Allhallows locals say 350 new homes would 'ruin' quiet village

KentOnline / KMTV

With struggling GP services, schools at capacity and 'daily power cuts', the Allhallows Action Group are raising awareness of the initial housing proposal and consultation.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00The sound of birdsong could turn into the blaring of car horns as the village of

00:09All Hallows that currently has only 700 houses could see another 350 added to

00:15its number. Now the proposal for the homes is only part of a consultation with

00:19residents but with local services already struggling it certainly has

00:23locals worried. When you heard the news that this consultation was happening

00:26what was your first immediate thought? I felt absolutely sick. I was very sad. We

00:32don't need houses here. Catesby Estates are running the online consultation about

00:37the proposed homes but several All Hallows residents formed an action group to

00:41oppose any plans as they say the village just isn't suitable for any more people.

00:45We haven't got the infrastructure, we have a bus every two hours, we don't have a

00:51doctor's surgery, we have a small tiny score. We have blips in power because

00:57we're on the end of the Thames estuary the supply is always breaking and that's

01:04daily, that's not just once a week or once a month, that's once a day we have

01:10blips in the electric. Along the edge of fields marked for housing is a row of homes

01:14on Binney Road, some of which have been lived in for nearly 50 years. I love it,

01:19it's my home and the thought of another 350 houses at the back bottom of my

01:24garden really frightens me if you like because we don't know who would be

01:30coming, we don't know the effect it will have on the village, it's just not

01:35viable. Now this is the farmland where the 350 homes are set to go and locals are

01:39telling me it's not just the impact on people that they're worried about but how

01:43it will affect the local wildlife as well. All of the summer it's full of

01:48skylarks, the skylarks nest in those fields as they do in this field and they

01:54are on the endangered bird list so from a habitat point of view, yeah, horrified.

02:00According to Catesby Estates, the consultation is still running until the

02:0415th of June. The Medway local plan is currently out of date and in line with new

02:08national policy introduced by the Labour government, Medway Council will need to

02:12plan for at least 1658 new homes a year. While the consultation is ongoing local

02:17officials are urging people to respond to it, making sure they outline exactly what

02:21the area needs. You know we have a pop-up nursery in the village hall, how about a

02:25customised nursery? What are they going to do to try and alleviate things like lack of

02:30G people? All these things need to go into the consultation so that when the

02:34application comes in, which will be an outline application, the planning committee has

02:39enough scope to consider it in detail and then it's up to them whether they approve

02:44it or they refuse it. While the initial proposals do offer other amenities like

02:48community orchards, sports pitches and play areas, it's the essentials like power,

02:52water and roads that have residents frightened for the future of their village.

02:56Finn McDermott for KMTV in All Hallows.

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