We Are Taking Action
Save The Hoo Peninsula isn't standing on the sidelines.
The scale of development being proposed across the Hoo Peninsula requires more than simply expressing concern.
It requires research, detailed representations, public campaigning, ecological expertise and, where necessary, specialist legal advice.
That is why STHP is actively challenging proposals within both the Medway Council Local Plan 2041 and the Gravesham Borough Council Local Plan 2042.
We have instructed Richard Buxton Solicitors, specialists in environmental, planning and public law, and an experienced ecologist to advise and act on behalf of the campaign.
Our objective is simple: to make sure that the proposals affecting the Hoo Peninsula are properly scrutinised and that the Hoo Peninsula's communities, wildlife, farmland, countryside and heritage receive the protection they deserve.
Two Local Plans. One Hoo Peninsula.
The Hoo Peninsula is divided administratively between Medway Council and Gravesham Borough Council.
The landscape itself is not.
That is why STHP is challenging development proposals on both sides of the council boundary.
The two Local Plans currently propose:
AROUND 6,000 NEW HOUSES
Chattenden, Hoo St Werburgh & High Halstow
Medway Council
AROUND 3,200 NEW HOUSES
West of Strood
Around 1,900 proposed by Gravesham Borough Council
Around 1,300 proposed by Medway Council
AROUND 800 NEW HOUSES
Higham & Lower Higham
Gravesham Borough Council
Taken together, that means around 10,000 new houses proposed across these three major development areas affecting the Hoo Peninsula.
STHP believes their effects must be considered cumulatively.
Traffic does not stop at a council boundary. Wildlife does not stop at a council boundary. Nor do pressures on schools, healthcare, public transport, countryside, farmland and other infrastructure.
We therefore campaign for the Hoo Peninsula as a whole.
Taking action on the Medway Council Local Plan
STHP has been closely scrutinising Medway Council's Local Plan throughout the plan-making process.
When Medway Council published its Regulation 19 Proposed Submission Local Plan in June 2025, STHP examined both the Plan itself and the large body of supporting evidence accompanying it.
We prepared and submitted detailed formal representations challenging aspects of the Plan's soundness, evidence and legal and procedural compliance.
Our representations raised concerns including:
- the concentration of development on the Hoo Peninsula;
- the proposed scale of housing around Chattenden, Hoo and High Halstow;
- nationally and internationally important wildlife and habitats;
- Lodge Hill SSSI and its nationally important Nightingale population;
- breeding waders and threatened farmland birds;
- loss of productive and high-grade agricultural land;
- transport and infrastructure;
- the cumulative effects of development;
- the adequacy and timing of environmental assessments;
- important evidence documents that had not been available during the Regulation 19 consultation; and
- whether the Plan had been prepared in accordance with the legal and procedural requirements governing Local Plans.
STHP's Regulation 19 representations now form part of the formal record of the Medway Council Local Plan examination.
We instructed specialist lawyers
Because of the seriousness and complexity of the issues involved, STHP decided that professional legal expertise was necessary.
We instructed Richard Buxton Solicitors (RBS) to advise the campaign.
Richard Buxton Solicitors specialises in environmental, planning and public law and has extensive experience representing residents, community organisations and campaign groups in Local Plan examinations and challenges to inappropriate development.
Their work includes advising on Local Plans, housing growth, protected wildlife and habitats, Green Belt, heritage, transport and other environmental and planning matters.
RBS acts for Save The Hoo Peninsula and provides independent professional legal advice to the campaign.
The March 2026 intervention
After Medway Council submitted its Local Plan for examination in December 2025, STHP remained concerned about the way important supporting evidence had been produced and consulted upon.
On 19 March 2026, Richard Buxton Solicitors wrote directly to the appointed Planning Inspectors on behalf of Save The Hoo Peninsula.
The letter raised serious concerns about the Local Plan process, including important supporting evidence which had not been available to the public during the Regulation 19 consultation.
