Your views wanted on update to Thanet Local Plan which predicts 21,700 homes needed on the isle by 2040

68 Comments

1. i think we all know who those houses are for dont we ?

2. There will not be enough drinking water

3. How many houses are going to be built on the sandwich bay estate including acres of privately owned golf courses , ? NONE, one rule for us 99percent , 0ne rule for the richest 1 per cent

   • Is Sandwich classed as being in Thanet, for this Thanet Local Plan

     • Sandwich bay has no local plan to build more houses because it only allows more private golf courses, so while our green spaces are destroyed in thanet , next door the one percent enjoy their golf and their PRIVATE green spaces

       • Councillor you are in danger of bringing the council into disrepute with comments like that. BTW isn’t Sandwich in Dover District

   • Mr Lewis – once again, you cannot help your self with silly comments based on class. Please try harder to convert some of us rather than alienate us totally from Labour Party.

   • I wouldn’t want to live in that predicted flood risk area. Leave them to that one.

4. I agree, without major work there won’t be enough water but it doesn’t end there; What about parking, doctors, hospital facilities, general infrastructure and, probably most important of all, jobs. Courtesy of Covid, the argument will now be that people can work from home.
   And, where are all these supposedly needed houses going to be built? If Manston doesn’t get the go-ahead (which would have brought with it many jobs) I suppose they will go there. We are already in a situation where houses are springing up like mushrooms.
   I won’t be around in 2040 but my daughter and granddaughter will be so I am concerned for them.

5. If they think of shoehorning in this amount of houses into Thanet they firstly need to look at better road quality and infrastructure, increases to all NHS services (GPs, dentists, opticians etc) and the removal of any ideas of scrapping QEQM A&E and any other services there, better waste disposal both domestic rubbish collections and sewage disposal which with Southern Waters track record is a major priority if 21k+ houses and toilets are to be put into the existing system, increased police force with a better presence felt etc etc. Just saying ‘Yeah stuff 21k+ houses there that will do’ without addressing every one of these issues is a recipe for disaster for our little isle.

6. I thought the government had got their algorithm wrong ad had over-estimated the numbers. What did they base it on?

   Who are the new houses for, “real world”? It’s not as if we ever see a child of any age anywhere in Thanet, so the local birthrate must have dropped to zero….

   • The LP runs for 20 ears and ends in 2031
     However the LP wasn’t adopted until 2018 due to council incompetence
     Had they started on time ie 2009 then population figures would have been based on 2001 census and would have meant 12000 houses to 2031
     Go figure who messed up

     • Yes and the very council leader, Cllr Bayford, who messed it up the local plan supporting our dodgy MPs over Manston is now back on the Council cabinet. This man was stripped of his post as leader of the council in a vote of no confidence.

7. The housing situation in Thanet is serious! I know of a 3 bed terraced house that is asking £1,000 a month rent, then there are all the extras! My gas bill for November was £30.00 above average for the same consumption for the previous 4 Novembers! A friend is being evicted after renting for years in a badly dilapidated flat that has persistent rain water ingress! I am glad I am not young anymore!

8. A plebiscite might have provided the electorate of Thanet, with a feeling of participatory satisfaction, if they had a say on the exact extent of future house construction in this area.
   The voters could have opted for the number of homes to be built, and in the length of term for completing the building of future homes.
   Mere consultation with the TDC, will be a utter waste of time, as such decisions are mandated by national authorities, and rubber stamped by ideological driven and property tax mad local councils.
   The distain towards local and national government is palatable, and it would behoove the various levels of government to feel the pulse of the electorate on this critical issue.
   I often wonder whether the past citizens of Thanet were as outraged and disgusted with the development of the Wimpey, Nethercourt, Millmead and Newington estates?

   • There was a plebiscite in 2019 (general election). However, people choose Boris – whose party is funded by the big housing developers. So not to difficult to see how the Government have given free licence to build over the countryside.

9. There will be no need for 21,000 houses in Thanet. The government are mad, and Boris even said he wanted more homes built up North rather than in the overcrowded South-East. Are TDC not listening to him?
   The whole island is now under threat of sinking with all these extra homes, the green fields are disappearing at an alarming rate but the Rabid TDC Planning officers cannot pass these housing development applications fast enough. They don’t care what damage is being caused on the isle. That’s not what we want from our leaders. We won’t be able to get out onto the main roads soon as the infrastructure hasn’t even been thought of. You must build the roads first before all these homes, You must have the capacity to flush all the toilets before building them, without pumping it all directly into the sea and rivers. Mass pollution of Thanet leaving it unrecognisable is in this Local Plan. Who are all these homes going to be for anyway? Will there be housing for everyone on the council waiting list or just more cheaply built expensive homes to purchase? If the latter, then there will be no improvement in the rental housing situation in Thanet. There needs to be stipulations included, not only for 30% affordable housing, but also a good percentage of council or housing association housing in Thanet. But get the infrastructure, hospitals and GP surgeries finished first for goodness sake.

