Developer proposal to build 95 homes in Minster

The proposal was for arable land off Monkton Road (Image Turner Jackson Day Associates)

A Kent developer has applied for planning permission to build 95 homes in Minster.

Sandwich based Sunningdale House Developments wants to build the homes on agricultural land off Monkton Road. It will be alongside another Sunningdale development of 36 homes which is nearing completion after gaining permission in 2017 on appeal.

As part of the 2021 Call for Sites for the Thanet Local Plan, Sunningdale also submitted proposals for a larger scheme of 300 dwellings on land including the current 4.45 hectare application site.

Sunningdale has also built housing in St Nicholas, Monkton and Broadstairs.

(Image Turner Jackson Day Associates)

The Minster development would be made up of 2 one bed, 29 two bed, 45 three bed, 16 four bed and 3 five bed homes in a mix of houses and 12  flats. The 95 home proposal includes 28 affordable units.

Access to the site is currently a bridle way off Monkton Road but the developer says there will be new access from the 36 home development site. An existing public right of way that runs the full width of the site will need to be retained or relocated.

Native tree, shrub and wildflower planting and a new landscape scrub buffer are included in the plans.

Two play spaces and 200 parking spaces, plus one electric charging point per dwelling, are also proposed.

(Image Turner Jackson Day Associates)

The site is within a flood zone and a 300m combined sewer runs through the site. The proposal seeks the diversion of the sewer from where it enters the site and a surface water drainage strategy including; water butts, permeable surfacing and drainage basins.

Planning documents say: “Sunningdale, as a local delivery agent, understand the local dynamics of the housing market and planning decision makers should be in no doubt that this permission if granted will be swiftly delivered to realise the benefits that have been identified.

“The proposal makes a significant contribution to meeting housing need and Minster represents a sustainable location.”

(Image Turner Jackson Day Associates)

Minster Action Group has alerted residents to the latest application, saying it is ‘another challenge’ for the village.

The group was set up last year in response to a 115 home development proposed for arable land off Foxborough Lane proposed by Gladman. This application was refused by Thanet council last July.

Dozens of objections have also been lodged against a reserved matters application for the first phase of a 214 home development off Tothill Street.

Outline planning permission for the scheme was granted permission in 2021  despite councillors’ concerns over traffic, school places, adequate medical facilities and the number of houses on the site.

The total application area is 34.67 acres, with proposed residential development and associated open space and services on approximately 32.27 acres and a reserve site of 2.40 acres proposed for the future extension to Minster Cemetery.

The land is owned by St. John’s College Cambridge and Spanton Farms Limited with the development proposed by Barratt David Wilson Homes.

 

32 Comments

  1. Building on flood plains is dangerous and nonsensical. Coupled with that, think of the elevated insurance premiums!

    • “The site is within a flood zone”
      Bonkers.
      All our insurance premiums carry an extra loading to cover the enormous costs to houses on flood planes that, err, flood.
      I rather resent having to pay for others’ incompetence.

    • Put hundreds of trees on the floodplain to help soak up excess water when it floods as developing that kind of land with concrete will just exacerbate the situation.
      Aren’t the villages protected from continuous big developments like this?

      It’s crazy and frightening to know that our Planning Department just rubber-stamp stuff like this. Do any of them hold any qualifications in Town Planning at all? Where is the leader of the council in this, is she okay with it, will she be around when the insurance claims start flowing in and the buck pointed at TDC? Does she even care?

  2. Don’t need anymore houses in the area , everywhere u go now farmers fields are being built on !! The roads , hospital , schools can’t cope as it is

      • Regrettably not in much of these new estates – allegedly ‘affordable’ means 80% of the ‘going price and given local wages
        and a shortage of executive employment hereabouts (how many of the 800 Thanet Earth jobs count as ‘executive’ – what do baristas and chambermaids earn ?) And in any case ‘30% affordable’ is derisory as soon gets whittled down to 10% and lost (as per Gladmans usual ploys). All the more reason to concentrate on long term empties and halt the march of AirBnBs. Most of the brighter children will probably ‘up sticks for the bright lights’ as has usually been the case ? Mr X should lobby his prospective district (and county) councillors for a clearer answer.

        • As children grow up, older people die and can add another house to the market, of which there are many available now. Not sure why some think that children deserve a brand new house.

      • Either with you or find a house that’s for sale there’s plenty about, besides how many homeless children are there born and bred in Thanet, not in in the large numbers of houses being built. If there’s no work in the area tell them to look elsewhere . To many young people can’t be bothered to move away from the easy life with Mum and dad ( that’s if they have both)

        • Interesting views regarding my comments !

          Our kids should just move away or buy a house when someone has died.

          Most house that come on the market once the owner has died wont be first time buyers.

          Most wages dont match the first time buyers wages.

          But it seems that ‘I’m alright Jack’is alive and kicking in tory thanet.

          By the way I dont think we should be building on farm land. I dont think we should be building in villages.

          We had great plans for manston. But thanks to our MP’s and TDC it didnt happen. So now we have to build on farmland and villages thanks to our MP’s and TDC.

          Didnt Gale turn up at a protest in monkton ? It’s his fault the building is being planned !! Two faced ***###***.

          We do need more houses that locals wages can buy.

          I dont want to live my retirement miles away from my family, now it seems some are happy that their kids live miles away and that’s fine. Your kids should live their own lives.

