About 150 people went to the King's Hall on Monday evening for the "Save Hillborough" campaign meeting.
The recent proposal from developers Kitewood for over 1,000 new homes north of the Thanet Way on the eastern boundary of Herne Bay has worried many residents.
One of the main concerns voiced at the meeting was that the already over-stretched local infrastructure - sewage, transport, education, health and so on - simply wouldn't be able to cope.
Laura Calder of the Save Hillborough group said,
"The proposal is basically flawed, in the same way that other recent housing developments have been flawed. Key services will not be in place at the start of the development and is not clear who will build them or when."
"There are local residents at this meeting who get sewage backing up in their downstairs toilets. We need to get the sewage pipes sorted out, and upgrade the sewage treatment plant, before we even think about adding more houses."
Herne Bay resident Dick Eburne pointed out that the development affected the whole town:
"Another 1,000 homes means more people taking the train to work. The station car park is half the size it used to be, so where are they going to park?"
Local resident and meeting organiser John Moore said,
"The Council are revising the Local Plan, which decides which land can be developed. The key to this is 'people power' - we need to lobby our councillors every week, or even every day, to keep this land off the Local Plan.
"If it stays off the Local Plan, we're pretty safe. If not, we'll have to face one planning application after another."
Dick Eburne wasn't convinced that the Local Plan was the main issue:
"It's just a weapon that the Council can use to refuse developers what they want. The real threat comes from central government, who are re-writing the rules and tying the Council's hands."
Barrie Gore of CPRE Protect Kent said that the Government wanted to build its way out of recession, although Protect Kent disagreed strongly with this solution:
"However, if new houses are to be built, then whatever number of houses the Council comes up with in the Local Plan, they should be split into small groups and allotted to various villages throughout the District."
Everyone welcomed the news from Kitewood's Mike Dolan, who had written to Laura Calder saying,
"As a demonstration of goodwill to the local community we have recently taken the initiative to engage with officers of both Canterbury City Council and Kent County Council, with a view to exploring ways in which the works that need to be carried out to the Margate Road bridge can be brought forward before they are required under existing planning obligations."
This was taken as a welcome sign that Kitewood had responded to local residents’ concerns, although it’s unclear what style of bridge is being suggested.
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