Message from the Save our Healthlands (SOHL) Campaign Group

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Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) are currently running a (Regulation 19) consultation on their Local Plan Review which sets out development up until 2037. This is the third and final consultation before their proposed Plan is submitted to the Government’s independent Planning Inspector for examination. Heathlands is one of two ‘garden settlements’ proposed in this plan. The other one is Lidsing.

MBC believe they can deliver phase 1 of their Heathlands plans by 2037 (within the period of this proposed new strategy). This would see the first 1,400 of the total 5,000 homes built. This is despite them:

• owning none of the land and having no agreements in place from landowners
• having no solution to deal with the transport issues of how new residents would get to the new town
• making no provision for new facilities such as a new secondary school or even a new doctors' surgery despite having 10,000+ additional residents
• ignoring the rural setting and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that Lenham sits within
• ignoring the Lenham Neighbourhood Plan's countryside protection policy which was voted on by 92% of Lenham's residents
• avoiding key constraints such as the safeguarded mineral sites, water treatment works, ecological impact and archaeological significance.