News | Lenham
downsmail.co.uk Plan ‘could costmemy farm’
AFARMER claims he faces losing his home, land and business asMaidstone Borough Council forges aheadwith plans for a 5,000-house development in LenhamHeath. David Smith, of Hubbards
Farm, keeps sheep on his 30-acre plot not far from theM20 and the high-speed rail link. His wife, Af- saneh, runs her chiropody practice in the grounds of their 600-year- old property. He fears hemust complywith a
request to sell his land at themar- ket agricultural rate or face the prospect of having it purchased compulsorily. Other landowners are con-
cerned their landmight be valued at around £100-150,000 per acre (the going rate for farms) as op- posed to the Government’s 2015 valuation of £1.53man acre for res- idential land inMaidstone. They fear, once Liberal Democ-
rat-runMaidstone BoroughCoun- cil has made the purchases, the landwill be sold on to developers for a higher price. We understand resultant rev-
enues could be ploughed into de- livering local services to the new housing estates, a possible M20 motorway junction and a high speed railway station. Mr Smith was approached in
June by MBC’s planning consul- tancy, BartonWillmore,which has
identified parcels of land for a 600- acre development for 5,000 “gar- den village” homes. Mr Smith (61), a former oil in-
dustry geologist with BP, said: “I stand to do okay out of it, I sup- pose. But that’s not the point – I don’twant themoney.Wewant to live here on our farmwherewe’ve been for 20 years. “And we’re worried that, if we
don’t agree to sell, it will be taken away fromus anyway.” BartonWillmore senior partner Huw Edwards, claims Mr Smith,
cited a recent government study compiled by Sir Oliver Letwin which, if passed into law, would give local authorities greater power to acquire land they need for development. Mr Smith added: “I don’t mind
surrendering some ofmy land for development, especially if it is af- fordable housing for local people. “I have no idea howmuchwe’d
have to pay in capital gains tax or whether we’d be able to get back the type of lifewe currently enjoy. I doubt it. Other peoplemight not
emergewith verymuch at all.” Asked if landowners would be
subject to compulsory purchase orders (CPOs) and, if so, whether theywouldbepaidthe agricultural or residential rate for it,MBC said: “CPOis not the intended route in respect of land
acquisition.The in- tention would be to agree terms on a negotiated basis. Regardless, no firmdecisions in respect of the overall proposal have beenmade. “However,
the CPO legal
process has an embedded com- pensation rightsmechanism.”
Council set to be Landowners invited to sell MBC plan ‘stinks’
‘masterdeveloper’ MAIDSTONE Borough Council would be the “master developer” in the Lenhamscheme. It was made public before the
other proposals contained in the call for sites – the basis for the Local Plan review– and discussed at MBC's policy and resources committee on September 18. The committee agreed “to ad-
vance the commercialnegotiations with the principal landowners”. MBCwould take “a controlling
interest inthe land, leadthedesign process, enable the requiredinfra- structure, identify suitable devel- opment partners and oversee the stewardship of the community”. ToryCllr JonathanPurle said: “I
don’t see anymerit in going along with MBC’s scheming. They are stillwithholding fromcouncillors the sites submitted in the Local Plan review.” MBC leader Cllr Martin Cox
saidthe councilwasbeing “proac- tive” inworking for the long-term future of the borough.
30 Maidstone November 2019
LANDOWNERS have been ap- proachedto sell tracts of landto ac- commodate a massive housing development at LenhamHeath. Nine potential vendors have
been furnished with a document drawn up by a firm of planning consultants on behalf of Liberal Democrat-ledMaidstone Borough Council. The brochure, dated March
2019, sets outwhy LenhamHeath is suitable to take up to 5,000 houses. A graphic outlines locations for
primary and secondary schools, a possible new high speed railway station and other amenities. Thedocument,written by senior
planningpartnerHuwEdwards of Barton Willmore, says the rela- tively small number of landowners would facilitate “ease of delivery” of the scheme. The council is under pressure to
deliver 17,600 homes in the Local Plan (LP) but will have to accept many thousands more in the LP
says Eddie Powell INDEPENDENT Maidstone coun- cillor Eddie Powell said: “I wasn't aware of the Barton Willmore document
but
review.Most councillors believed that figure to be about 8,000, but page one of the document “ANew Garden Village in the Borough of Maidstone”mentions 10,500. We understand landowners
have been asked to sign non-dis- closure agreements (NDAs) to pre- vent them doing deals with other developers. Maidstone BoroughCouncil has
submitted the proposal as part of the LP review’s “call for sites” be- tween February 28 andMay 24. Councillors were told which of
the estimated 300 proposals affect their wards on October 4 but the full list will not be made public untilNovember 4.
MBC’s policy and resources commit- tee has decided to press on with this idea. This docu- ment suggests that the council was working on this long before itsMarch publication date. This has evidently been worked on for a long, long time and is far better developed than most of us ever realised. “But if you are someone with a
plot of land who has taken the time, effort and expense to sub- mit a proposal in the call for sites you’regoingtobemightilymiffed to find the council has used tax- payers’ cash to effectively prede- termine its own scheme. It stinks.”
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