On Wednesday, February 3rd, the Full Council of TWBC met to consider a resolution to approve submitting the Pre-Submission Local Plan (PSLP) to go forward for Regulation 19 Consultation. 46 Councillors attended; one was missing due to illness. After a long discussion, the voting was 30 in favour, 6 against with 9 abstentions; so, one third of the Councillors were not in favour of moving forward to Regulation 19.
Many Members of Save Capel (SC) and Stop Over Development in Paddock Wood (SODPW) and Friends of East End (Benenden) had lobbied the Councillors to ask them to delay moving to Regulation 19 so that the many gaps and issues with the PSLP could be worked on, and that the Consultations could take place by face-to-face meetings rather than attempting to do this via the internet.
The table below shows a breakdown, by Ward, of the Number of Councillors, the Population and the Housing Allocations proposed in the PSLP.
In summary, Capel, has one Councillor, who voted against the proposal, pitching against 46 from other wards. Capel has 2% of the population of the Borough and has been allocated 44.5% of the total housing need for TWBC.
If we add in Paddock Wood, that gives five Councillors pitching against 42 others, a joint population of 8.8% of the Borough and 65.6% of the total housing need for TWBC.
A total and disproportionate nonsense.
We now need to focus on the Regulation 19 Consultation, which will be chaired by an independent Inspector appointed by the Government. Let us hope that the Inspector listens to reason more than the TWBC Councillors have!
