How will massive scheme be funded?

Having now seen the master plan for Pentland Properties’ proposed development in Thanington, I have only one question (Ambitious Residential Proposals Are Unveiled At Public Exhibition, Kentish Gazette, June 18).

Who is going to fund all the wonderland range of facilities being offered?

So far we have only heard about the funding for the recently added Pilgrims Hospice, by the Tory Family Foundation.

Has similar funding been promised by other bodies and local authorities for the rest of the facilities, or are Pentland Properties going to fund them themselves?

Without this commitment to funding, these facilities are just “paper proposals” which, like the fabled Cheshire cat, are likely to disappear. Incidentally, it would appear that Simon Cook, the new leader of the city council, comes to the council offices from the Sturry end of the A28.

If he thinks just a relief road there will solve Canterbury’s traffic problems, he should try the A28 from the Thanington end, where this proposed development is taking place. You don’t have to be a “dictator” to propose a south Canterbury relief road for the A28, just a far-sighted visionary! Mike Armstrong Queens Avenue, Canterbury

As residents of Chartham, my wife and I only use the A28 passing through Thanington as a last resort due to the amount of traffic backed up on this road.

There are times the queue reaches as far back as the Wyevale Garden Centre in Chartham. We cannot see how the road system will be able to cope when the new development is built.

Has the council and the developer considered how they will handle the extra traffic in an area already heavily congested with traffic? If they have, where can we view the proposal?

We, as many others do now, have no choice but to take alternative routes across the Downs and Howfield Lane to travel to Canterbury to avoid the congestion. Both of these roads are unsuitable for heavy traffic and the risk of accidents is high. Farouk Karim Pomfret Road, Chartham sympathetic to his promise to “engage with local people”.

However, council officers’ resistance to your request for information about the Kingsmead development then led your reporter to write “so much for ‘engagement’”.

Of course, changing the political culture to improve engagement is going to be a long journey.

But the Kentish Gazette itself has a role to play in this.

At present you report council meetings after they have happened, especially if they have been controversial or have produced decisions people don’t like.

But effective engagement depends on local people knowing what is happening before decisions are made, not just afterwards.

So how about a regular column in the Gazette, Your Council Next Week, alerting readers to the important issues on the agenda of forthcoming meetings?

Better still, how about cooperating with the council on a regular column identifying the issues which will have to be considered in the coming months, so that local people can think about them in advance and feed in their ideas before decisions are made?

Engagement is not just a two-way process, it is a three-way one, and the Kentish Gazette is the third party. Will you rise to the challenge? Richard Norman St Michael’s Place, Canterbury

An artist’s impression of the planned development in Thanington