Thanet councillors will discuss a proposal of 1,461 properties, a two-form entry primary school for up to the 307 new pupils, shops, cafes and health care services in a mixed use community hub and 22 hectares of green space at Nash Road.
The proposal from developer Axis Land Partnerships with The Master Fellows and Scholars of the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge is for a 67-hectare site of predominantly agricultural land to the west of Nash Road, and close to Westwood Cross Shopping Centre and also includes a new strategic link road along Nash Road which will mean the demolition of two barns at Nash Court Farm and alterations to existing junctions from Nash Road and Manston Court Road.
Fifteen representations objecting to the application have been lodged with Thanet council with concerns including overdevelopment, lack of Southern Water capacity, traffic gridlock and the loss of farmland.
Manston Parish Council has lodged a ‘strong’ objection to the size of development, adding: “The area has had so much development and the roads have not been updated that there is gridlock across the area. It is important TDC ensure Southern Water is able to deal with the increase in the demand and use of its current infrastructure.
“MPC would like to make sure that adequate GP’s, health centres, dentists and schools are created as a result of this development. The ones which we have already within Thanet cannot cope with the demand, they will not be able to cope with an increase of this number of people. Again we would like to say that MPC does not support the developments on precious farming land. We would encourage development on Brownfield sites. We are being encouraged to make our lives sustainable but losing farmland will prevent us from doing this.”
KCC Biodiversity has raised concerns about bat mitigation, skylark mitigation and ecological enhancements. Its response notes recording of Golden Plover, bats, reptiles, hares. Owls and more on or near to the site, adding: “The proposal will result in a loss of arable fields which have been confirmed being used by farmland birds (including corn bunting and skylarks).
“The creation of Chalkhole Farm roadside nature area is likely to provide habitat for some farmland birds including linnet and corn bunting but not ground nesting birds such as skylarks. The proposal will result in the loss of skylark habitat and 28 territories were recorded within the development site and no mitigation has been proposed.”
Thanet council’s conservation officer says they believe it will cause a level of harm to heritage assets surrounding the development including the Grade II* Salmestone Grange, various listed assets at Margate Cemetery and the Grade II listed Nash Court Barn.
NHS Kent and Medway say the development will result in approximately 3,506 new patient registrations and so asks for a developer contribution of “£1,262,304 towards refurbishment, reconfiguration and/or extension of existing general practice and other healthcare premises.”
The Humber’s Mill developers say plans include adventure playgrounds, walking trails, sports and leisure spaces, and a central village green.
A 2ha area of land at the west of the site is proposed as Chalkhole Farm Roadside Nature Area. It is proposed that it will not be accessible to the public but will be managed as grassland habitat.
A heritage park will be created where a Bronze Age ring ditch is located and there are proposals for a community orchard.
There will be a mix of 1 bedroom to 5 bedroom properties. The developer says up to 30% will be affordable housing.
Existing bridleways and public rights of way through the Site will be retained and incorporated into the site layout.
Construction is expected to be phased over 15 years.
The site is selected in Thanet District Council’s adopted Local Plan for 1,450 homes. However, part of the proposed development extends onto land that falls outside that allocation boundary, meaning it has taken in land that is not proposed for development.
The 30% affordable homes will be 70% proposed as affordable rent, 5% proposed as shared ownership, and 25% proposed as first time homes. The affordable units and their mix would be secured via the Section 106 agreement, which will also include a requirement for 100% of Affordable Rented Units to be let to individuals or families who have been nominated by the council.
The application, which was first submitted in 2023, has been called in by Cllr Abi Smith to consider the impacts of the proposed development on landscape, local architecture, agricultural land, wildlife habitats, neighbourhood amenity and local infrastructure.
It has been recommended that councillors defer and delegate the application for approval to officers, subject to safeguarding conditions, and the submission of a signed legal agreement within the following 12 month period securing developer contributions towards highways, education, health, community facilities and sports facilities.
Councillors will discuss the application at a meeting on April 16th.
Why is it the building companies always promise to build schools doctors shops new roads ect ect , but when they get planning to build 🤔 everything they promise never happens ,it’s all B S ,
keep them coming , we all know who they are being built for . thanet has become a dumping ground in every respect.
The numbers just get bigger and bigger, yet no one in the council so much as raises an eyebrow. Do all these Council people who allow these developments not live in Thanet?
Shocking,Shocking,shocking!! Thanet has been earmarked to take up the housing list overspill from London local authorities and probably immigrant accommodation also. Deputy leader Helen Elizabeth Whitehead quoted to me that Thanets own housing need was for circa 11000 households,why then,are we getting homes built for circa 20,000….who are they for????
