Gravesham BC Local Plan
What is the Local Plan?
Gravesham Borough Council is preparing a new Local Plan 2042 which will determine how land across the Borough is used and developed over the coming years.
It will guide decisions about where new housing, employment and infrastructure should be provided, as well as how the countryside, Green Belt, wildlife and heritage should be protected.
The proposed Plan provides for a minimum of 11,492 new houses across Gravesham between 2025 and 2042.
For Save The Hoo Peninsula, two parts of the Plan are of particular concern:
AROUND 800 NEW HOUSES
Higham & Lower Higham
and
AROUND 1,900 NEW HOUSES
Chapter Farm / West of Strood
Save The Hoo Peninsula opposes the scale and location of these proposals and is particularly concerned about their cumulative impact on the western end of the Hoo Peninsula.
Around 800 new houses at Higham
Higham is an established rural community at the western end of the Hoo Peninsula. Lower Higham developed separately to the north, closer to the railway, marshes and River Thames.
Gravesham Borough Council's own Local Plan says that Higham should remain a distinct settlement and that the separation and green character between Higham and Lower Higham should be preserved.
STHP questions whether allocating hundreds of houses on countryside around and between these communities is compatible with that objective.
Around 1,900 new houses West of Strood
The other major concern is the proposed development west of Strood.
This is a strategic development which crosses the administrative boundary between Gravesham Borough Council and Medway Council.
On the Gravesham side, the land is principally known as Chapter Farm.
Gravesham's proposed Local Plan allocates Chapter Farm for at least 1,910 houses during the Plan period.
Medway Council's submitted Local Plan proposes up to 1,280 houses on adjoining land within Medway.
Together, the two authorities are therefore proposing approximately 3,190 houses, comprising approximately:
1,900 proposed by Gravesham Borough Council
1,300 proposed by Medway Council
The councils envisage the site being developed comprehensively, with new schools, employment land, a local centre, sports facilities and other infrastructure.
The wider strategic site has been identified as having longer-term capacity for up to 4,000 houses.
A cross-boundary threat
The west of Strood proposal demonstrates why Save The Hoo Peninsula does not treat council boundaries as boundaries to our campaign.
Part of the development would be in the Gravesham Borough Council area.
Part would be in the Medway Council area.
But the traffic, pressure on infrastructure, loss of countryside and environmental consequences would be experienced across the wider area.
The two Local Plans are therefore interconnected.
When the Higham allocations are considered alongside the west of Strood development, the scale becomes particularly striking:
AROUND 800 HOUSES
Higham & Lower Higham
AROUND 3,200 HOUSES
West of Strood
AROUND 4,000 HOUSES IN TOTAL
proposed in and around the western end of the Hoo Peninsula.
And this is in addition to around 6,000 houses proposed by Medway Council around Chattenden, Hoo and High Halstow further east.
STHP believes these proposals must be assessed cumulatively - not as isolated developments separated by lines on a council map.
The Green Belt
Much of the countryside surrounding Higham and the land at Chapter Farm is currently within the Green Belt.
Development of the proposed allocations therefore requires significant changes to existing Green Belt boundaries.
The purpose of Green Belt is not primarily nature conservation. It performs an important strategic planning role by keeping land open, checking urban sprawl and helping prevent neighbouring towns and settlements from merging.
Gravesham's own Green Belt evidence has previously identified the countryside between Higham, Gravesend and Strood as playing an important role in maintaining separation between settlements.
In particular, the Council's Green Belt Study found that land east of Higham makes a significant contribution to preventing Gravesend and Strood from merging, while also contributing to maintaining separation between Higham and Lower Higham.
Chapter Farm is also currently Green Belt land, and Gravesham's own Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment confirms that its Green Belt designation would need to change for development to proceed.
What concerns us
Taken individually, each allocation removes another area of open countryside.
Taken together, they risk a much wider transformation of the landscape between existing settlements.
Once Green Belt has been built on, its openness cannot be restored.
STHP is particularly concerned that development at Higham together with Chapter Farm and Strood West could progressively erode the rural gap separating Higham from the expanding Medway urban area.
Higham must remain Higham
Gravesham Council's own proposed policy says that Higham should continue to thrive as a distinct settlement and that its local, independent and rural character should be retained and strengthened.
It also specifically requires development to:
- maintain Higham's locally distinctive character and identity;
- preserve the separation between Higham and Lower Higham;
- retain the green and historic character of the routes between them; and
- respond positively to landscape, open spaces and heritage.
