Another chance to have a say on garden village
Extra consultation dates added following leaflet fiasco
‘They are only doing this because they got it so badly wrong the first time around’
Homes England and Maidstone Borough Council are holding further consultation events over their plans to build 5,000 new homes at Lenham Heath after a blunder meant not all neighbours were notified of the first.
Fabrik, the publicity company handling PR for the Heathlands Garden Village scheme, was forced to apologise in March after it transpired that despite printing 6,500 leaflets advertising the public exhibition, not all were delivered.
The two authorities also put residents’ backs up by staging the first consultation some eight miles away from the village in Hollingbourne. As a result, the event was largely boycotted, with fewer than 40 people attending the first day.
This time all the events are scheduled to take place within Lenham and Harrietsham, the two villages that will be most affected by the plans.
There has been considerable opposition from residents so
far, but Homes England and the council hope that once they explain how their proposals will provide affordable housing and that 50% of the plot will be reserved for green areas, parks, community spaces and existing woodlands, the public can be won over.
The first event will be on Monday from 2.30pm to 7.30pm in Lenham Community Hall off Groom Way. The following day it will be at Harrietsham Village Hall off Church Road from 2pm to 7pm. Then on Thursday, it’s back to Lenham Community Centre for an earlier session: 10am to 2pm.
Residents will be able to hear more about the scheme, ask questions and “start to positively influence the vision for Heathlands.”
But Cllr Eddie Powell, chairman of Harrietsham Parish Council, said: “They are only doing these consultations again because they got it so badly wrong the first time around.
“People will see it as what it is - a tick-box exercise so that Maidstone council can claim to the government inspector looking at its Local Plan Review that it has consulted with the community.
“In fact, these consultations will be after the deadline for public responses to the Local Plan Review, so whatever the public learns, it is too late for them to make a response.”