathlands and Lenham Heath even considering heavy good class jobs and provision in the facilitate residents living, could make it a suitable site for vehicle movements on an form of managed workspace working and playing in the warehouse/distribution however existing unsuitable road that will provide space for 200 development to reduce external this would go against the network. workers, providing space for the trips. principles of creating a low self-employed, those spending carbon integrated transport Even if thousands of jobs could some time working from home. be provided at Heathlands the Arguably the development is majority of those are likely to be only proposing to create 650 low-wage positions. This would jobs. This is well below the require workers travelling long TCPA guide of 1:1 jobs to distances, mainly by private houses ratio. motor car, from their homes in Maidstone, the Medway towns, For the aspirations set out in the Ashford or further afield to masterplan to be realised, reach employment at considerably more employment Heathlands. Meanwhile, would need to be delivered. residents of Heathlands, Recent research found that inevitably in higher earning garden communities on average brackets and able to afford the deliver 35m2 of employment “executive homes” that would space per dwelling2. For no doubt feature heavily, would Heathlands, this would equate be travelling away from the area to 35 acres of space required to higher paid employment. This compared to the current would create a dormitory town. proposed 27 acres. Biodiversity & Environment The rural setting and rich biodiversity at the foot of the Kent Downs AONB are to be robustly protected. The use of over 700 acres of predominantly green space is not an acceptable location for a new settlement like Heathlands. The loss of biodiversity, farming land, and wildlife is intellectually and morally bankrupt. The proposed site for The Sustainability Appraisal Heathlands garden community is therefore determines extremely complex from a Heathlands as performing landscape, ecology, and least well of all garden biodiversity perspective. community proposals across the range of sustainability Parts of the site have high objectives. landscape sensitivity with other parts benefiting from rich arable A significant area on the farming (grade 3 and above). western half of the proposed scheme will be visible from the A number of designations for AONB and