Swale Borough Council (SBC) has performed a massive U-turn and scrapped its flawed and controversial draft Local Plan, that would have dumped an extra 1,100 houses in Teynham & Lynsted – plus a bypass south of the A2 London Road. The absurdly-named “Teynham Area of Opportunity” (TAO).
A big thanks to everyone who wrote in with their objections. Together, we’ve succeeded in forcing SBC back to the drawing board.
They’ve gone back a stage to an ‘issues and preferred options’ Regulation 18 document. It’s a mountain of dense and technical language, posing 42 complex questions that are virtually impossible to understand unless you’re a planning expert.
SBC has carried out hardly any publicity for this consultation. They were asked to organise exhibitions and events but said that wouldn’t be possible. They haven’t even written to every resident – only those on their database.
SBC has identified five potential options for delivering future development needs, but it’s very difficult to work out what each of the five options actually means. The maps use red pins to indicate sites – there’s no explanation of scale or number of houses for each pin.
Four of the options appear to include yet more housing in the Lynsted/Teynham area, despite overwhelming opposition from residents at the last consultation.
SBC’s ‘preferred option’ includes Teynham as a potential Area of Opportunity – even though nearly a third of all responses across the whole Local Plan opposed that specific idea.
There’s no mention at this stage of a ‘movement corridor’ through Lynsted, but we know from the last Reg 19 plan that any significant new housing would require the bypass. Also, two cul-de-sacs in Teynham village would become through roads
It’s really important to make your views known. Any comments you made at the last Reg 19 stage will be ignored.
Hopefully this website will help you to frame your arguments.
