Time to discuss those 15,600 extra homes

The city’s controversial development blueprint for housing and transport across the district is to go under the government microscope next week.

Canterbury City Council’s Local Plan details the authority’s visions for urban expansion over the next 18 years and includes 15,600 extra homes for Canterbury, Hersden, Sturry, Herne Bay and Whitstable.

Attached to the plan is the draft transport strategy, which envisages a £70m system of link roads on the city’s outskirts to ease traffic congestion in the historic centre.

From Tuesday, government inspector Mike Moore opens the first phase of the daily meet- ings to hear from interested parties. Mr Moore’s inspection is expected to last 10 days, while a second phase in September will last about a week.

Contained in the plan are proposals for 4,800 homes in south Canterbury, 1,000 in Sturry and Broad Oak, 1,300 in Herne Bay, 800 at Strode Farm in Herne, 500 in Hersden, 300 in Greenhill, 600 at the former Herne Bay Golf Club and 400 near Duncan Down in Whitstable.

And as revealed by the Kentish Gazette early last year, the transport strategy tables several key additions to the district’s current road layout. It suggests:

A £25m junction on the A2 with roads connecting New Dover Road and its park and ride to Nackington Road, with a link for buses to South Canterbury Road.

A £28m link road off Sturry Hill to Broad Oak Road and Sturry Road with a bridge over the railway line.

A £1m link road from the A257 at Littlebourne Road to the A28 Military Road through the Howe Barracks site.

A £5m slip road off the coastbound A2 at Wincheap and new £2m road through the Wincheap Industrial Estate, coming out on the A28 next to the Maiden’s Head pub.

A £ 3m link road through Herne.

The Local Plan has proved controversial, attracting mounting opposition from various groups, many of whom are expected to voice their concerns during the inspection.

On Tuesday, representatives from Campaign to Protect Rural England will challenge the council’s projected hous- ing needs. CPRE Kent has previously stated that Canterbury City Council should have carried out further consultations on the plan when it greatly increased its housing target to 15,600 homes.

In January 2010, the council consulted on a Local Plan with a target of 10,200 homes by 2026.

This target was revised in 2012 to 15,600 by 2031. Despite the increase, the council relied on its earlier environmental assessments of where new development should go. CPRE Kent senior planner Brian Lloyd said: “The council has seemingly, from the outset, cast in stone the sites it wants to see developed and despite high levels of public opposition it has not been prepared to consider alternatives.

“We will be participating fully at the examination to put our case that the plan is unsound.”

Mr Lloyd gives the example of the south Canterbury site, where the council failed to consider any alternative to 4,000 in the number of homes proposed.

The inspection begins at 10am on Tuesday at the Franciscan International Study Centre in Giles Lane, Canterbury.