An outline planning application to build 20 houses at the former site of Laleham School playing fields in Margate has been refused.
Kent County Council had applied to build the homes at the site off Northdown Park Road. The site is bordered by a 70-home development from Orbit Homes where the former Laleham Gap School buildings used to stand. Those homes were granted permission in 2016.
The county council proposal was originally for 26 dwellings, comprising 7x 2 bed and 19x 3 bed houses. This has been reduced to 20 after the design was amended to include detached and semi-detached properties, in addition to some smaller maisonettes.
The design was also altered to retain an area of woodland at the site.
The amended plan was for Affordable (30%): 17% starter homes, 18% affordable rent and 65% social rent to comprise of 50% 1 beds; 33% 2 beds; 17% 3 beds and 0% 4 beds
The market value homes were to be (70%): 10-15% 1 bed; 40-45% 2 bed; 30-35% 3 bed; and 10-15% 4 bed.
The plan was also amended to move homes back from the border with Cliftonville Primary after the school raised concerns.
The disposal of the whole school site was part of a proposal to develop a replacement special school site for Laleham Gap. The school moved to its new home in Ozengell Place in Ramsgate in 2016
However, the proposal, which was submitted to Thanet council last October, was denied permission with the decision being issued on Thursday (April 1).
So they can’t build houses on a disused playing field but they can build on farm land no problem 😡
This report is slightly inaccurate. They have already built on most of the playing fields. The rejected proposal was to build on the end of the playing fields and the houses already built already cover most of the playing fields in addition to the sites of the school buildings.
They have built on about 80% of the school site but cant build on the last 20% !
Dammed if they do, dammed if they don’t.
Who’d be a local councillor or local government employee?
The brown envelope wasn’t big enough
Probably right!
It’s a shame the new Laleham Gap wasn’t built there instead of where it is now along a very busy road.
We went along to the open evening at the old Laleham school when Orbit was putting in for planning and they only applied for 70 homes. That area was never suppose to be built on, infact the plans were for a road into the new estate but for whatever reason it’s not been put in. It would overlook right into the classrooms
Good decision, retention of a green corridor helps make the area seem less deceloped and encourages wildlife. But no doubt KCC wants as much cash from its assetts as everyone else and the mix of the hpusing will ensure something gets built there eventually. Be much more straight forward if the whole thing was presented in the first place rather than playing games , just as was seen with the felling of the trees on the restmof the site.
Manston Airport will reopen in due course I have no doubt about that if a government with nearly 80 majority can’t make it happen then what’s the point of democracy, we just as well give the snowflakes and tree kissers the keys to parliament. As for the lies about climate change it’s been reported today we will get climate change we will have to be 10 degrees colder in our homes. Mind you I won’t be colder I will just use my two multi fuel stoves instead of just one that I use now.
A bit inaccurate, the 10 degree figure is the difference between running heating via a gas boiler as against an air or ground source heat pump, these run atcooler tempsratures so need to be on longer and likely require larger radiators. In the absence of new houses being built properly and massive investment in insulatingmolder houses along with education of the population on how to get the best from their home and new heating systems , it’ll never work. But it will cost umpteen billions. Between the the climate change fanatics and a government intent on being the Green poster boy of the globe ( with no regard for the negligible difference it’ll make or the cost to the nation) we’ll achieve little of any worth in reality.
The eco loons have your stoves in their sights too.
L C,you come over as a climate change denier so what if people hug trees they obviously prefer that to hugging a person for whatever reason,some people are trying to do their bit to fight climate change what are you doing apart from knocking other people?
I’ve nothing against improving energy efficiency and reducing the production of co2 ( though i’m not convinced that climate change is much more than natural variations over time, however anyhting that reduces pollution and the destruction of the natural world has to be a good thing).
But the pace of change the UK has set itself is plain daft, especially as many of the notional reductions have been as a result of “offshoring” our co2 production much as has been seen with our dumping plastic waste overseas.
The country has far more pressing needs than winning gold at the co2 reduction olympics, housing , health, education, jobs etc.
The green deal, rhi, new green deal, smart meters are all colossal wastes of money for paper gains on a civil servants spreadsheet that will have no resemblance to the real world.
Houses need to be built better by skilled dilligent workers, not thrown together at the least cost. Retrofit needs a similar approach ( not the dogs dinner that ended in Grenfell).
Technology needs to mature and industrial sectors grow in the real world not be a cowboys free for all on the back of endless subsidies.
Some good, challenging points LC – it’s people like you who should be on TDC instead of the wasters and lightweights who just turn up to claim their allowance or are seeking to progress ‘in the party’.
There’s no place for honest people in politics at any level. Years of deceit , double dealing, idealism , amateurish ineptitude means that the country locally and nationally has painted itself into a corner where the only way forward is more of the same. I’m convinced that at all levels those that enter politics with the best of intentions and gain a degree of power sit down on their first day with a “sir humphrey” who places the “ big black book of inconvenient fact and truth” they have a read and then lean back with a big “ohhhh k then that explains a lot”. At which point all their good ideas get filed in the waste bin and they try and do the best they can with the dogs dinner before them.
Its what stops real talent entering the fray ( as they know its all stacked against them) and leaves the door open for blinkered idealists.
One of the countries best run and financially stable councils is Swanage, if you ever get the chance visit and take a good look round , they’ve some brilliant policies.
One of the best is their approach to those wishing to make a claim for some perceived wrong , they take all the details record them, invite the plaintiff to review their complaint and sign it as accurate. Then state they’ll wait for contact from the complainants legal team. Puts an end to vast majority of the chancers.
They spent half a million on a beach toilet block built to best practice, had/have a dedicated toilet cleaning contractor that keeps them all spotless. Management that works and a workforce that cares.
All common sense stuff, they still get problems but they deal with them .
But must be said they do have a very different demographic and attitude within it compared to thanet.
The lies which says climate change isn’t happening?