Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
Lib Dem warns: ‘It’s driven by developers’
aclaridge@thekmgroup.co.uk Lib Dem chief Alex Perkins has fired a scathing broadside against Canterbury City Council’s Local Plan.
He lists a string of objections to the draft document and argues it should be scrapped and redrawn.
The council’s much-criticised vision for the district includes 15,600 new homes – many built on farmland to the south of Canterbury.
Cllr Perkins branded the document, effectively a planning blueprint for the district in the years to 2031, as “developer-led”.
He said: “A plan like this should have been resident-led.
“The council could have worked with residents to come up with a vision for the district and then used that as its basis.
“Instead it asked developers where they wanted to develop and produced a plan based on where the developers saw most profit.”
The Local Plan proposes developments in Sturry, Broad Oak, Hersden, Herne Bay and Whitstable at a rate of 800 homes per year.
Cllr Perkins went on: “The maximum [number of homes] should be 500, ideally fewer. Canterbury already struggles with traffic, air quality and infrastructure problems.
“This plan offers no remedies for these issues and is based purely on so-called ‘economic drivers’. Just building houses will not automatically create any jobs other than during their construction.”
The Wincheap councillor leads a group of just 10 Lib Dems in an authority which also has 35 Conservatives, one independent and three Labour members.
He wants the plan to include more building on brownfield sites rather than on farmland.
“It is frankly staggering that the three brownfield sites – like the former Chislet colliery, Howe Barracks and the old prison – are either entirely ignored or considered only peripherally within the existing plan,” he said.
“The council has applied the wrong methodology to incorrect data from the wrong people. For the sake of the future of our district and our residents, we must start this process again.”
The council will finish consulting on its draft Local Plan on Friday, August 30.
Is Cllr Perkins right to demand a fresh Local Plan? Email kentishgazette@thekmgroup.co.uk or write to Gazette House, Estuary View Business Park, Whitstable, CT5 3SE.