It is understood that Medway Council are still establishing final housing need numbers, due to the Council raising concerns with the Government derived figures, and the basis and calculations on which final numbers are determined. However, it is made clear in paragraph 5.13 of the consultation that the Council will look to find potential site allocations enough to provide for 19,000 dwelling units, the additional 7500 sites being provided through extant supply.

We wish, respectfully, to raise an objection to this approach advocated by paragraph 5.13 because the acknowledged uncertainty in the number of housing numbers required to be delivered, means that a more proactive approach, by allocating more sites, should be taken.

The Council should be looking at allocating more sites, to meet a potential increased capacity, in the Local Plan to ensure that there is an appropriate buffer should there be an additional requirement for housing in the Medway area, rather than relying heavily on delivering the target number of 28,500 homes.

In accordance with paragraph 69 of the NPPF, it is identified that small and medium sized sites can make an important contribution to meeting the housing requirement of an area, and are often built-out relatively quickly. It sets out that ‘to promote the development of a good mix of sites local planning authorities should:
“a) identify, through the development plan and brownfield registers, land to accommodate at least 10% of their housing requirement on sites no larger than one hectare”;

The site, land at 1 Ropers Cottage (HHH30) could provide a reasonable alternative and an additional site on the outskirts of Hoo for additional housing development.