By Bryan Sweetland, Kent County Councillor for Gravesham Rural.
At a KCC council meeting on 13/12/18 I asked Mike Whiting, the KCC Cabinet Member for Planning, Environment and Highways if he agreed with Swale MP Gordon Henderson when he asked the Prime Minister to look again at number of new housing developments in Swale. Also whether he agreed with me that the totally arbitrary housing targets being handed down from central Government to local Councils in Kent (including Gravesham) are simply not achievable if significant additional infrastructure funding from Government is not forthcoming.
Part of his answer ...
"The challenge that presents is highlighted in the Growth and Infrastructure Framework, which shows that by 2030 Kent will have nearly 400,000 new residents living in 178,600 new homes and require £16billion of infrastructure, of which the funding gap runs to nearly £6billion currently."
It is clear that if the housing targets for Kent (including Gravesham) were to be met, the £6B shortfall in infrastructure funding would mean not enough school places, hospital beds, roads and road repairs, public services and so on.
In Gravesham Rural, there will not be enough Secondary School places to support the proposed housing numbers that Gravesham Borough Council are planning to approve. It's simply irresponsible to continue with these plans and Gravesham Conservatives will fight to protect our greenbelt from inappropriate development