Those are objectives STHP strongly supports.
Our concern is whether the proposed scale and distribution of development can actually deliver them.
Hundreds of houses around a rural village inevitably change its physical extent, population, traffic patterns and relationship with the surrounding countryside.
A policy promising to preserve village identity is only meaningful if the development strategy itself allows that identity to survive.
Some of the country's best agricultural land
The countryside threatened by these proposals is not poor-quality or unused land.
Large areas consist of productive farmland, including some of the highest-quality agricultural land in the country.
Gravesham's own evidence identifies land within the Higham area as Grade 1 and Grade 2 agricultural land.
For example, the Council records the land east of Taylors Lane as Grade 1, while land east and west of School Lane and north of High View includes Grade 2 agricultural land.
Grades 1, 2 and 3a are nationally classified as the Best and Most Versatile agricultural land.
The position at Chapter Farm is even more striking.
Gravesham Council's own Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment describes Chapter Farm as primarily arable land in active use and states that the site comprises predominantly Grade 1 agricultural land.
Earlier sustainability work undertaken for Gravesham also specifically identified the west of Strood/Chapter Farm area as Grade 1 agricultural land and warned that development would result in the loss of productive farmland.
What concerns us
Agricultural land is a finite resource.
Once high-quality soil is covered with houses, roads and other permanent development, it cannot realistically be restored to agricultural use.
At a time when food security, climate resilience and sustainable land use are increasingly important, STHP believes the permanent loss of Grade 1 and Grade 2 farmland requires the strongest possible justification.
Higham's internationally important wildlife
To the north of Higham lies one of the most environmentally important landscapes in Kent.
The Higham and Shorne Marshes form part of the wider Thames Estuary marshland landscape.
Large areas are protected as part of the Thames Estuary and Marshes Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar site, with further protection through the South Thames Estuary and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
These designations recognise the national and international importance of the marshes for wintering, migrating and breeding birds.
Gravesham's own Landscape Character Assessment notes the international and national wildlife designations across Higham Marshes and their importance to migrating and wintering waterbirds.
The Council's evidence also recognises the potential for additional development to increase recreational pressure and disturbance on internationally protected coastal sites.
The Kent and Medway Local Nature Recovery Strategy identifies Higham and Shorne Marshes as particularly sensitive to recreational pressure and disturbance.
Development does not need to be inside a protected site to affect it.
Additional housing can result in:
- increased recreational visits and dog walking;
- disturbance of feeding and roosting birds;
- increased traffic and air pollution;
- increased lighting and noise;
- pressure on surrounding habitats;
- loss of ecological connectivity; and
- additional pressure on water and drainage systems.
STHP believes these internationally important habitats must be treated as a fundamental constraint when deciding the appropriate scale of development at Higham.
Countryside and landscape
The landscape around Higham is characterised by open farmland, historic lanes, marshes and long views.
Gravesham's evidence identifies much of the Higham Arable Farmlands landscape as having medium or medium-high landscape sensitivity.
The Council's own assessment of Chapter Farm describes the undeveloped north-facing slopes as important to the rural character of the gap between Higham and Strood.
It acknowledges that development would be visible in the wider landscape and would reduce both the visual and physical gap between the urban edge of Strood and Higham.
Similar issues arise around Higham itself.
For example, the Council's evidence for land east of School Lane identifies the openness of the landscape, its visual exposure and its role in preserving the settlement gap between Higham and Lower Higham as key sensitivities.
These aren't concerns invented by campaigners.
They are identified within the Council's own evidence base.
STHP believes those acknowledged landscape sensitivities should carry real weight when deciding whether these sites should be allocated at all.
Roads and transport
Higham has a railway station, and this is one of the factors Gravesham Council relies upon when considering future development.
But a railway station does not remove the wider transport impact of hundreds of additional households.
Residents still need to reach schools, healthcare, employment, shops and other services, and many journeys will continue to be made by road.
The local road network includes rural lanes and the A226, while traffic generated by development at Higham must also be considered alongside the much larger Chapter Farm / Strood West development nearby.
Some of Gravesham's own Higham site assessments identify the need for secondary or emergency access, highway improvements and sustainable transport strategies before development could proceed.
The Council's earlier Sustainability Appraisal has also acknowledged existing pressure on Gravesham's road and rail infrastructure and the potential for additional development to exacerbate congestion and increase reliance on private cars.
STHP believes the cumulative transport impact of Higham, Chapter Farm, Strood West and other development must be properly understood before these allocations are accepted.