      • Manston Mr X! It has already had outline planning permission for 4,000 dwellings, including recreation space, light/hi tech industry, schools, Medical Centre etc, its crying out for development for people to live there!

      • Homes that are being built in Thanet are not for our children because our children can’t afford them ,wages in Thanet are a joke, our kids will never be able to buy them, the homes being built are for outsider’s to buy, to rent out or for holiday let’s.

  3. It is a pity that developers don’t all keep abreast of current events :
    1) post the Amersham & Chesham bye-election the Secretary of State Michael Gove (previously of course the progenitor of the 25 Year Green Plan when Environment Secretary) has been on the ‘Road to Damascus’ and seen the wisdom of building up from local housing needs rather than the crass and Stalinist imposition of targets out of Marsham Street
    2) Whilst the implications of this pre-General Election reversal are being worked out in local areas a growing number of councils are ‘pausing’ Local Plans – which should include ‘freezing’ if not actually rescinding the proposed overdevelopments already in train
    and it is presumed TDC will wish to be ‘on the ball’
    3) a ‘Resilience Plan’ will be incorporated into the LP – whereas flooding is not too much of a local problem (though sudden climate change momentary torrents might be – especially in Minster ?) drought certainly is. Does the Planning Committee prefer ‘turnips or tarmac’ and shouldn’t there be a national priority to preserve Grade I prime agricultural land ? Southern Water have yet to come up with a realistic Water Plan – it is unlikely to include desalination until well into the 2040s and the branch line of the Grand Union may not be much sooner. In any case the water companies (sensibly enough) base forecast demand on population projections rather than housing targets. What sort of population increase is envisaged for Powerhouse Thanet or even the East Kent Engine about which we hear so much ?
    4) Do we not already have a surfeit of ‘executive housing’ and shouldn’t resources be concentrated on the growing number of long term empties and brownfield potential – coupled with a better regimentation of AirBnBs – to satisfy indigeneous demand with more affordable accommodation in already ‘despoiled’ areas ? At thye least refurbishment work would be a welcome source of work for smaller enterprises.
    It will be interesting to see how thye various local election candidates, having read the Environmental Improvement Plan recently published, intend to deal with the matters alluded to supra so that the minority who actually vote in local elections can form a considered decision. And Sunningdale and all taht ilk might be better advised to ‘Go North’ where there is 1) the water and 2) the economy emphasis – think Oxon/Cantab Arc and Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse.

  4. Unfortunately, with the continuing decline of British agriculture, (thanks to the supermarkets driving down prices, even worse than Brexit cutting off a lot of the European markets), many farmers/landowners(they aren’t necessarily the same thing)will make more money from cultivating houses than food.
    They aren’t campaigning to save British agriculture. They want to get out of it!

    • I wouldn’t say the Supermarkets are cheap anymore for anything.

      The more housing developments that take over prime agricultural land the less we have to eat at a higher price for an ever increasing population.

      We need to be going in the opposite direction, less houses built on farm land and grow more for the country, but any council will just look at all the extra council tax coming in instead. Nobody worries about the future, just greed and now, now, now !

  5. Think of all the extra cars, that will becoming our way,because public transport ,will not go to these new estates,it’s crap now unless you live on a main road,try getting your weekly shopping for 4+ people on the small buses that are public transport

      • Could do with a Cable liner automated people mover system, similar to what i used in Luton parkway Yes its a people mover which can be run from renewable green electric.
        No traffic jams, no road rage, no school ruins and the rest
        New housing developments can be connected to local and out of town shopping areas with a similar Luton dart mover.

  6. We don’t any more homes we have got enough houses being bild we don’t need any more we need the filed for animals and US

  7. I did read somewhere that Big Developer was only responsible for a modest 10% contribution to Conservative coffers – I probably misread and the inferences are plain scurrilous. As is the insinuation regarding the Chair of the BBC’s facilitating a modest ‘loan’ to a former Prime Minister – £800,000 would scarcely buy you an executive house and a half hereabouts (and the Uxbridge majority is a wee wobbly !) Back to eighteenth century values ?

  8. Our lovely Country needs housing, new housing is ultra energy efficient if built correctly.Local council needs to check every new build property.
    who wants to live in a property which costs a fortune to heat and who wants damp-mouldy smelling Victorian Georgian property without an approved damp course.
    See why so many are selling up their historic properties in favour of new builds.
    PS dont tell the london press.

    • I hope any new housing roundabout IS ultra energy efficient, that would be great news both for the planet and the occupiers. However my understanding is that energy efficiency often tends to meet the minimum standards possible. And what are all these new Thanetians going to do for primary medical care? GPs are a very rare breed round here – anybody spotted one lately?

      • Carina,I have posted before on this site, where are all the doctors surgeries dental surgeries,schools,that developers have promised to build ,when applying for planning permission,I think ,not one has been built, so they have got away with it,come on tdc,sort this out
        L

  9. Disgusting.

    Should be a freight hub/sea port/train station/lorry park….

    I’m just trying to fit in with the idiots that want to only see big lorries and freight planes and nothing else in Thanet.

    New houses for normal people.

    Disgusting.

  10. Once known as the ” Garden of England ” , Kent is rapidly becoming a building site for greedy ” land developers ” it’s shameful that profits is now a byword for ” success ” . This green and pleasant land is being desecrated by Moneymaking vandals who seemingly have
    ” CARTE BLANCHE ” and no resistance from OUR COUNCILS , WHY ?

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