Update on the Local Plan

The Local Plan Panel meeting on the 24^th March received two reports on progress of the local plan. The council made the decision not to proceed with the version of the local plan published in early 2021 under regulation 19. Instead, a further “Issues and Preferred Options” consultation was undertaken under regulation 18 in November last year. This allowed further consultation on changes that may be necessary due to revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework and representations made during the previous consultation.

The first report is on the main issues raised during the regulation 18 consultation. A number of representations from residents supported not providing the number of new homes required under the method imposed by Government to calculate the local housing need. The constraints of the natural environment, flood risk, and infrastructure limitations were cited as evidence to support this view. Unsurprisingly, developers argued that such constraints are not unique to Swale and that this approach would slow economic growth, make affordability worse and hinder delivery of infrastructure improvements. If the Council were to argue that the full local housing need cannot be met, the local plan inspector would be forensic in their examination of the evidence put forward to justify this position.

There was no clear agreement on the preferred distribution of development across the borough. Issues raised included the capacity of highways, wastewater treatment, health, and education, and the effect on air quality, landscape character and the loss of agricultural land. Kent County Council, the highways authority, highlighted significant detrimental impact on traffic, air quality, and the ability to achieve an increased use of walking, cycling and public transport for local journeys.

The second report sets out the next steps in the local plan review. The inspector’s report on the (current) adopted local plan identified capacity deficiencies in the local and strategic road network that would need to be mitigated. As a result, the council undertook high-level traffic modelling in collaboration with Kent County Council and National Highways prior to the regulation 19 and 18 consultations. At the time it was concluded that there were no “show-stoppers”. The results of more recent finer grained modelling produced surprising results, which showed significant impacts at some key junctions. There are no obvious development strategies that could deliver the local housing need number without adversely affecting these transport corridors. This challenge will require further traffic modelling as the council must leave no stone unturned in its attempt to deliver the local housing need.

It is anticipated that a further Regulation 19 consultation can take place in the early autumn. This will be confirmed in the late spring.

Tim Valentine

TimValentine@swale.gov.uk

Alastair Gould

AlastairGould@swale.gov.uk

Swale Borough Councillors for Boughton & Courtenay