Paying for Sturry

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Here’s what our new housing estates look like [Draft Local Plan 1.57]:

Hillborough Site - 1000 dwellings; Employment floor space 33,000sqm (Altira Park, extended); local shopping only; doctor’s surgery; community facilities. New link to Thanet Way via Altira Park and limited access to Sweechbridge Road; provision of new west-facing on-slip to Thanet Way at the Heart-in-Hand junction; measures to discourage additional traffic using Heart-in-Hand road; contribution towards the provision of Herne relief route and new Sturry crossing. This is alongside the area that the Sainsbury proposal is for (95,000 sq ft plus petrol station). The map shows a primary school on site but the words don’t mention it

Herne Bay Golf Club - 400 dwellings; Employment floor space 1ha of mixed commercial uses; local shopping only (i.e. no supermarket); 8ha of sports and leisure facilities, including cricket, football, hockey, tennis and open space; 1.25ha set-aside for Herne Bay High School but no mention of what it will be for; doctor’s surgery; care home. Contribution (to be agreed) towards the provision of Herne relief route and new Sturry crossing; new footpath/cycle path in conjunction with Strode farm

Strode Farm - 800 dwellings; the words say Employment floor space 15,000sqm; local shopping provision only; community facilities, including new parish hall and local needs housing. Picture suggests commercial/leisure, so conceivably there will be no employment floor space. Provision of new relief route for Herne and contribution (to be agreed) towards the provision of new Sturry crossing; new footpath/cycle path to be provided in conjunction with Hillborough site

Greenhill - 600 dwellings ; community facilities to be determined; recreation and leisure facilities, new allotment provision; contribution towards the provision of new relief route for Herne and new Sturry crossing.

2.23    There’ll be another 190 houses at Bullockstone Road – there’s no other information at all on this. This is particularly worrying given that Bullockstone Road is intended also to be the Herne relief road.

2.40    30% of the new housing on any development of more than seven houses will be affordable housing.

The Herne Bay and Hersden housing estates will pay for the Sturry crossing entirely. Canterbury won’t contribute at all. This is money that will have been earned by Herne Bay for improvements in Herne Bay, but it’s being siphoned off for Sturry.

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

Local Plan: Parish pledges to halt Strode in its stride

Parish councillors have vowed to stop a massive housing development they fear would link Herne to Herne Bay.

Members of Herne and Broomfield Parish Council are working with charity CPRE Protect Kent to find reasons to stop 1,000 homes being built at Strode Farm owned by Hollamby Estates, of which parish councillor Andrew Brealy is a director.

Mr Brealy left the room when the issue was discussed at a meeting on Thursday, but chairman Tony Day said the charity's advice was to focus on highways issues.

The development, included in Canterbury City Council's draft Local Plan, would involve upgrades to Bullockstone Road to turn it into a "relief road". But Councillor Day said they did not go far enough. He said:

"The road will end up more or less as it is. It is totally inadequate. It is less adequate than the current route through the village. People from all the new developments will all want to go to Canterbury and will be going through our village or a relief road. All these developments should hinge on the proper infrastructure being in place."

The parish council plans to hire an independent expert - part funded by CPRE Protect Kent - to examine the highways issues but members said it was crucial residents also got involved. Councillor Ann Blatherwick said:

"We need to find out why we are not being considered separately to Herne Bay and why we are not mentioned as a village. We are a separate community. But we are just lumped in together and that explains why they are trying to join us up."

Members also discussed the loss of agricultural land, and the lack of school places. County councillor Alan Marsh said:

"We would need new schools, two primary and two secondary, to deal with the numbers of children. There isn't money for one school, let alone four."

The parish council won the backing of city councillor Peter Vickery-Jones, who stressed he had not been part of the Local Plan steering group that put the proposals together. He said:

"It is about time Canterbury picked up where it should. There has been huge resistance to South Canterbury but it is right it should be developed there."

But he cited the need for an alternative option, and suggested Thanington near Canterbury.

Village Hall plans on display

Plans for a new village hall for Herne will go on display next month. Herne and Broomfield Parish Council members have asked flve developers to provide drawings and costs for a new building in St Martin's View, next to the School Lane car park.

Villagers will be asked to choose their favourite and fill in a questionnaire before councillors decide how to proceed.

At a meeting of the parish council on Thursday, clerk Monica Blyth said developers would be at a public exhibition on Friday, July 12th from 1 to 7pm to answer any questions and results of the consultation would be considered by the hall committee.