10. Could start by getting rid of the Planning Department. You can’t build if there is no Permission granted by the P.D.
    Then bring in a ‘Local Law’ banning any new building on green or farm land, maybe possible through a J.R.
    Do NOT let Conservatives OR Labour get voted in, in the next Elections.
    Instead, Vote for your Independent Candidate who will surely have more interest in Local Politics, rather than cowering under Government ‘whip’ systems of the ‘big’ Parties.(true).
    There, written it now… but this could mean a new beginning for Politics.

    • Too right – the mob in planning cannot see any further than ‘more houses’.
      To them ‘focus of development = ‘where should we stick the houses’.
      This is not ‘sustainable development’ they should be asking how they can focus on the best interests of our communities through a rational and sustainable approach to development even if it is inconvenient for developers’
      To some extent the power is in our hands – if everyone reading this used their own experiences and opinions to lobby Michael Gove, Roger Gale / Craig MacKinley and TDC councillors with the clear massage that TDC planning services is not fit for purpose and that this house building frenzy has to stop until there is sufficient infrastructure in place it might start to get the message through.
      They are taking the people as fools and it is time to push back.

      • To his credit, Roger Gale is one of several MPs who have taken the government to task over its housebuilding policy.
        But if we have to accommodate these houses, then I know of a huge brownfield site just waiting …

        • yeah but 2500 were originally put on Manston.
          His interference led to them being moved to farmland

        • At this point I want to know where people will go if they want a private location to have sex in their cars

        • Roger fail complete waste of space if anyone is only interested in helping the wealthy its him

    • If only. The planning committee is a complete farce under its current chair, Tomlinson who is supportive ofanything the officers say or developers wantand will not allow the committee to function. He must be removed and the corrupt leaders of the council and its planning officer Livingstone must also be removed before any positive changes are possible.

11. The number of houses we gave to build is down to government policy, not KCC nor TDC.
    But the ex airfield at Manston could easily accommodate 4000 or so new houses, with room to spare for a crazy golf course or two.

12. There is a great brown field site called Manston airfield. While what remaining green field and farmland is concreted over Manston has tumbleweed. Lots of reports show it’s not in the nation’s interest so just build on that instead and save what little wildlife we have left!

13. It does not matter where these extra houses are built they will still turn Thanet in to a massive housing estate riddled with crime, more than it is now with nothing for locals as usual, only more congestion more pollution more problems for every thing you can think of, with things the way they are politically I have absolutely no faith in ANY one involved in politics to do what is right for the people of Thanet, not councillors not our MPs, no one, the area as we know it is finished,it is not very often that I am defeated but on this I feel there is no hope of saving Thanet from any money grabbing council or developers It does not matter what views are put forward they will be ignored as always when it comes to planning and building they do what they want, regardless of residents thoughts or concerns by all means build on Manston but the residents of Ramsgate will suffer from the extra cars and pollution more than other towns in the area so be careful what you wish for, I am glad I will not be around to see the total destruction of what has been my home for over 60 years future generations will be welcome to the ghetto that will be known as Thanet.

14. Moan moan moan moan moan oh and moan moan moan moan moan zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz oh sorry got bored with all your moaning.

    • K R If you are that bored with the comments people are making go to bed and think what you can do to save what is left of Thanet from future development no? didn’t think so

      • What do you, Lesley Peeling, think local people can do to reduce the number of new homes which the government wants built in Thanet? Any helpful suggestions?

15. I have always thought before anything is done to extend the dual carriageway from brooksend to lord of the manor..with of shoots for different areas.water possible can be recycled.and of course upgrade QEQM or build a bigger one.manston.well if it was built on the government will still want more housing.just think what has been built the past fifty years in thanet, and the way the uk population is growing thanet will have housing from cliffsend to minnis bay.maybe called little London.possibly that’s why there building a station at cliffsend.with a lot more parking for about three hundred vehicle.this I think could happen in the not to distant future.but to get from thanet to Heathrow or Gatwick isn’t the best of journeys as it is.and I think folk would rather pop on a plane locally than travel all that way.it may also leave a bit of a green belt and possibly some jobs.and planes are becoming quieter and not so noisy.i do wonder for my grandkids.but they will grow up with whatever happens and adapt.i shall go quietly thinking about times fifty years ago.

    • Maybe not called “Little London”. Aviation, with any common sense, if the government has any, is on its way out.

16. The longer TDC spend in readjusting the never ending local plan, the more likely it is that the land agent companies that take a cut from a successful planning consent will prey on Districts like Thanet. You can think of their names.
    The Manston farce from which the likes of Ashbee, have ridden to power, has left Thanet open to development predators and allowed the Govt to ramp up housing numbers.
    There is a need for good quality social housing, but speculative, design + build housing built by the big six builders, with minimal improved infrastructure probably not.

