Kevin McKenna MP revealed as the person who got Highsted Park Called in
A matter of weeks after a photo opportunity with the applicant Mark Quinn and just two days prior to the application being called in by Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner Kevin McKenna MP wrote to Angela Rayner requesting that the larger of the two applications be called in.
Clearly there are deep fractures within the local Labour
Party with the Labour MP and local Labour councillors both claiming to
represent the interests of residents and yet both having diametrically opposing
views on the application.
I believe that Kevin McKenna MP has just cost the tax payer a substantial sum of
money by taking this course of action, as there was never any guarantee that
both applications would have been appealed by the applicant. In fact, in my own
humble opinion the larger of the two applications was far more problematic and
clearly the applicant thought so to, otherwise why split the scheme into
separate applications in the first place.
Interestingly though Kevin McKenna only requested that the
Southern application was called in, which either suggest that he was unaware
that there are two separate planning applications, or that he was made aware
that this application had the least chance of getting approval.
However, it’s all a bit embarrassing for poor old Kevin as he obviously hasn’t
clocked that the southern application is utterly dependent on the northern application
and had only this application being called in, it could not have been resolved
or would more likely have been thrown out.
It’s funny but the previous incumbent always stated that
they were not able to intervene in planning applications and now suddenly an MP
can not only intervene, but do so, on behalf of his neighbouring member of
parliament.
There are a few mistakes in his letter which clearly illustrates his
lack of knowledge and awareness of the detail of the subject on which he so passionately
speaks in favour of.
In the letter Kevin states
“I believe that this development at Highsted Park meets the grounds for a call
in as set out in legislation, in particular that it may have a significant
long-term impact on economic growth and meets housing needs across a wider area
than a single local authority.”
“I believe that a decision by you as Secretary of State to call in this
application would not only be in the interests of my constituents and their
families but would also have a significant long-term impact on economic growth
through the injection of an estimated £14.2bn into the economy, as well as
making a sizeable contribution to the necessarily ambitious new homes target we
have committed to deliver .”
“As the Member of Parliament for Sittingbourne and Sheppey I
am requesting that you call in this application.”
I have to say that even I am surprised at the line “meets housing needs across a wider area than a single local authority” which clearly shows that the ‘Get Britain building again’ mantra he trots out is
not about local need at all but building for the greater good of the country.
This signals more clearly than ever that we are building for anyone and
everyone in the Southeast.
As an area of the country which has seen some of the highest rates of
development anywhere in the UK, you would have thought that we had already more
than delivered.
For a scheme that fails on so many environmental levels the 20%
biodiversity net gain is hilarious.
And then there is the old developer, sorry MP, sales pitch about the delivery
of new schools and health facilities. In the last 20 years, exactly how many
new schools have been delivered?
That would be a big fat ZERO, yes we have a replacement school in Tunstall and
a couple of extensions here and there, but not one single new school.
Our health services are in decline, we have less doctors surgeries and less
doctors and all the time developers line up to make promises they know they can’t
keep.
The Southern Relief Road will shift traffic patterns and it will not improve Air Quality Management Areas most of which are located on the A2 which is predicted to get worse as a result.
His maths skills have also let him down as the 400 per annum figure is for the combined applications which is evident for anyone with even the most basic maths ability, 20 x 400 = 8,000
And finally all these thousands of new jobs it will create, really, if every time I commenced a new project I counted that as a new job, I am personally responsible for creating hundreds of jobs just on my own.
Andy Hudson
Sittingbourne.Me
Comments
Showing comments 1 to 5 of 5
Alex Norris MP Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing in a written answer to Helen Whately MP on 11/12/24 stated “The Framework is clear that where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality”.
A vast amount of the Highsted development would be on Grade 1 agricultural land Less than 3% of England's agricultural land is classified as Grade 1, and only a fraction of this Grade 1 land is suitable for Top Fruit and Soft Fruit cultivation.
Since the development is to meet a wider housing need than that within the Swale Local Authority, to comply with the requirement of the NPPF it would have to be demonstrated that there is not any poorer quality land across the wider area. This is obviously not the case since 97% of England is poorer quality agricultural land.
That man is an embarrassment to those responsible for his candidacy and a disgrace to those who trusted him with their vote.??????
Kevin McKenna letter is misleading and factually Incorrect;
Quinn Estates stated that the link road would open-up “circa 1,000 acres of previously inaccessible land to be brought forward for housing, in a single cohesive manner”. Clearly, Quinn Estates recognize to provide access to the land the link road, motorway junction, and railway flyover would have to be built before any housing is built.
Kevin McKenna’s letter repeats the government commitment to 1.5m new homes in this Parliament he then states that 7,150 Highsted Park houses “could be delivered in this Parliament”. How he arrives at this is incomprehensible since even Quinn Estates acknowledge all the highway infrastructure would have to be built first. He then contradicts himself later in the same letter when he states 7,150 houses over 20 years.
Thank you again Andy for an excellent blog on the housing and our newly elected MP, who has clearly failed to eead up what his role and responsibility is, especially the one that says "find out what the people in your area think about a particular issue"
I wonder if the local Labour Party can oust him?
There are 700,000 vacant homes in the UK - ‘Action on Empty Homes’ says
https://www.actiononemptyhomes.org/facts-and-figures
and
CPRE, the Countryside Charity, says in their Brownfield Report that there are brownfield sites around the country with enough space to build 1.2 million homes.
https://www.cpre.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/State-of-Brownfield-2022-FINAL-FORMATTED-15-12-2022.pdf
Plus the figures from KCC released in May 2024 show that of all the sites with planning permission in Kent 73% have not been built out, a whopping 27,241 housing units!
Click here