5.12

An adequate buffer should be built into the land supply - experience from Covid and fluctuations in economic circumstances clearly show that the development/construction sector and the supply chain is vulnerable to change and this has had a significant impact on commercial decisions and delivery. In these circumstances, larger sites are less likely to come forward due to initial infrastructure costs, requiring a range of sites to be allocated.

this is too high and needs recalculation. Any development site granted planning permission should have to be built within the plan period or lose the planning permission. Requirements for household submissions are that planning lapses if work is not started within 3 years, this should be extended to all planning permissions granted.

These figures appear to be far too high.

Protect our important areas

The current development scenarios do not have Self Build support. The volume Housebuilders have the funding to purchase the sites. Some allocation of sites should have some self build areas.

This seems to be adding insult to injury to the residents of Medway especially those in most need of a safe comfortable dwelling. Medway needs 4,278 new dwellings to satisfy natural growth, of these, 1,200 must be for social rent (Council Houses) See Local Housing Needs Assessment 2021.

The Interim Land Availability Assessment identifies a number of different parcels, but the FD Attwood and Partners land is the only one that offers a long-term master planned solution for such an extensive area covering the whole of the Capstone corridor.
There are a number of references of positive outcomes to be achieved, as embodied in the vision and strategic objectives from a strategic and comprehensive masterplaned approach (including paragraph 5.28 for the riverside), however this is realistically more difficult to achieve where land ownership is fragmented. This places the F D Attwood and Partners land opportunity on a different level to other options, both in terms of the visioning, but also in terms of the certainty of viability assumptions and delivery.
The message from the landowner/promoter is that:
• The totality of the land identified on the attached plan is available and deliverable and improved land use planning benefits can be delivered by a comprehensive approach which will provide certainty to all parties.
• Building blocks of development within the corridor and landowners’ control e.g. Lidsing (open space, 2,000 dwellings and 14ha employment), Gibraltar Farm (450 dwellings) and East Hill (800 dwellings), have already been approved and the opportunity exists now to masterplan the whole corridor and provide collective certainty of infrastructure provision, open space and public access and transport improvements and job creation for all. Planning in this way will ensure the maximum benefits for Medway are delivered as part of a collaborative approach and working with Maidstone BC on the development of the Lidsing masterplan framework, which will commence in early 2024.
• Medway’s planning team and members of the new administration can be confident that a comprehensive masterplan would deliver a wide range of land uses including housing, employment, recreational space and community and retail uses to meet future Medway’s needs at a sustainable location. These land uses within the site would all (via the masterplan process) be well related to existing employment sites such as the Gillingham Business Park and planned employment within Lidsing (14 ha employment hub is proposed here) the retail hub of the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre and recreational assets such as the Capstone Country Park. It will also be demonstrated through the ecological baseline information already undertaken for this area, that significant biodiversity net gain can be secured within this development scenario and that climate change will be at the heart of decision making.
• There are benefits of a permanent and comprehensive growth strategy for this corridor where Medway residents, near and far, have certainty about what will be delivered. We believe the planned scale of green infrastructure for this corridor, alongside the development areas and linkages with the existing communities, will provide comfort to residents living in this area who have in the past, perceived that sanctioning some development in this area will destroy its character or function in a piecemeal fashion. This concern will not be relevant if the opportunity of a comprehensive masterplanned approach is taken, because of the single land ownership of the Attwood family, as evidenced on the attached plan.

Again this needs to be challenged if we want the people of Medway to have a good quality of life. I believe we have a strong argument. The south east in general has good arguments.

As stated previously the Local Housing Needs Assessment 2021 indicates we only need 4,276 dwellings to satisfy natural growth and that
1,200 must be council houses

This figure is not the real level of local need and is currently under dispute.