Local Plan: letter - Strode Farm

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Why we don't want this development

We have objected to the development of Strode Farm for the following reasons:

• We have camcorder film of a serious flooding issue several years ago in Bullockstone Road with homes and gardens under water by over 1ft, followed later by another serious flood in which the same homes again went under water.
• What drainage will be installed to deal with the water from Home Farm to Lower Herne Road? This floods the road and in winter ices up, making the road a skating rink and causing numerous accidents.
• Strode Farm has already put in a lagoon to the north of the new bypass because of drainage problems with the land. This takes a lot of water every time we have heavy rain. What drainage is proposed to cope with the flooding there?
• The present culvert that takes water from both Hares Brook and Plenty Brook collapsed in February 2013.
• How much traffic will be trying to get out on to Bullockstone Road from the new developments which include the old golf course? The road already suffers serious problems as it is still just a small country lane with sharp bends and bad surfacing.
• What measures are going to be put in place for the safety of local residents who already take their lives in their hands trying to come out of drives and onto Bullockstone Road?
• A doctors' surgery is to be installed on the present golf course, but how will the Estuary View Minor Injuries Unit cope with such an influx of people to the area?
• What will happen about supplying more police for the area? We already have trouble with the lack of policing, and it takes time to explain to Maidstone Control where Bullockstone Road, Lower Herne Road, Owls Hatch Road, and Thornden Road are, as they are not local to the area, already causing delays in getting here.
• There are four stable yards using the roads. How are you proposing to provide safe and secure riding for them when the traffic increases and roads become even more dangerous than they already are?
• With more and more food being imported from abroad more often these days, farmland should not be developed for housing when we need to feed ourselves.

It is also delightful to be able to look out at such a green and verdant landscape which is why most people live here.

This tiny hamlet has remained unchanged for hundreds of years, with only more modern buildings being erected on the sites of the old.

Mrs Margaret Clark, Bullockstone Road, Herne Bay

HB Gazette letter 27th Jun 2013