Say NO to 5000 more houses in Lenham


The  campaign to fightback against this ridiiculous scheme has been long,  hard and we applaud the efforts of volunteers from the community in standing up to Maidstone Borough Council on this. Local Parish Councils and community organisations continue to push back on this proposal,


The knock on effect for our communities would be catastrophic for everyone concerned. The SOHL information below paints a stark picture which we truly hope is unsuccessful.  Currently we await feedback from the Planning Inspector before a decision is made by MBC councillors.


Many hundreds of pages have been written from Lenham Parish Council, SOHL and others and many many hours spent in puting forward representations on behalf of Lenham and obviously the wider community.


It is indeniable that 5000 homes would overburden our already gridlocked roads (A20 / Hollingbourne roundabout) and lead to even greater use of roads running north south of the A20, rat runs with greater traffic volumes!


We wish SOHL success in their application for Judicial review.


Save our Heathlands  SOHL      website

SOHL  facebook  page

Local Plan Review Examination & Updates MBC website

Inspectors Final Report re Heathlands   link

 page 30-40 final conclusion page 50

MBC Local plan controversially agreed

Below are the local representations made on evening 20/03/24

 Statement Steve Heeley SOHL

The SOHL Group is no stranger to you. We have attended countless meetings and lobbied you all over the last five years setting out why we believe the Heathlands proposal does not work Some of you have been

sympathetic to our cause. Some of you haven’t. Some of you have visited the village of Lenham. Many of you haven’t. Some of you have told that you know Heathlands won’t work. 

Many of you though are just glad it just isn’t in your own backyards.

I could go through all the failures of Heathlands including the fact that the Council don’t have all the land required in their control for the development to even proceed. But I’m not going to re-play our arguments because that doesn’t seem to resonate.

At Cabinet and P&I this week, the Conservative henchmen were deployed to point out that this proposed plan is  the one that delivers the housing the borough so desperately needs.

The Council’s most senior officers have instilled fear that this is the only Plan in town. That evidence will expire at the stroke of midnight on 30 March. That developers and their diggers are waiting on the borough boundary to siege upon the borough’s green space.

The misinformation being peddled that Maidstone won’t have a valid Local Plan if you don’t adopt tonight is simply not true. The current Local Plan remains in place. We do not lurch to presumption in favour of sustainable development as being widely touted. We do not become as “developers charter”. Adopted Neighbourhood Plans will still protect our parishes. 

But despite this “A bad plan is better than no plan” has become the new Maidstone mantra.

Over 100 Local Planning Authorities across the country have now paused or withdrawn their “bad”plans. Over half of LPAs lack a proven five year housing land supply. 

Other Local Authorities are not willing to sign themselves up to more and more housing delivery when it is not a level playing field for all.

Maidstone has delivered more new homes in Kent between 2020 and 2022 than Gravesham, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling and Folkestone & Hythe combined! 

But in their pursuit for such volumes of new homes, MBC have failed to sort out the crumbling infrastructure that needs so desperately investing in.  It is no wonder Maidstone’s residents are saying loud and clear: there is too much housing development in this borough and the infrastructure improvements are not keeping up. 

Other Local Authorities are listening to their residents and acting accordingly.

Until now, Maidstone has not.  MBC is still stuck in the past, assuming what they thought was suitable in 2018 is right for the borough six years later. So our ask of you all tonight is to listen to your residents rather being blindly led by the officers. Residents are the ones that elected you to sit here tonight. 

They will be the ones that hold you to account for tonight’s decision at the ballot box on the 2nd May. 

We will make sure residents are made aware of which councillors vote to sacrifice thousands of acres of our borough’s precious green space. Those that do have no integrity in standing behind countryside protection pledges during May’selections. 

Tonight you all have a responsibility to not let this bad plan progress any further.

We hope you make the right choice

Statement John Britt Chair Lenham Parish Council

For context – Lenham has a Neighbourhood Plan, it was made in  July 2021 and 92% of those who voted supported it. It came out of an agreement from the local plan review of 2017 and will deliver  1000 homes in the broad location up to 2031. At that time, it was  the largest allocation to a rural service centre. 

We are not NIMBYs, we recognise the need for more housing, but  this must be the right sort in the right place – that is not  Heathlands that is not what you have here. 

