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Herne Bay, England, CT6
United Kingdom
Community website for all things Herne Bay (Kent, UK). Covers: The Downs, Herne Bay Museum, Herne Bay Historical Records Society, Herne Bay Pier Trust, Herne Bay in Bloom, East Cliff Neighbourhood Panel, No Night Flights, Manston Airport, Save Hillborough, Kitewood, WEA, Local Plan and much, much more...
Filtering by Tag: Village Green
Out of curiosity, I took the hundreds of pages of documents that we have produced for the village green application and ran them through a neat little program called Wordle which picks out the commonest words and turns them into a "word cloud". Here's what I got.
Following a long public inquiry that finished earlier this year, the Inspector appointed by Kent County Council has recommended that most of the Downs should officially be registered as a village green.
It's been a long haul - we submitted the application to register the Downs as a village green on 1st September 2009.
Read MoreQuestion asked at HBAMP on 3 January 2012
Phil Rose:
I am very concerned that Members are mistakenly believing that the ongoing village green application requires that a number of activities on and around the Downs at Herne Bay must be deferred until the outcome of the application is known. None of the Items in the QE2 Coastal Park Action Plan that are being deferred pending the outcome of the village green application actually need to be deferred for that reason.
Read MoreThe battle to get a Bay beauty spot registered as a village green looks likely to go to a public inquiry. Council officers made the decision after admitting the "volume and complexity" of the case for the Downs meant an inquiry would be necessary. Save the Downs group head Phil Rose said he was frustrated by the slow progress:
"A huge amount of time has been spent producing comprehensive replies to the dozens of pages of (presumably expensive) objections written for Canterbury City Council by London barristers. Given the clear and strong local support for the application, why have our councillors allowed unelected officers to squander public money fighting the wishes of the Herne Bay people?"
The battle started after the council proposed building 40 beach huts on the downs near Beacon Hill at East Cliff. To protect the Downs Mr Rose pushed to get it registered as a village green. Council spokesman Rob Davies said the site was not suitable for a village green. A final decision on whether it will be decided via a public inquiry will be made on June 13. But Mr Rose said council objections were not clear:
"The council objected to the village green application on the grounds that they wouldn't be able to maintain the land if it was registered as a village green. Not true - they already maintain village greens in Whitstable."
Bay councillor Peter Vickery-Jones said it was not necessary to register the land as a village green. He said:
"There's a faction in this town that never wants anything to be done. The Downs was never under threat. I'm not opposed to it being registered as a village green but it's just unnecessary. We could never build on it, for engineering reasons amongst others. I just want to say, for God's sake, let's get this town back on its feet and stop seeing everything as a threat."
HB Times 26th May 2011
Here's the latest from the village green registration people at Kent County Council.
Dear Reader, if you have any experience of Public Inquiries like this, do please get in touch with any tips and advice.
I am writing to update you regarding your Village Green application at The Downs at Herne Bay.
Due to the volume and complexity of this case, we have sought legal advice from Counsel as to how we should proceed. Counsel has very carefully considered all of the documentation submitted and the arguments raised. The advice received is that it is not possible for the matter to be resolved on paper and the case should properly be referred to a Public Inquiry for further consideration.
