A public exhibition will be held in Minster next week to share plans to develop land off Tothill Street.
Agents Savills will hold the public meeting on Wednesday, March 28 at the village hall in the High Street.
The land has been put forward as an allocation for the Thanet Draft Local Plan.
Local Plan documents earmark it for 150 houses although previous plans put forward by Savills had the housing number at 265 and a submission made last March suggests the development number will be 250 homes.
The land is one of 12 parcels owned in the district by The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge that have been put forward for development.
The site, which is on a Special Protection Zone, appears to include an expansion to the west of Minster cemetery.
Villagers fear the development could mean 350 extra cars and about 600 extra residents. There are also concerns about traffic, sewerage and water provision.
A planning application for the site is yet to be submitted to Thanet council although it appears on the list of local plan allocations.
Pre-application work
In March 2017 a submission on behalf of the landowners stated: “We have taken proposals forward for the development of this site. We have engaged with Development Management officers on a pre-application basis and also given an initial presentation to Minster Parish Council. Since then, we have and are continuing to undertake technical work to inform proposals for development of the site. In particular, we have engaged with Kent County Council’s Archaeology Service and have agreed a programme of archaeological fieldwork.
“Through our pre-application engagement with the council, we have highlighted that in view that the site extends to an area of approximately 14 hectares, the site capacity of 150 dwellings that has been proposed by the council, would result in a density of around 15 dwellings per hectare. We therefore consider the site to present the potential opportunity to deliver more dwellings than is currently proposed by the council.
“Upon conclusion of the further technical work that we are undertaking, we will be able to review again what the potential capacity of the site is, with due regard for any constraints identified.
“It should be noted that Minster is the largest and most sustainable village in the district and notably benefits from a railway station, primary school, doctors surgery and a number of other local amenities such as shops and other services.
‘250 dwellings’
“We therefore consider it to present a sustainable opportunity to receive more growth than the 150 dwellings that is currently planned for by the council. Whilst we continue to support the proposed development of this site for housing, until our technical work has crystallised the capacity of the site, we are therefore of the position that a site capacity of up to 250 dwellings should be identified for this site, rather than the 150 dwellings that is currently being planned for.”
The exhibition at the village hall takes place between 3.30pm and 8pm. Members of the project team will be present.
Thanet Local Plan
Progression of the Thanet Local Plan, a 20 year blueprint for housing, business and infrastructure, was voted down in January by 35 councillors against, with 20 in favour.
The then UKIP-led Thanet council later informed the Secretary of State, who had threatened government intervention for authorities without an up-to-date local plan, that there will need to be a review of previously submitted, and new, sites; fresh reviews of supporting documents and new reports to council committees.
TDC said there would need to be identification of sites to take the 2,500 homes ‘displaced from the airport site’ plus, possibly, a further 3,090 homes earmarked for the isle if new government calculations are applied.
The authority said this could take between 8-10 months with the intention to publish a pre-submission draft plan by December 2018 with the plan being submitted for examination by April 2019.
UKIP lost power at Thanet council following the resignation of former leader Chris Wells in February. Conservative Bob Bayford was voted in to the top spot this month and now leads a minority Tory council for Thanet.
But will the site involve a significant number of flats and houses for Social Housing at affordable rents, run by the local council and available in the usual way for suitable tenants who meet a range of criteria related to their needs, including local family connections? Vague talk of “affordable housing” is no longer good enough. “Affordable housing” just means very tiny properties which are still too expensive to buy. It HAS to be Social Housing for reasonable rent. Then local people can afford to live there and, if they so wish, save up money for a deposit on buying their own house later. And we need a Council that will insist on this, because too many developers promise the earth, but , when it comes to the crunch, they just build a lot of “Executive Homes” which are unaffordable to local young people and are aimed at London commuters.Too many Councils just let them get away with this and , when I see the composition of Thanet Council (an ever-changing whirl of UKIP/Tories or Independent UKIPs or Tory/UKIP/Independents, who all want well-off voters moving into the area, I don’t hold out much hope.
Has anybody tried to go down Tothill Street during the school run?
If all these houses get built, will the parents of the children drive them to Ramsgate to go to a primary school as all the places in Minster school are taken by “out of towners”?
I have just moved to the area and back on the field and I must say I am sick to my stomach that they are destroying the landscape, adding to the already over stretched services whilst other places could do with the new builds and investment. Minster is perfect as it is! I left London to be in the open spaces and now I am being boxed in once more
I think you don’t see what’s wrong with what you are saying, the reason these houses have to be built is because people are moving down from London and taking the local housing stock and now you have the front to moan about more houses being built
It’s also because of the decline in council housing numbers since Thatcher’s government not only introduced the right to buy but prevented councils from using their income from selling council properties to fund building replacements.
Pardon. I have paid to have what I have. The view was very much part of the price of my home. Do you suggest I should never retire to the country without being boxed in by housing and new builds? No luxury at all for anyone. No countryside for anyone. We have a wasted land that was an airport that will forever be empty and used as a political football. Why not just make that a new village? Instead they’d rather upset those who live here and take away what little we have of a landscape.
The owners of the former airport intend to use it for housing and business.
Can someone please write to Cambridge University, who own the land, and point out they are proposing to ruin Minster village? They will ruin other areas of Thanet where they own land too! This nonsense of building so freely in our villages has GOT to stop! The facilities , infrastructure and amenities can’t cope! TDC need to object too and turn down all this building. Let’s hope the new administration is more sensible than the last lot!
Unfortunately, the new administration on Thanet Council IS the “last lot” but with different Party names, swapping UKIP to Tory, Independent to UKIP and so on. But it’s the SAME people with the same Right Wing policies.
The point is to elect people with different policies, NOT elect the same old crowd with ever-changing Party names.