During the inspection, we put our concerns to the inspector. Our  submissions have been reflected as the so-called Heathlands  proposal is still effectively unsound because it requires significant  modification as well as unspecified and unconfirmed funds to  make it work. 

What you have in front of you this evening, then, is a false  prospectus with

a slender likelihood of eventual delivery. 

Those of you returning after May’s election will have to deal with  the fall-out of that and, after a few months, it won’t be a muddle devised by someone else, it will be the new administration’s  muddle. 

If you support it because you believe a poor plan is better than no  plan at all, you are mistaken. That is an obvious false conclusion as you do have options, although it does not appear that these  have been offered to you in any real sense here - and the oft  threatened “developers charter” is a scare tactic attempting to raise concerns and needs to be properly challenged. 

If you support it because you think that will be the end of the  arguments, again, you are mistaken. 

The reality is that if you adopt this plan in its present form you  need to know that having taken specialist legal advice, Lenham  parish will continue to seek leave to challenge its adoption. That  is not a threat, that is our right and we intend to exercise it. There  is also a distinct possibility that our challenge will be supported  by others. 

The inspector was clear, he didn’t need to see the best plan, he  just needed one that, on balance, might work. I ask you, is that  good enough for Maidstone? 

Instead of adopting this faulty plan, I suggest the council agrees  to pause, and in the interim have a proper dialogue with partners,  such as the parishes, rather than imposing an incomplete plan on  everyone. 

So, I would urge everyone here to really think about the  consequences of proceeding with this flawed plan and instead  opt to pause it, as other councils in this situation have sensibly  done. 

B.Cllr Tom sams speaking on amendment to defer until after the election period

I note the comment from John Britt asking for a pause and this is what this is about

The Local Plan is a crucial document that will shape the future development and infrastructure of the Borough for many years to come.  It is imperative that such a significant decision is made by a Council that fully represents the will and interests of the Electorate.
Therefore, Councillors (from Parish Councils we respectfully) request a deferment to allow the newly elected Borough Council Councillors to make a decision in a timely and proportionate way.  The new Council, who will be elected for a four year term, would then have the opportunity to contribute to this important process; having regard to the long term consequences of any decisions made. 
A deferment would allow other organisations, particularly Parish Councils, to have time for their Councils to be constituted (after the election period) and able to respond,

if required, with their committee structures in place.
This approach would give confidence to residents that their elected representative are demonstrating a commitment to democratic principles and ensuring that the voices of residents are fully heard and respected in the decision-making process. Otherwise it may be viewed as an opportunity to use the election period as a device for preventing or constraining the democratic process.

For Councillors information the Chief Executive has a copy of a letter from Harrietsham Parish Council which mirrors what i have just said, finally re the 30th March (it was referred to in a briefing document prepared to explain why a decision had to  be taken that evening)  it is our understanding that these are run of the mill documents that will be refreshed anyway and by no means deal breakers at this time.

B.Cllr Janetta Sams on the ammendmentA deferment seems to be a reasonable fair ask.

Such a massive decision needs to be taken by those who will be managing the plan.It surely can’t be right for us 55, none of us who are guaranteed election victory and some who are not standing, to make this consequential decision for all residents of our Borough.

The Local plan decision must be done thoroughly  and carefully and is far too important to be rushed. The inspectors report could have been produced a week later and the new council would have picked it up.

We have a new system of a whole council election, all 49 members elected for 4 years.

Why are we denying them a vote on this plan? 

And finally the elephant in the room, as already mentioned, KCC’s letter last night and the follow up one today referred to at cabinet but not seen at that point mentions concerns amongst other matters with lack of secondary education provision. 

Para 6 the local plan does not adequately secure sufficient school places. 

Para 3 significant highway concerns,at  Lidsing re funding and Heathlands leaving them with no sustainable transport options particularly in the early phases

Please think very carefully KCC have stated 

Para 4 it asks the cabinet do not accept the local plan. The last paragraph says we therefore asks that the local plan is NOT adopted and that further discussions take place to ensure that the matters they raise are adequately addressed

Voted down 

For  11  Against  32  Abstain 9

B.Cllr Janetta Sams speaking against the motion to approve the plan. 