This included documents relating to matters such as:
- habitats and environmental assessment;
- flood risk;
- transport;
- infrastructure; and
- the proposed environmental programme for the Hoo Peninsula.
This was not simply correspondence sent to the Council.
It was a formal intervention made directly to the independent Inspectors examining whether Medway's Local Plan is legally compliant and sound.
Medway Council's own Local Plan examination website records the intervention as official examination document MLP/ED4. It states that the Inspectors were considering the points raised and would seek a response from the Council.
The Inspectors raised questions
On 30 March 2026, the Inspectors issued their initial questions to Medway Council.
Among the matters they asked the Council to address was which submission documents had not been available during the Regulation 19 consultation and how the Council intended to deal with that issue.
The examination subsequently moved to a stage where the Inspectors required Medway Council to carry out a further consultation on supporting evidence documents that had not been available when the submitted Local Plan was originally consulted upon.
We do not suggest that every subsequent action by the Inspectors resulted solely from STHP's intervention.
But the issues raised by our legal team became matters requiring consideration within the formal examination process.
That demonstrates why detailed scrutiny and specialist legal advice matter.
The Medway Council Local Plan examination continues
The Medway Local Plan is now undergoing independent examination.
Planning Inspectors D Hendley BA (Hons) MA MRTPI and A McCormack BSc (Hons) MRTPI have been appointed to determine whether the Plan meets the relevant legal requirements and whether it is sound.
Formal hearing sessions are scheduled to begin on:
15 SEPTEMBER 2026
STHP will continue to follow the examination closely, scrutinise new evidence and take further professional advice where necessary.
The examination is a critical stage.
The decisions made through this process could determine the scale and location of development on the Medway Council part of the Hoo Peninsula for many years to come.
Taking action on the Gravesham Borough Council Local Plan
Our work does not stop at Medway Council's boundary.
Gravesham Borough Council's proposed Local Plan 2042 contains major development proposals affecting the western end of the Hoo Peninsula.
These include:
AROUND 800 NEW HOUSES
at Higham & Lower Higham
and
AROUND 1,900 NEW HOUSES
at Chapter Farm / west of Strood
The Chapter Farm proposal forms part of the larger cross-boundary development with Medway Council, resulting in around 3,200 houses proposed west of Strood across the two authority areas.
STHP believes these proposals raise serious issues concerning:
- Green Belt;
- Grade 1 and Grade 2 agricultural land;
- the identity and character of Higham;
- the separation between Higham and Lower Higham;
- the countryside separating Higham and Strood;
- landscape;
- internationally important wildlife and habitats;
- roads and transport;
- schools, healthcare and infrastructure;
- flooding and drainage;
- heritage; and
- the cumulative effects of development proposed by both Gravesham and Medway.
Responding formally to Gravesham Borough Council
Gravesham Borough Council held its Regulation 19 Proposed Submission consultation between 17 April and 18 August 2026.
Regulation 19 is particularly important because it is the final formal consultation before a Local Plan is submitted for independent examination.
At this stage, representations focus on whether the Plan is legally compliant and sound.
STHP has therefore prepared and submitted detailed representations concerning the Gravesham Local Plan and the proposals affecting the Hoo Peninsula.
Our representations and the submissions made on our behalf form an important part of the campaign's challenge to proposals affecting Higham, Lower Higham and the countryside west of Strood.
What happens next in Gravesham?
The Gravesham Regulation 19 consultation closed on 18 August 2026.
Gravesham Borough Council currently intends to submit the Local Plan to the Secretary of State for independent examination in autumn 2026. The Council anticipates that an Examination in Public could follow in 2027.
Once the Plan has been submitted, the representations received at Regulation 19 will be available to the appointed Planning Inspector or Inspectors.
STHP will continue to follow that process and will take further professional advice as required.
Our involvement does not finish when a consultation closes.
We intend to follow both Local Plans through the relevant examination processes and continue challenging proposals where we believe the evidence, law or environmental consequences require it.