100% – we’ve known this for a long time, Thanet council are unfortunately very corrupt and disgustingly dishonest. They don’t care about local people or our communities. Perhaps we can start a crowd funder to raise the money to SUE THEM for their financial incompetence and the mental and emotional trauma they are causing by destroying out communities and the local environment …. Look at the plan for the Minster marshes, they clearly do not give a damn about us for our wildlife!
When is this going to stop, we cant handle all this housing, schools,doctors, hospitals,police etc
Until we stop filling the country with ever more people , we’ll have to keep building at ever increasing rates, the much heralded 1.5 million in this parliament homes that Labour speak of , is going to be the norm for building until such time as we decide to halt the inflows.
Nobody seems to want this except the developers. I can totally see why that is.
If only all these new houses were for local people ,I wouldn’t mind ,but this amount of building far exceeds the local need . What is affordable housing £300 k is not affordable to most local people,and the rents equal a mortgage payment
You are all missing the point.Nash Road was a d remains a narrow country byway and the current housing developments exit on to this road,so how do the planners at TDC explain how this development can not create significant congestion. The pictures show a bus travelling on a wide road, whereas Nash Road is less than 12ft wide in places.A bus is around 8ft 6in wide even fir a single decker.
This lack of reality has dogged TDC planning for years and this is why Westwood Cross is a dystopian urban sprawl.TDC often wonders why public support and approval of the council and its policies are so low,wwll here’s your answer.
Making some roads bigger or building new ones is hardly rocket science.
Talk to KCC about roads, in 2017 they were £30 million short of cash for improvements to Thanet
The article talks of a strategic link road, junction alterations and a contribution to KCC highways, so it would seem that aspect has been considered.
The developments around Nash Road include funding improvements to the road infrastructure and controlled by KCC. Each development is used to pay for a different stretch of road infrastructure, which is why there is that weird little stretch of Nash Road that has been widened and tarmac’d and the rest hasn’t been done yet. Highways improvements is completely controlled by KCC which TDC can’t override. Nash Road connects to the long-planned North Thanet Link Road. The problem is the system is designed for pain before gain.
When all these new DFLs die where will they be buried, surely the crem and cem are nearly full now.
You could bury them all at manston airport because nothing else is going to happen there .
Manston Parish Council says that development should take place on brownfield sites.
That’s an excellent suggestion.
Fortuitously, there’s a huge brownfield site right on their doorstep.
I note that most of the proposed development is on land earmarked in the Local Plan for housing development.
This LP was argued for and approved by Tory, UKIP and TIG councillors, because it reserved the site of Manston Airport for aviation only. So the 1000s of houses the government required TDC to build had to be built, in part, on greenfield sites.
The time to protest about the housing development plans was when the LP was being drawn up. Did you? Did MPC?
Bearing in mind that Elon Musk owns space x,’rocket science’,may not be the right phrase. What everyone calls DFLs might actually be internal migrants from other more expensive parts of Kent.
When you think about it why would the typical DFL want to leave London to live in a badly built and designed housing estate in the back end of Margate.
If these housing estates had a sea view or were located deep in the Weald you could see the attraction, but there is very little to commend them.
What is happening is Thanet is making up the numbers caused by districts within the green belt having lower housing allocations.
As is becoming the norm in Thanet. The application will be delegated to officers to decide. Why, so no councillor or any one on the planning committee has to hold their individual hands up to say I passed this. The retort will obviously be that the previous councillors agreed this development the officers are just rubber stamping it.
That’s exactly correct.
The adopted Local Plan, which designates land suitable for housing development (amongst other things) was put out to consultation and then adopted.
Read the article. Some of this land isn’t even covered by the Local Plan.
The council will be happy to let it go through so long as tdc gets nomination rights for the affordable housing allocation in the development. It’s a done deal, just the horse trading, back scratching, trade off and contributions to argue over and a deal struck.
This government wants lots of houses built , so the developers will find it much easier getting planning going forward.
This is a massive over-development. TDC will likely seek about £1.50 in Section 106 payments and they will allow the ‘new’ health facilities to mean poaching an existing GP surgery into a shiny new building rather than making NEW provision. We are about 6 GP’s Surgeries short in Thanet already!!! GROW A SPINE TDC!!!!
More BS from the developers, houses for the rich.
Build the primary school, shops, cafe and healthcare services first!!
It’s easy to build the healthcare centres – but it’s the GPs we need to staff them which is the problem. We are already over 20 GPs short in Thanet.
I have been looking on the TDC Planning website for this appliction so that I can write an objection, but can’t find it. Does anyone please have a link? Thank you.
OL/TH/23/0685
1500 homes but no road improvments, where are these jobs for the people
If you actually read the article there are references to road improvements and funding agreements. As for jobs, if the housing is occupied on the same basis as much of the other new build in thanet, the majority won’t be wanting a job. So a lack of employmeny opportunities will be seen as a bonus by them.