I was goin to talk on just ONE aspect, 

We must not fail to grasp the impact on A20,

and the impact upon those communities along this stretch of road. Voting yes means greater impact on already overburdened  roads 

Rural lanes will be devastated, pothole ridden roads and verges ruined through oversized vehicles trying to negotiate lanes unsuitable for that  use 
Anyone travelling through Hollingbourne village at busy times witnesses the vehicle’s negotiating tight narrow roads creating havoc on the roads…this is happening now….and we are talking about another 5000 homes on that road and this is happening now
On Sunday I don't know if anyone was around at lunchtime but there was a hold up at Hollingbourne roundabout because of a short motorway closure caused a massive snarl up through Maidstone ….what’s going to happen with 5000 more homes on the A20?? And then there's BROCK. Exactly the same today Lenham and Harrietsham absolutely gridlocked.
We have an overburdened, overcrowded road network and businesses

serving the A20 who will be severely impacted.
No amount of tinkering with the road network as suggested within the plan will handle the enormous increase in capacity, I would ask members who want to push this plan through to think of the residents and think what gridlock looks like.
I hear loads of people have suggested that …”A bad plan is better than no plan” How does supporting a disastrous plan support your residents?
We need to go into this with our eyes open about the consequences

for the whole Borough, the whole of Maidstone.

The people of Maidstone need to get to work get to appointments

get to the hospital will be sitting in their cars going nowhere 
And just My final point on the KCC letter they call the whole plan into question and without the delay  which were not going to have (it had been voted down) to discuss with them if you vote yes you are voting for houses with insufficient school places and unsustainable transport

B.Cllr Tom Sams  speaking against against the motion to approve the plan. 

Heathlands may have been born on the back of a fag packet years ago but 

it was carefully orchestrated by a few select councillors to make it happen. 

The  plan started with the committee structure.

We had cllrs on committees that were so interlinked P&R and SPI that cllrs didn't even

know what they could talk about. cllrs were often confused.

The local plan side or master developer side became  interwoven  and even officers forgot. 

At the  April 2020 meeting   One cllr stated “we seem to be making this up on the fly!”

well  wasnt that the truth!

So can i highlight  a couple of one liners. 

In September 2019  in this council chamber Cllr Garten stated rather underwhelmed with only 5000 houses for Heathlands “the figures are not ambitious enough”,  “let's build it bigger”.

Cllr Springett  in July 2021 stated “ The A20 is a very dangerous road , we cannot this have number of houses on that road without that motorway junction” 

Surprise surprise particularly tonight trying to drive here

(it was gridlocked travelling from Maidstone to Ashford on A20)

The relationship with Homes England was  demonstrated by cllrs absolute relief for somewhere to hang their Heathlands hat upon. Homes England's arrival gave cllrs confidence. Someone was in charge. Someone  knew what they were talking about. 

This wasn't the case, and we have heard reports how  this organisation has let communities down and we share a sceptical view of Homes England, as we did from the beginning

The process has been awful for residents throughout.  Can I pay tribute to Lenham PC and SOHL for being here again  tonight, all voluntary and at great cost to themselves.

To quote what we hear repeated ad nauseum  a bad plan is better than no plan.

Im sorry no a bad plan is what it is, a bad plan.

What does  a bad plan look like? It looks like  gridlock. People at a standstill  in their cars. People late to work, late for hospital appointments , late to school.

Demonstrated by so many other areas within and adjacent to this Borough. It is a disaster and the Garden developments Heathlands and Lidsing demonstrate this.  Car dependent monstrosities.

Building on valuable food  productive agricultural land. I know that the group opposite  have no regard for our special spaces like Oaken wood, and both Heathlands and Lidsing reflect that position. 

It is very sad we have reached this point.

To some it feels like cllrs are saying , “Lidsing, well that  will be Medways problem after all”! 

“Lenham, well Lenham’s right over there”! Pointing east.

This plan will deliver chaos. So much chaos we have to reject it. 

 Even KCC responding to MBC say we need to kick it out!

So Cllrs for heavens sake lets kick it out!

Voting FOR the conservatives Cllrs votes en mass in favour. except one Lidsing conservative Cllr

With their independent colleagues all supporting them.

They were supported by two ex Labour now independent Fant Cllrs, 31 votes

Voting AGAINST were our Green Independent Alliance Group,

Labour  party and Liberal Democrat’s 21 votes

Share by: