SOHL has played a critical role in fighting the Heathlands proposal and holding Maidstone Borough Council to account since September 2019.
Numerous speeches and questions have been prepared and presented for countless committee meetings, councillors have been lobbied, council reports scrutinised, and challenges made to call out the Council’s lack of transparency and secrecy. And the fight goes on!
Here are some key milestones:
The Council’s Heathlands masterplan
The third iteration of the Council’s masterplan for Heathlands was published in October 2021 and in the map you will see a shift away from properties in Lenham Heath to land north of the railway and towards the A20.
Here are some of the fundamental flaws in the scheme:
- To date, no principal landowners have signed option agreements with the Council to make their land available for the project
- A new motorway junction is off the table but no significant upgrade of the A20 is proposed
- Two primary schools, although no secondary school is proposed for a population of over £12k new residents
- No new GP or healthcare provision
- A new rail station on the slow mainline railway remains a ‘primary objective’ despite the Council having any meaningful discussions with Network Rail to see if it is deliverable.
Local Plan Regulation 19 Consultation
In October 2021, the Council agreed to include the Heathlands masterplan in the Regulation 19 draft Local Plan. Consultation took place from 29 October to 12 December 2021
This is our detailed submission.
Independent Inspection of Maidstone Borough Council’s proposed Local Plan
On 31 March 2022, the Council submitted the Local Plan to the Secretary of State for independent examination. Mr David Spencer from the Planning Inspectorate was appointed by the Secretary of State to carry out the independent examination. His role is to consider the soundness of the Local Plan and whether it has met the legal and procedural requirements as set out in the National Planning Policy Framework.
In September 2022, Stage 1 of the Independent Inspection took place and you can find details of the Inspection and everyone’s responses here.
Here are links to some of the key submissions:
The Inspector wrote to MBC on 25 November 2022 following the Stage 1 hearing sessions asking it to provide additional information before the Stage 2 hearing sessions. The letter sets out his initial assessment of the Local Plan about its legal compliance and overarching soundness.
Disappointingly, the Inspector agreed there was some merit to the proposal to develop significant housing in what was described as ‘the broad Lenham location’, but he found Heathlands currently ‘not sound’ and asked MBC to carry out further significant pieces of work with third parties, such as Network Rail.
Stage 2 of the Independent Inspection will take place between 15 May and 8 June. We are currently working through the huge amount of additional evidence MBC have recently submitted to the Inspector particularly on highway impacts and we are preparing a SOHL response to the questions raised by the Inspector due by 4 May.