Schools, healthcare and local services
Around 800 additional houses at Higham would bring a significant increase in population.
That means additional demand for:
- primary and secondary school places;
- GP and healthcare services;
- public transport;
- utilities and wastewater infrastructure;
- community facilities;
- recreation and open space; and
- roads and other transport infrastructure.
Gravesham's Infrastructure Delivery Plan already identifies the need for additional primary-school capacity in the Higham area as a direct result of approximately 810 proposed houses.
It also identifies a borough-wide need for additional secondary-school provision.
For the Chapter Farm / Strood West development, the councils envisage major new infrastructure including primary schools, a secondary school, employment land, a local centre and sports facilities.
But identifying infrastructure is not the same as delivering it.
Much of this provision will depend upon developer contributions, land being made available and effective cooperation between different councils and infrastructure providers.
STHP believes development should be phased around the delivery of infrastructure, rather than allowing thousands of houses to be occupied while existing communities wait for promised improvements to catch up.
Heritage matters too
Higham and the surrounding countryside contain a rich historic environment.
The landscape includes historic farmsteads, listed buildings, conservation areas, archaeological remains and historic routes.
Several proposed development sites form part of the setting of heritage assets.
For example, land east of Taylors Lane provides part of the setting for the Grade II listed Higham Hall Farm, its listed garden walls and nearby listed barn. The Council also identifies archaeological potential within the site.
At Chapter Farm, the historic farmstead itself is identified as an undesignated heritage asset, while nearby listed buildings and the wider setting of the Kent Downs National Landscape must also be considered.
Heritage is not simply about whether an old building remains standing.
The landscape around historic buildings and settlements helps explain their history and contributes to their significance.
STHP believes this context should not be progressively lost beneath large-scale development.
Flooding, drainage and climate resilience
The western Hoo Peninsula contains both higher arable land and low-lying marshland extending towards the Thames.
Flooding and drainage therefore require careful consideration.
Some land in and around Lower Higham lies within areas of flood risk, while significant development will create additional hard surfaces and place further demand on drainage, sewerage and water infrastructure.
Gravesham's site evidence acknowledges flood-risk issues on parts of land assessed around Lower Higham, alongside the proximity of internationally protected grazing-marsh habitats.
STHP believes decisions taken now must remain sustainable in the climate conditions the Hoo Peninsula will face in decades to come - not simply those of today.
The cumulative impact is the real issue
Planning documents divide development into individual site allocations.
Communities experience the consequences together.
A family living in Higham will not distinguish between traffic generated by:
800 houses in Higham
and
1,900 houses at Chapter Farm
and
1,300 houses on the Medway Council side of Strood West.
Nor will wildlife, roads, healthcare, schools or the wider landscape recognise which council boundary a particular development sits within.
This is why STHP believes the most important figure for the western Hoo Peninsula is not simply 800 or 1,900.
It is the combined scale:
AROUND 4,000 NEW HOUSES
at Higham, Lower Higham and west of Strood.
This scale of development must be examined as a whole.
Where is the Gravesham Local Plan now?
Gravesham Borough Council carried out its Regulation 19 Proposed Submission consultation between 17 April and 18 August 2026.
That consultation has now closed.
Regulation 19 is an important stage because representations made at this point are intended to be passed to the independent Planning Inspector who will examine whether the Plan is legally compliant and sound.
Gravesham Borough Council currently intends to submit the Local Plan to the Secretary of State in autumn 2026.
The Council anticipates that the subsequent independent Examination in Public could take place in spring 2027.
The Plan has therefore not yet been adopted.
There is still an independent examination process to come.
Save The Hoo Peninsula is taking action
Save The Hoo Peninsula opposes the Gravesham Local Plan proposals affecting Higham, Lower Higham and the land west of Strood.
We believe the proposed development raises serious questions concerning:
- the scale of growth proposed for existing rural communities;
- loss of Green Belt;
- loss of Grade 1 and Grade 2 agricultural land;
- the separation and character of Higham and Lower Higham;
- the strategic gap between Higham and Strood;
- nationally and internationally important wildlife;
- landscape and heritage;
- roads and transport;
- schools, healthcare and other infrastructure;
- flooding and drainage; and
- the cumulative effect of development proposed by both Gravesham and Medway councils.
We will continue to examine the evidence and challenge proposals which we believe would cause unacceptable harm to the Hoo Peninsula.
Council boundaries will not prevent us from defending the Hoo Peninsula as one landscape.