17. What ever happens it’s far to many houses, infrastructure needs building first. But a 30% cheap housing will not happen, they (builders) will say it will not be able to afford to build as the millions of profit would not be meet. I would like to see a 50% cheap housing policy made as a minimum. And why 7 perm and 5 transit pitches needed for GTA???. The size of Thanet surely 1 of each would be more than enough.
    What ever happens Thanet has been and will be killed off with concrete

    • Chris,totally agree with your last sentence

    • Chris.

      Are you mistaking pitches for sites?

      Are you suggesting one pitch would be sufficient for the Travellers who live in Thanet?

      One pitch would fit one caravan because of the space needed by law between them.

      As it stands there is no Traveller site in Thanet regardless of the councils obligation to provide

    • The uk population grew by around 8 million in last 20 years ( not counting illegal migration) so its reasonable to expect the same if not greater increase in next 20 years. In the absenceof huge leaps forward in the levelling up agenda lots of people will be wanting to live in the south east. So say another 4 million people, So around 1.3 million homes. Or do we want the lack of homes to get worse? They’ve got to be built somewhere.

    • Too true.
      Let’s stop building roads and car parks.

18. I don’t. Clearly “Thanet has been killed off by concrete” is not true, otherwise nobody’d be worrying about the possibility of its happening in the future.

    • Marva take your head out of the sand get on a bike or a bus and look around you away from Ramsgate then you will see what is happening in parts of Thanet. Birchington, Westgate, Westwood, our villages all being covered and surrounded by concrete happy with all that are you?It is happening now Marva and will continue to happen until there is no where left to build oh scrap that last bit Broadstairs has not been hit yet that will be interesting when it does, they do not want housing but they crowd fund to get what they DO want.You Marva live in your perfect little perfect Ramsgate totally unaware of what is happening elsewhere in Thanet.

      • When was the last ‘new town’ built? The country needs to stop focusing on the south east! HS2 will only benefit London! Need to rethink and build a new town further north of the country. Also seeing as The Houses Of Parliament is not in good shape Let’s build a new one up north too then all the second homes will be cheaper saving the tax payer money!!

      • I went for a 7 mile walk around the local countryside.
        I can assure you that there are plenty of muddy fields left.

        • you obviously didn’t walk in the right direction Phyllis or you had your eyes tell me where these muddy fields are I’d like to take a photo for posterity.

          • If you go north from Monkton (as an example) you’ll walk along a lane towards St Nicholas. Fields on all sides. From St Nick’s you head over the A299 (ghastly) by a bridge, and come to the tiny hamlet of Potton St. From there you can walk over the Wade Marshes towards Reculver, or towards Birchington.
            Alternatively, head west from Minster and join either the Saxon Shore or the Stour Valley way. Quite muddy footpaths there!

19. Many parts of England are having thousands of new homes built on greenfield sites . I don’t see much point in simply complaining about it on a local newspaper.

20. The uk population grew by around 8 million in last 20 years ( not counting illegal migration) so its reasonable to expect the same if not greater increase in next 20 years. In the absenceof huge leaps forward in the levelling up agenda lots of people will be wanting to live in the south east. So say another 4 million people, So around 1.3 million homes. Or do we want the lack of homes to get worse? They’ve got to be built somewhere.

21. We think we can build on some of the best farming land in the country and get away with it? Other countries will be happy to supply us with food in desperate times? I dont think they will. But it will be too late.

22. Perhaps we need to examine the population growth figures. Just because there has been a particular rate of growth in the last few years doesn’t mean that the same will keep happening.
    After all, much of the recent population growth has involved people just living longer, and ,so, staying in their houses longer and not passing the houses onto the next generation.
    Those older people will not be having any more children. They have already failed to have enough children to replace themselves , hence the need to import foreign labour to do the jobs that we haven’t got enough people to do.
    Isn’t it likely that the current child-bearing generation will repeat the practice of just not having more than one or two children as they both have to work as wages are so low. So, even with people living longer (though I note that the UK seems to be falling behind on that score) there is no guarantee that the population will just keep on rising. In fact, some projections talk of stabilising population levels albeit with “excessive” numbers of the retired elderly and a shortage of working-age adults and even fewer children.
    Not a population age-balance that is very desirable, of course. But it implies that it may be a mistake to base housing plans just on what has been happening already.

23. Apart from all the obvious problems on roads, water, lack of GP capacity etc etc, what needs to be done is to make those in Westminster – not just MPs but all those full time government employees who advise and come up with the algorithms etc – realise that Thanet is different to most other parts of the country in that we are surrounded on three sides by water and so we cannot meet the required housing requirements without becoming completely urbanised.