Cllr Tracey Jones said it was important the consultation was as wide as possible, with an exhibition at the weekend as well as during the week. Councillors agreed to investigate other dates the material could be on display and to print extra leaflets and posters to distribute via schools and shops.

HB Times 20th Jun 2013

Local Plan: Parish Council oppose Strode Farm plans

Parish councillors are set to outline their opposition to the Local Plan tonight (13th June 2013) as the public consultation on proposals for 3,000 homes in Herne Bay begins. Herne and Broomfield parish council is expected to focus its arguments against plans for 800 houses at Strode Farm.

Although it has expressed disapproval for a 400-home development at Herne Bay Golf Club, councillors are expected to say they will accept the scheme as a compromise. They are calling on residents to write to the city council in opposition to the inclusion of Strode Farm on the draft Local Plan.

The document outlines housing strategy for the Canterbury district until 2031, proposing 15,600 homes for the area overall. Parish council spokesperson
Monica Blyth said:

"The big thing for us is to get out the importance of people responding to the consultation. It carries more weight if several individuals respond rather than getting a petition together. We are going to have to accept some development and of the two proposed developments in the area, we do not want Strode Farm.

Residents want to keep that buffer and the lesser of the two evils is the golf club. It is not such a big development and will have less impact. A development at Strode Farm would have a tremendous impact on the parish."

The parish council is in discussion with the Campaign to Protect Rural England about putting together an environmental challenge to the plans.

Ms Blyth added:

"Canterbury City Council don't appreciate Herne and Broomfield are villages and not part of Herne Bay. Herne was here first and long-established before Herne Bay arrived. This amount of properties will be huge and add 50% to what we have already."

HB Gazette 13th Jun 2013

Local Plan: Herne's identity at risk

People in Herne "have right to be concerned" about the inclusion of Strode Farm on the Local Plan.

In it the council says it would be likely to approve plans for 800 homes being built there. The plan also says a relief road would need to be built for Herne, linking Canterbury Road with Bullockstone Road.

Locals have expressed fears of losing village identity and the increased traffic levels that would come if developments at Strode Farm and Herne Bay Golf Club get the go-ahead. Herne and Broomfield parish council clerk Monica Blyth said:

"The issue the parish council has is the majority of the developments proposed are within Herne or within a couple of miles.  This will have a huge effect on the amount of traffic coming through the village and residents are concerned about losing the village's identity. 

We understand that we will probably have to have something built.  We have been talking to the Campaign to Protect Rural England and are hoping to liaise with them about what is the best way forward."

In a questionnaire given to Herne and Broomfield villagers earlier this year, 342 opposed any development of the golf club or Strode Farm.  Another 52 said they would accept the golf club but oppose Strode Farm and 13 said they approved both proposals.

While a planning application for the golf club is imminent, this is not the case with Strode Farm. Developer Hollamby Estates, which has been linked with the site, says that submitting a planning application will be a long way off.

MP Sir Roger Gale says a condition of any development should be that a relief road would have to be completed first, before houses are finished. He said:

"Often people want to build houses to make money and then say we will give you the land to make the road.  We have got to have funding for the whole road first. A road around the village of Herne has got to be done.  Until that is resolved, I cannot see any real progress being made on that site.

Herne have right to be concerned about the proposed development for Strode Farm.  It's not to say there shouldn't be any housing but a massive housing estate would be unsuitable."

Residents have to speak out

An action group like the one which stopped a Tesco being built in Herne has not been ruled out by Herne and Broomfield parish council. Clerk Monica Blyth said:

"It's a possibility, but that was a different issue. The main thing that stopped Tesco was the issue of access to the site and the fact they wanted to extend it more than they had planning consent for. This is a very different issue. we will have to wait and see."

The council also called on residents to air their views when the Local Plan goes out for formal public consultation.

"It is no good signing a petition saying we don't want it. They need to make their reasons clear why this in not a suitable place to have a development."

The Details

A relief road from Canterbury Road to Bullockstone Road would bisect the 800 home development at Strode Farm. Money for this would be contributed to by developers of the four Herne Bay strategic sites.

A parish hall would be built at Strode Farm as well as some local shops. A footpath linking Lower Herne Road with the golf club development would also be inculded. Developers would also have to contribute towards the cost of the new rail crossing at Sturry.

HB Gazette 9th May 2013

Local Plan - Herne Bay, Strode Farm

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