The last fortnight has shown us two examples of the failure of successive Councils to plan positively for our town.
The Initial Findings on the Local Plan Examination issued by Planning Inspector Matthew Birkinshaw rejected the use of Green Belt land for a massive estate at Tudeley, and the most flood-prone areas of Paddock Wood, something the Green Party has been arguing against for years. At the Examination in May, fellow Green Adrian Thorne and I pointed out that when it had become clear that the plan would result in 50% of new houses being in the Green Belt, they should have gone back to the drawing board.
The fateful decision to crash on with Tudeley despite the flashing red lights was taken in 2018 by the Conservative Cabinet led by David Jukes, who also championed the Calverley Square project – which could now have been a stalled construction site on Calverley Grounds, as the costs went through the roof, and the builder started making claims rather than progress.
The Local Plan has been referred back to TWBC to propose the way forward – will the Coalition now change direction and work to protect our green spaces, as their election literature promised to?
The Coalition hasn’t made any difference to local planning so far; the LibDems on the Planning Committee proposed and seconded the 8-storey monstrosity of an over-80’s Care Home on the Old Cinema Site, having failed to steer Council Officers to get the Developer to propose a more vibrant concept that would not dominate the Grade 2 listed buildings on the other three corners of the crossroads, and which would contain the affordable housing that people really need, and that the Local Plan promises.
After twenty years of failed Conservative stewardship of the grot spot, the site will now see over a century of visual blight approved in the Coalition’s time. The Council has allowed the future of our town to be decided by Developers, not our elected representatives.
To top it all, a snap public consultation was held on a proposal to change the election system to “all outs” (once every four years), rather than the current system of “thirds” (a third of Councillors voted for every year), which was instrumental in 2019 in kicking out the advocates of the Calverley Square project. The “all outs” proposal was put to a Full Council meeting last month by Conservatives Tom Dawlings and Sean Holden, and with one exception, the Coalition members fell into line.
We responded in favour of retaining voting by thirds, as it strengthens the public’s ability to hold the Council to account.
As we have seen across Kent, the first Green on a Council makes all the difference – and next May is only six months away.
Meanwhile we will have to prepare for the Old Cinema Site showing “The Bad, the Bad and the Ugly” every day for the foreseeable future; Tunbridge Wells deserves better than this.