Documents and Useful Links

- Previous "Threats" Web Page covering the land south of the A2 in Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish can be reviewed here. Kept live in case it returns to haunt us.


Click this box for ....
WHO TO WRITE TO AND HOW


PLANNING POLICY LINKS

National Planning Searchable Guidelines Website

  1. National Planning Policy Framework (2018) An on-line copy of the revised 2012 document governing planning authorities responsibilities. Download a PDF Copy to carry with you.
  2. National Planning Policy Guidance - online Government Resource. For the first time, planning practice guidance is easily accessible, searchable.
  3. How much of your land is built on? BBC map may be of interest. Very "broad brush" tool. Bit of fun only.

AIR QUALITY LINKS

  1. N.I.C.E. (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) is leading a consultation on the many causes, harmful impacts and potential actions around roadside pollution for homes, pedestrians, workers, etc. (updated 1st December 2016)
  2. Department of Transport Traffic Counts for Kent. Map created by me to show which "counting points" affect the A2/AQMA5 - these (#) references are important if you are going to make sense of the huge database..or you can look at the data (including traffic types) for our stretch of the road (updated to 2017).
  3. Swale Home Page for "Air Pollution"
  4. Swale Borough Council Air Quality Management Area (AQMA) Order No.5 (Teynham) - The reference to Teynham is shorthand for the whole community on both sides of the A2.
  5. Full Teynham Air Quality Technical Report (small PDF)
  6. Ospringe Street AQMA LAQM Further Assessment (Jan 2013) PDF.
  7. Swale Annual Reports on Local Air Quality Management (LAQM):: 2013 Report:: 2014 Report (identified "exceedence" of regulatory 'safe levels' of harmful pollution set by Europe. Note: World Health Organisation suggests much lower thresholds for "harm")
  8. Local Air Quality Management - Technical Guidance can be downloaded. (PDF 2.45Mb, 318 pages). Local Authorities carry out their duties under the Environment Act 1995 and subsequent Regulations. These Review and Assessments form the cornerstone of the system of Local Air Quality Management (LAQM).
  9. Kent Air Website - PDF downloads are corrupted for Teynham AQMA5.
  10. World Health Organisation (WHO) Technical Report on_Harmful_Air_Pollution (2013) PDF. Answers 24 questions on air pollution and health aspects.
  11. Kent Environment Strategy (March 2016) - PDF Download from KCC.
  12. WHO Report on Health Effects of Black Carbon (Harmful Particulates) (2012) PDF.
  13. WHO Health effects of Particulate Matter (2013) PDF. Good plain English introduction - written for Eastern Europe, but science remains the same.
  14. Kent Air - describing wider pollution across the Kent county
    Website: www.kentair.org.uk

National Air Monitoring Service and Resource - Low detail at local level. National background figures.
Website: uk-air.defra.gov.uk

Links that may be of interest in meeting future threats facing our communities.

Big Picture: Swale Borough Council (SBC) are obliged by Central Government to revisit their Borough Plan home-building targets - all Counties are being 'encouraged' to increase the number of planning approvals and make more land available. You do have several opportunities to share you views in consultation.

Emerging Local Plan for Swale (2022-2038) - Bookmark the SBC Home Page to keep in touch with current official thinking.
Public Consultation ended: 8th June 2018. To find out how to get involved, use this link to SBC "Current Consultations". To contribute, you will need to register on their Consultation Portal on this link.

New Garden Communities Prospectus: An invitation for developers and landowners to put forward sites and ideas for new garden communities in Swale April 2018. SBC Prospectus download PDF.
Consultation Ended: 12 midday on 3rd August 2018.
This is SBC's response to Central Government pressure to make dramatic changes to the availability of land to meet local needs. It is a game-changer.
Although aimed at developers and landowners, you can understand better the scale and potential impact on our communities by reading the SBC proforma as the first important stage to the review of the Local Plan (2022-2038):

‘Call for Sites’ proforma: The Council is preparing a Brown field Land Register and widening its Strategic Land Availability Assessment beyond identifying potential housing sites, to also include sites for travellers, employment, retail, tourism, leisure or a mix of these uses.

NEW: Revised National Planning Policy Framework (July 2018):
The importance of Air Quality is retained, as is "cumulative impact" policy affecting AQMAs. On-line copy of the NPPF can be found here. This replaces the 2012 version.
Kent County Council, Planning Applications Committee met on 16th May 2018 to "note" the principals contained in the Draft NPPF Revision as it currently stands.


Update: Swale Borough Council's response to Quinn's agents about the need for an Environmental Statement - Use this link to read SBC Letter and the opinions of the Statutory Consultation bodies.

11,250 Homes
Filling in between Sittingbourne and Lynsted Parish

Last year, we saw a tactical withdrawal of the proposal to develop land to the south of the A2 that falls inside Lynsted with Kingsdown Parish boundary. Why "Tactical"?

What now? "Garden Towns"

Garden Towns. Agents working for Quinn Estates have lobbed a mega-proposal into the Planning Department that matches Central Government proposals for "Garden Towns" as a radical response to housing needs. A single approval on this scale would tie SBC's hands into the future as the developers will hold the whip-hand. Perhaps SBC will look at options for 'phasing' or 'zoning' such a massive development opportunity to retain some control over several competing developers? It is hard to see quite how this will pan out.

Banking of Land. To understand how this will play out, we will need to keep an eye on whether SBC are pressing developers sufficiently to deliver developments already approved under the current Local Plan rather than "banking" the development land to realise profits on selling-on parcels of that land to other developers. Apparently this has already happened for one parcel of land in Teynham Parish! Not one house built!

Planning Portal Papers. Now that Swale Borough Council have confirmed the need for this mega-development to include an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), we must watch and wait. The developers will have to develop detailed proposals on highways matters. KCC and Transport England will lead on whether they feel the road infrastructure can support the proposals. SBC will have to unravel the balance between housing needs and the 'harm' done to the local environment through the addition of traffic along the A2 and into the four AQMAs (Sittingbourne, Greenstreet, Ospringe).

This proposal is an opening gambit from Quinns to establish themselves as front-runners in the SBC Review process for the Local Plan (2022-2038) and SBC's invitation to developers and landowners to submit ideas on land-use and wider delivery of "Garden Towns" to match Central Government rhetoric.


DEFRA and "A Green Future"

'A Green Future: Our 25 Year Plan to Improve the Environment' – published 11th January 2018 by DEFRA

To give you an idea of whether you want to download an 11Mb PDF copy. There are some technical papers under this link too. You can also register yourself to receive updates as this policy uncoils....

“This 25 Year Environment Plan sets out government action to help the natural world regain and retain good health. It aims to deliver cleaner air and water in our cities and rural landscapes, protect threatened species and provide richer wildlife habitats. It calls for an approach to agriculture, forestry, land use and fishing that puts the environment first.
.... we will work with the Devolved Administrations as we leave the EU to uphold environmental standards and go further to protect our shared natural heritage. We will continue to work with the Devolved Administrations on areas where common frameworks will need to be retained in the future. This Plan does not pre-empt these discussions.

Our policies
We will take action on a number of fronts, looking to join up policies in a way that maximises benefits and value for money. We have identified six key areas around which action will be focused. These are:

• Using and managing land sustainably (chapter 1).
• Recovering nature and enhancing the beauty of landscapes (chapter 2).
• Connecting people with the environment to improve health and wellbeing (chapter 3).
• Increasing resource efficiency, and reducing pollution and waste (chapter 4).
• Securing clean, productive and biologically diverse seas and oceans (chapter 5).
• Protecting and improving the global environment (chapter 6).”

This makes interesting reading as background material when looking at the ideas proposed for 11,500 new homes and commercial and social sites!
What price our environment and the destruction of acres of greenfields....?


Swale Borough Plan "Bearing Fruits"
(as approved)


POLLUTION READING MATERIAL


LYNSTED LATEST

31st October 2017: Developers withdraw their application after running out of arguments and evidence. On 1st November, SBC confirmed they are taking no further action.....

See see all the documents here - the Planning Portal page for Lynsted Lane development papers.


RULE No.1: PRIORITISE
DON'T BE 'INTIMIDATED' BY THE VOLUME AND LENGTH OF DOCUMENTS
Not All Documents are Equal

Remember the key issues for us are POLICY ISSUES

RULE No.2: DO NOT WRITE JUST ONCE!
Every change submitted by Developers
means the 'start gun' is fired again by the SBC Planning Department.
After all, if there have been changes, SBC may assume you have changed your mind if you don't react to each change.


WHAT IS "IN IT" FOR SWALE BOROUGH COUNCIL?

KEEPING IN TOUCH

Useful Contact List
at the bottom of this column

Why Your Voice Matters

  1. This is your Community;
  2. The impacts are felt by visitors, householders, children and workers alike;
  3. Impacts of noise and vibration affect houses that sit close to the road;
  4. Pollution - AQMA 5 establishes the fact of harmful pollution - See full assessment.
  5. The two Parish Councils involved have a poor record of working together;
  6. The Borough Plan is building to a Review in 2022.
  7. Swale Borough Council is seeking views on their "New Garden Communities Prospectus".
  8. Major Developers preparing the way to a vast unified development that will absorb all the land between the A2 and M2 and between the A249 and Bapchild.

TIMETABLE AND STRATEGIES

  1. Early days. Quinns are only asking for confirmation that they MUST submit an Environmental Statement.
  2. Follow the drift of arguments if you wish using the two duplicate links!
    *** Copy 1 has this link - 17/506492/ENVSCR - this has the most comments so far;
    *** Copy 2 has this link - .17/506551/EIASCO - fewer comments so far,

CONTACTS (copy them all in on any comments you want to make):