Medway Local Plan (Regulation 19, 2025)

Object

Representation ID: 4975

Received: 11/08/2025

Respondent: Mr James Winder

Legally compliant? Yes

Sound? No

Duty to co-operate? No

Medway's draft has no mandatory HIAs, no targeted inequality strategy, and no enforceable design quality or monitoring framework. These omissions are not minor-they materially reduce protection for residents from deprivation, environmental decline, and unsightly development.

The effect is to institutionalise lower expectations for the health, environment, and visual quality of Medway's communities compared with those in neighbouring counties. This sends a damaging and unjust message: that Medway residents deserve less procedural protection, less ambition, and a lower quality of life than people in other parts of the South East.