Cllrs Charlotte Cornell (Seasalter), Simon Warley (Tankerton) and Chris Cornell (Gorrell) have today submitted an objection to the outline application for up to 1350 dwellings (CA/25/00779), known locally as Brooklands’ Farm
Cllr Naomi Smith is a member of the council’s planning committee and as such is not commenting on this application until its’ public hearing.
The detailed 21-page objection relates to the applications breach of the Council’s existing Local Plan 2031 and the National Planning Framework.
Whilst the site is included in the Draft Local Plan 2040, councillors have not had a chance to vote on this yet and it would be premature and unwise to assume this document will go unchanged.
The objection sites concerns over the loss agricultural land currently outside of the settlement boundary of Whitstable and brings into question how such a scheme can be in keeping with the current landscape character appraisal of the area. It argues that the applicant has failed to mitigate the loss of habitat for protected species on the site and that the agricultural land classification is unclear.
The document acknowledges the significant concern of residents over pluvial (river) flooding and the capacity of the Wastewater Treatment Centre at Swalecliffe. It argues that members need to receive detailed plans of how both residential drainage connections and the Urban Drainage System (calculated at being able to store the equivalent of over 24 Olympic Swimming Pools in a storm event) will work.
The objection raises  important questions in the accuracy of the transport modelling and whether the impact of additional cars on roads has been adequately considered. It requests additional modelling of the impact of the new development on traffic on Radfall Road and the mini roundabout by Chestfield/Swalecliffe Station. It argues consideration should be given to how a westbound slip onto the A299 (the application current proposes an on and off slip eastbound only) might reduce traffic given the assumption more people on the site will travel to Canterbury rather than Thanet for work.
The objection argues that there remain outstanding questions about pedestrian safety at the Clapham Hill Roundabout by Kwik Fit.
Speaking on their objection, Cllr Chris Cornell said “we share resident concerns that this application, in its current form requires significant change to safeguard local residents’ interests. We’ve worked hard to ensure our arguments can be carefully considered by the committee as based on cold-hard facts and not easily dismissed rhetoric”.