Ecological expertise matters too
Our challenge is not based on legal arguments alone.
The Hoo Peninsula contains nationally and internationally important wildlife and habitats, and understanding the likely ecological consequences of large-scale development requires specialist knowledge.
STHP has therefore also instructed an experienced professional ecologist with more than 40 years' experience.
This expertise helps us scrutinise issues including:
- Lodge Hill SSSI and its breeding Nightingale population;
- breeding Lapwing and Redshank;
- Skylark, Corn Bunting and Turtle Dove;
- the Thames Estuary and Marshes;
- the Medway Estuary and Marshes;
- functionally linked land;
- habitat loss and fragmentation;
- recreational disturbance;
- predation associated with residential development;
- ecological mitigation; and
- the cumulative consequences of thousands of additional houses.
Our CrowdJustice campaign was established particularly because of the threat posed to the Hoo Peninsula's exceptional wildlife and productive farmland.
Environmental decisions of this importance should be tested against proper ecological evidence - not assumptions.
Making sure residents can be heard
Professional advice is one part of the campaign.
Community involvement is another.
STHP has worked to help residents understand proposals that can otherwise be buried within thousands of pages of planning documents and technical evidence.
Our work has included:
- researching and scrutinising Local Plan documents;
- preparing detailed representations;
- producing information for local residents;
- holding and supporting public meetings;
- helping people understand how to respond to consultations;
- providing template material to assist residents making their own representations;
- raising awareness through community publications, social media and campaigning;
- challenging misleading or incomplete claims where necessary; and
- making the case for the Hoo Peninsula publicly and formally.
During Medway Council's Regulation 19 process, STHP produced material specifically to help local residents participate in the consultation, alongside submitting the campaign's own detailed representations. Publicly available campaign records show STHP produced resident representation templates, formal submissions and a Local Plan residents' meeting presentation.
Local Plans may be technical documents, but their consequences are very real. Residents deserve the opportunity to understand and influence them.
Why legal and ecological advice costs money
Planning and environmental law is highly specialised.
Local Plan examinations involve complex legislation, national planning policy, environmental regulations, technical assessments and thousands of pages of evidence.
Similarly, challenging ecological evidence surrounding protected species and internationally important habitats requires appropriate professional expertise.
That expertise costs money.
STHP is a community campaign. We do not have the financial resources of a local authority, major developer or national organisation.
We rely on the generosity of people who believe the Hoo Peninsula is worth protecting.
Help us fund the fight
Our supporters have already enabled Save The Hoo Peninsula to take this campaign further than public protest alone.
Their support has helped us instruct specialist environmental and planning lawyers and ecological expertise and put our concerns into the formal Local Plan process.
Our CrowdJustice page identifies Richard Buxton Solicitors as STHP's lawyers, with donations supporting the campaign's legal work.
But there is more work to do.
Medway Council's Local Plan examination is continuing.
Gravesham's Local Plan is approaching the next stage of its process.
Further evidence may need to be examined.
Further representations may be necessary.
Further professional advice may be required.
Every contribution helps us continue the fight.
Your support helps us ensure that the councils and developers promoting development on the Hoo Peninsula are met with a campaign capable of scrutinising the evidence and obtaining the professional advice necessary to challenge it.
This isn't just about today's planning documents.
The decisions being made through these Local Plans could shape the Hoo Peninsula for generations.
Help us make sure its communities, wildlife, countryside, farmland and heritage have a strong voice in that process.
We will keep fighting for the Hoo Peninsula
The campaign has already moved from raising concerns to making detailed representations, obtaining expert ecological advice and putting specialist legal arguments before the Local Plan process.
There is still a long way to go.
We cannot guarantee the outcome of either Local Plan.
But we can make sure that the proposals are challenged, scrutinised and tested.
And we can make sure that those making the decisions understand what is at stake.
Save The Hoo Peninsula will continue to stand up for the communities, wildlife, farmland, countryside and heritage of the whole Hoo Peninsula - in Medway and in Gravesham.