News | Harrietsham housing Homes agreed
on arable land A PROPOSAL to create a total of 80 homes on arable land on two sides of Church Road, Harriet- sham has been given the go- ahead. K E Monk and Son Ltd was
given planning permission to build 79 homes south of the A20 Ashford Road, some bordering the almshouses in East Street to the south, as well as the conver- sion of an oast house to form a four-bedroom home. A 1.22- hectare open space will be created on the eastern edge of the site, as will a new pedestrian crossing point over the A20. Maidstone Council’s conserva-
tion officer was opposed to the scheme, citing the harm it would cause to listed buildings in East Street and the conservation area. Apetition had been put together
by Harrietsham Against Reckless Development. Colin Przystupa, a spokesman for the campaign group, told the planning commit- tee: “We are appalled at the scale and type of housing proposed.We can’t emphasise enough how out of place this would be.” Seven members of the commit-
tee voted in favour of the pro- posal, with three against.
Nursery site is
approved A DEVELOPMENT of 49 homes in Harrietsham, south of the A20 Ash- ford Road,was given the go-ahead. Maidstone Council’s planning committee accepted the scheme, which involves the demolition of Mayfield Nursery and building on greenfield land to the
east.Twenty of the homes (40%) will be affordable. HarrietshamParish Council raised
an objection because none of the af- fordable housingwas earmarked for local people with a specific housing need. It also said therewere insuffi- cient infrastructure improvements. However, the parish council, in its draft neighbourhood plan, considers the site suitable for housing. Localward Cllr Eddie Powellwas angered by the council officer report, which considered the impact ofnew homes for the village acceptable. Citing census data, he said that
more than half of Harrietsham’s res- idents drive more than 10km daily for work and more than 90% own a car. “This is a small rural village where people are reliant on their cars – not a rural service centre,” he said. “This will create a suburban dormitory town and push thou- sands of additional vehicles on our roads every day.” However, the lack of a five-year
land supply in the borough gave the committee little choice but to accept the proposal.
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downsmail.co.uk
Extent of building shocks councillors
COUNCILLORS were in “shock” after seeing the extent of new housing developments proposed for Harrietsham.
Members of the planning scrutiny committeewere discussing the mer- its of including a new site – 80 homes in Bell Farm North, behind homes on the south side of East Street – into the draft local plan. A map appeared on the screen showing how it would fit alongside existing site allocations in the draft document. These include Mayfield Nursery
in the village (49 homes accepted in January 2015), Church Road (80 homes accepted in December 2014), Tongs Meadow (105 proposed), the CTRL site south of Ashford Road (117 proposed) but did not incorpo- rate the construction of 80 new homes close to completion in Hook Lane. This adds up to 511 new homes. Despite the map appearing on a large screen at the meeting, which was shown on the internet and it heavily influencing the Town Hall debate, the planning officer who created the graphic refused Downs Mail’s request for a copy of it. Cllr Val Springett, chairman of
the committee, appeared to have changed her mind after stating at a previous meeting that the A20 cor- ridor was the correct place to build homes. In a committee meeting in Au-
gust, theward member for Bearsted said: “The transport and infrastruc- ture are similar [to Bearsted] and the arguments for developing Lenham and Harrietsham are good.” However, after seeing the map
she said: “That is just too much in one go. The cumulative impact will overwhelm the existing character of the village.”
Scheme next toAONB rejected by planners
A PROPOSAL to build 40 homes in Harrietsham next to the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natu- ral Beauty (AONB) was turned down by Maidstone Council’s planning committee. Hillreed Homes’ proposal for
land south of Court Lodge Road drew 38 letters of objection and criticism from campaigners at Harrietsham Against Reckless De- velopment (Hard). Council officers recommended refusal for causing harm to the AONB and disrupting the se- cluded setting of two grade II listed buildings to the east.A sim- ilar scheme had been refused by officers in March 2013. Ukip Cllr Eddie Powell said:
“This is completely flawed be- cause it is no different to how it was before it was rejected. I can’t believe we are even sitting here talking about it.” Glenda Dean, a member of
Hard, said: “This site is grade two agricultural land next to the AONB. Kent AONB has strongly objected to this. “The access roads, both Church
Maidstone East February 2015
Road and Court Lodge Road, are sub standard and cannot meet the standards required in the Kent de- sign guide.” Cllr Dennis Clifton, chairman of Harrietsham Parish Council, said the scheme should be allowed be- cause it figured in the emerging neighbourhood plan. He added: “Refusing this would effectively be telling local people the neighbourhood plan they helped producewas not worth it.” However, the meeting agenda
stated that the parish council had originally objected to the scheme, only for an urgent update docu- ment to reveal it had changed its mind. Cllr Mike Hogg, amember of the committee, said: “It seemswe have a parish council in Harrietsham that really does not know what it is doing at the moment. It’s so close to the AONB and we must protect this land. The railway line is the boundary. The scheme was refused, with
six votes in favour and three ab- stentions.
A sign erected by protestors in front of the Hook Lane development of 80 homes, which did not appear on the map
Also aghast at the map, Cllr Clive English said: “You have to wonder how sustainable all that develop- ment is. Land needs to be put into public ownership to protect Harri- etsham.” Cllr James Ross called the Bell
Farm proposal “the straw that breaks the camel’s back”, while Cllr Eddie Powell, local ward member, said: “Being called a rural service centre has killed the place.” As the Downs Mail was being distributed, the cabinet was to de- cide whether to accept the commit- tee’s recommendation to remove the site from the draft local plan.
A conflict of
interest denied HARRIETSHAM Parish Council has been accused of harbouring a con- flict of interest over the controver- sial Court Lodge Road proposal. The parish council’s neighbour-
hood plan is being put together by architect Feria Urbanism,who also works for Hillreed, the developer behind the proposal for 40 homes off Court Lodge Road – which ap- pears as one of the proposed housing sites in the emerging doc- ument.
Glenda Dean, amember of cam-
paign group Hard, told the com- mittee: “Inclusion [of this site] in the neighbourhood plan was dreamt up by Feria Urbanism, ar- chitect of the neighbourhood plan, who also have a commercial rela- tionship with Hillreed, the appli- cant. Surely there is a conflict of interest?” A statement from Richard East-
ham, director of Feria Urbanism, said: “Outside of our work on the Harrietsham Neighbourhood Plan, the Feria Urbanism team has had no involvementwhatsoever on the designs, plans or drawings for the development of the Court Lodge Road site.”
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