24. Thanet = suburb of London. TDC = Toxic council. Planning department = how much of a back hander will you give me?
    Thanet wildlife and trees in Thanet =. almost non existent compared to every other district council in the South East.
    Thanet roads = poor at best. Thanet NHS = on its knees. Thanet police = where? Waste water = dumped at sea when it suits Southern Water and will get worse with new houses. Manston = waste of time and breath. MPs of Thanet = use some intelligence for once please. Merry Christmas = FOR SOME .

    • I think anyone insinuating that TDC’s planning department is receiving bribes should publish their evidence.

25. Trees in Thanet have been few in number since before the 19th century. not everything is the fault of TDC although some people obviously would like to think so.

26. 20k new houses – no thanks. I will be heading to a conservation area for my next 5 bed, let’s see how the forces that prevail allot such huge numbers of newbuilds there. CA areas are the best areas of buy a property now. Good luck with your future sewage infested tap water in Thanet.

27. You are not very nice, are you,”MHNTY”?

    This property ladder nonsense is immoral.

    • Quite why is that? If i recall correctly, you’ve previously stated that you had the benefit of social housing in london for many years before moving to thanet. Many of us would never get the opportunity to get a subsidised home. Instead we’ve either had to rent privately or buy. If someone chooses to buy a home and over time wishes to move to a new home with their own earnt money what is wrong with that? Don’t we all wish to improve our lot as the years passs by?

      • I lived in housing co-ops for over 30 years. There is no right-to-buy for housing co-op members because they already own the houses as a group.

28. Homes of a decent size and build are totally essential but only if our infrastructure ; roads ; doctors; dentists; etc are also provided. An ideal plan would be for a new council estate ( or 2 ) to be built to provide reasonably priced housing for renting families . But not ever sold off !!!

    • What would your idea of reasonable rents be?

      • Council rents were affordable until they disposed of them in the 80s and onwards. Maybe they were not realistic and a little on the cheap side. Due to the shortage of social housing the private sector now accounts for most rentals and the rents reflect the costs of buying etc. That is expensive

        • Thanks for taking the time to reply, historic council rents reflect the costs of the age they were built in and improvements since. There is no comparisn with the costs of providing new rented property to todays standards/costs. Comparing the social rented sector to the private sector is disingenuous, the social sector pays no tax, council employess in housing departments have their pensions paid for by the council tax payer not the tenants, private landlords are considered investors and have restrictions placednon what they can use to provide ampersonal pension, social/council housing holds its hand out for improvements ( decent homes standard cost the taxpayer over 40 billion) , take the subsidies away from social housing and see what rents would be.
          There’s nothing wrong with social housing but the real truth behind its costs and comparisons to the private sector should be honestly presented.

29. If Thatcher’s government had not brought in , and subsequent governments kept, the right to buy, thousands more people could have lived in a “subsidized home”. The immorality is the turning of homes in general into things to make money from.

    • The market is what makes homes increase in value along with improvements people may make to them. The home is worth nothing if someone is not prepared to buy it. What about the people that have lost money and sometimes their homes when the market value fell? Also the headline number of notional profit on a property takes no account of inflation, cost of finance ( interest payments) or the cost of owning the property insurances, maintenance, repair and improvement etc , not forgetting the other things in life people forego in order to be able to buy a home.Then youhave the bemefit to society of the value of a persons home if they are unfortunate enough to need care in their old age , in the absence of other savings / assets the home will eventually be used to cover care costs, those in social housing have no such concerns .

      • I do agree with you on most points which only means very high rents. The costs of buying and complying with the law, EPC s , gas certification , etc etc are reflected in the cost of providing rental accommodation . As property prices rise it means rents also rise and there is no easy solution. Inflation historically was controlled by interest rates set by the Bank of England / MPC but as we seem to have had a low rate since 2008 to save the banking industry and QE it indicates prices will only rise . Any rise in interest rates may cause negative equity if property prices were to fall just 10% as many have purchased with a 5% deposit. Scary times ahead

30. Manston is a brownfield site the perfect place to build a new town. Keep the farmland. Sadly 2 poor quality mps and a absolutely failed council spent more money on squabbling

    • Agree with Redders. Manston airport is not necessary. Using all the green sites instead is so sad. In all the inspectorates decisions, they have concluded that’s Manston is not viable. There is much capacity in Midlands, Heathrow and Gatwick airports and that many jobs in Thanet cannot be filled. So why would we need an airport in the sea.

31. Roger fail complete waste of space if anyone is only interested in helping the wealthy its him

32. Phyllis the fields at Birchington and Potton street you mention are being built on as are the green spaces at St Nicholas,the marshes are marshes both Minster and Monkton are both having new estates built on those green fields, so might I suggest you check on planning apps to see what is being built before you say there are plenty of muddy fields around Thanet

33. But if Ms Quot went for her walk last week they are still there.