Helen Whately MP demands answers from Deputy PM on Highsted Park

Helen Whately has written to the Deputy Prime Minister: Angela Rayner asking why she has taken the Highsted Park planning decision away from local elected councillors saying

"It is unbelievable that Angela Rayner has seized the Highsted Park decision, taking power away from locally elected councillors to make the decision herself.

“Angela Rayner and civil servants in Whitehall are unfamiliar with our area and won’t understand the damage this massive development will do. The Government is riding roughshod over local democracy and is insulting planning officers who have been working on this application for months.

“I want answers. So I have written to Angela Rayner and plan to ask further questions in Parliament. The Government may have a huge majority but that does not give them carte blanche to do whatever they like.”

Whilst the two planning applications for Highsted Park are in effect a massive expansion of Sittingbourne into the countryside, it is important to note that all but a tiny fraction of the applications falls within the constituency of Faversham and Mid Kent. A point made in the letter where Helen says

"This area is new to my constituency but since I was re-elected in July, I have met with hundreds of people living nearby, and without doubt this is their biggest concern."

"Local people feel strongly about these two planning applications and all the work had been done for local councillors to decide on the applications. It therefore seems highly irregular and undemocratic for the decision to be taken out of their hands just hours before their planning meeting. Why?

"In summary, there is huge concern about this massive development which will destroy hundreds of acres of farmland. It will inevitably lead to an increase in traffic on local country lanes, which residents already find alarmingly busy with cars and lorries often trying to avoid queues on main roads. There is no train station nearby nor reliable bus service so new and existing residents are very car dependent."

"The M2 already struggles to cope with the volume of traffic on it, and accidents bring it to a standstill – along with nearby A-roads. There is no likelihood of it being expanded to a 3-lane motorway any time soon to address this. So, a new motorway junction would do little to alleviate traffic congestion and the new development will only exacerbate existing problems."

"In the interests of transparency, I would also like to know if you or your officials have had any conversations or communications with the developers? This is important as local people must know if you will be making a balanced decision with equal access to both sides of the argument."