a day ago
EXCLUSIVE NIMBY residents threw street party after blocking 250- home development next to their village... but a decision months later would leave them stunned
Nimbys fighting against a 250-home development on the edge of a small Kent town have sensationally lost their campaign - after previously celebrating their 'victory' with a street party.
Residents living near the proposed Ham Farm Development were 'devastated' when the Planning Inspectorate finally passed controversial plans to build 250 homes.
It seemingly put an end to their two year 'David and Goliath' battle against the house building scheme, after Gladman Developments won an appeal first lodged in January this year.
But, as one campaigner said, in the end 'David did win'.
People living near the proposed homes, which will be built on nature-filled farmland in the sleepy town of Faversham, Kent, say they are poorly thought through and 'just about the money.'
Residents say they can see all the way to Sheerness on the Isle of Sheppey on the other side of The Swale on a clear day.
One resident described the effect the new houses will have on the quiet area - saying it will create a so called 'car ghetto' due to the lack of public transport and the narrowness of the already busy roads.
Gladman Developments earmarked 162 private and 88 affordable homes on a plot of land off Ham Road, which it said could provide housing for first-time buyers.
The plans, submitted in March last year, sparked outrage from locals who set up a protest group called Save Ham Farm to fight the application.
Planning officers from Swale Borough Council rejected the project leading to residents to hold a street party to celebrate their victory.
But the developers appealed the decision and have now had the case ruled in their favour.
Locals claim there is leftover explosive guncotton produced in a local factory - which is used as a propellant for shells as a replacement for gunpowder - is buried under the soil, along with refuse from a landfill site.
They say a 600 page survey of the land revealed a terrible explosion took place next to the field, which killed at least 18 staff, with bodies and leftover material thought to be buried in old clay pits on the site.
Frances Beaumont, 81, who is Chair of the Save Ham Farm campaign, said: 'It has always been a fight of the small people against the big people with lots of money.
'We're very concerned that we're going to lose an established green corridor along the edge of the field, which is about 20 meters wide and has something like 200 trees.
'It's got masses of birds. We spent a whole year monitoring all the wildlife out there - there are tonnes of bats, and that will all be destroyed.'
'Losing a green corridor is very bad news for wildlife, and the trees guard against flooding, so if those go there will be an increased risk.
'There is also a path that's been there since around 1890 that lots of people rely on - that will go.
'People's back gardens open onto the path, so they are going to lose access to their back gardens.
'We are disappointed with the decision because there are far more problems with the plans.'It has very poor road access, very narrow roads - add another 250 homes to that and it's going to make things really difficult.
'You can't widen the roads because people's houses are there.
'They keep talking about amelioration, but that money will not be used to solve these problems, it will go on to other things.
'Access to sewers is also a big problem. We only have one already overused sewage system - which already discharges into the creek nearby quite often.
As part of their campaign, the Save Ham Farm group contributed to the Faversham Neighbourhood Plan where they identified a number of brownfield sites more suited for the much-needed homes.
Frances said: 'Local experts have taken six or seven years to produce a Faversham Neighbourhood Plan, which is against building there.
'It is a plan that proposed the building of over 200 houses on brownfield sites, they pointed to areas on the map where these sites could be developed.
'We are really disappointed that the power of this plan has not succeeded.
'The reason is that our local council, Swale Borough Council, had a shortfall in their five year house building plan so now the government says you have to pass any plans to make up that number.
'It's really a blow for local democracy - and they're going to get to a stage where people say, what's the point in fighting things like this?
But, there is a chance it may not go ahead, Frances said: 'There is one slight chink of light in that there is a condition called a Grampian Condition - something they have to do before they build.
'The condition states that the surface water from the roads and drains and houses has to be pumped onto the marshes.
'The marshes are a Site of Special Scientific Interest and have not been surveyed as part of this plan.
'The developers just assumed they would put the water on the marshes - but they don't belong to them and the farmer who owns them is currently saying they don't want the water on their land as they use it to graze cattle.
'So we'll have to see, there is some hope.'
Jo Humphrey, 71, whose home backs onto the proposed development, said: 'I don't agree with it at all, with all the lovely nature we have out there.
'It's terrible, if we were younger we might have considered moving - it's just a shame, we had a lovely outlook.'And, the roads aren't big enough to take everything, and the dentists and doctors - I can barely get an appointment now, before all the houses.
'The schools are all full too - I just don't agree with it at all.'
Elizabeth Arnolt, 79, who moved to the area three years ago, got involved in politics for the first time in her life after learning about the development.
She said: 'It's devastating, the whole thing is devastating.
'I've never been a political animal, I just about vote because of the suffragettes, but after I discovered this and met Frances I just knew I had to do something.
'I started a petition, I've never done anything like that in my life, and I got totally immersed in the thing. We took a stall in the market to get signatures and we were absolutely flooded by people who were so angry - people are very, very angry.
'After the Faversham Neighbourhood Plan was passed which suggested brownfield sites for housing we assumed it would be okay - but this news is devastating.
She added: 'There is a housing shortage, but this isn't going to solve that because the people who buy the houses will be people with money who could buy anywhere.
'It's all to do with money, with profit, and the little people like us are just trying to stand up to this form of power.
'But, we are not giving up - we had a meeting on Tuesday night and there are reasons why it still might not happen, so we are not giving up.'
Nick Mengham, 69, a retired beekeeper who has been very involved in the Save Ham Farm campaign, said: 'I am very disappointed, obviously.'
We have not given up, there are still some things which haven't been decided - there's some stuff about surface water drainage which they want to pump into an SSSI which is also next to a Ramsar site which hosts migrating birds.
'It's also disappointing because we got the Faversham Neighbourhood Plan approved and it doesn't seem like any of what we asked for is being taken into consideration.
'We found locations for all the houses, we said that site is not suitable, and frankly I think the project undeliverable.
'It's a very difficult site to build on and there is going to be a lot of difficulty joining the dots in order to get houses built there - drainage, sewers.
'The transport is a very big problem - it's approached by a very restricted road and they want to build 250 houses.
'It really is David fighting Goliath - but David did win.'
He added: 'I think the plan is to get the planning permission and then sell the land as development land - so it is all about the money.
'It is the way of the world, money talks, builders don't build houses to give them away, they build them to sell them.
'I know we need housing - but it has to be built in the right places.'
David Cox, 81, a retired academic and engineering expert, said: 'It is a very complicated site - a really bad site.
'There was a big explosion around 1850 or thereabouts which killed lots of people - it was featured in the London Illustrated News at the time.
'It was a really serious explosion, and when they cleared it up the only place they could have put the explosive material that was left and the bodies of the victims was in the old clay pits which form this site.
'It is also filled with refuse brought here on barges from London - which produces methane, an explosive gas.
'There have been cases of sites like this where the houses built on top get filled with methane from the ground.'
'As part of my work I consulted on Chernobyl, and if you asked me to choose between that site and Chernobyl, I would choose Chernobyl.
'All of the details about the site can be found in a 600 page survey produced by Landmark Surveys.
'These homes also sit on a flood plane, and with the poisonous material below, the methane and the explosive material they will be uninsurable.
'Within 20 years the people living in the houses would be facing all sorts of issues and would be completely stuck in their properties.
'It has the makings of a total disaster.'
