News

Tunbridge Wells Local Plan

The next meeting of the Local Plan Working Party will be at Somerhill on July 9th.

Meanwhile the subgroups established at the meeting on June 4th will be meeting and discussing the way forward


6 thoughts on “Tunbridge Wells Local Plan

  1. Avatar for Council Administrator

    Council Administrator

    The PowerPoint from Stephen Baughen used in the meeting will be published here as soon as it is made available to us. We hope this will be by Friday 24th.

  2. concerned about us here at Brampton Bank, will it be compulsary purchased to make way for the new development also regarding inferstructure, how will increased traffic be dealt with on Five Oak Green Rd including the traffic build up already at the round a bout joining the A26

    1. Avatar for Council Administrator

      Council Administrator

      It was suggested yesterday that this was a misunderstanding of something said at the meeting in Paddock Wood. As far as we know there will not be a CPO on Brampton Bank at least.

  3. The Q&A with Stephen Boughen was a fascinatingly fact-free set of minimal waffles. He was posed a lot of questions, about flood management, sewage, impact reduction / compensation for existing residence, policing, emergency services, hospitals, doctors clinics, schools, trains, other public transport and wildlife, in the face of a trippleing of the local population. On not a single one of these questions had Mr. Boughen been sent to this meeting equipped with any actual solid answers, facts or planning. His repeated answer to literally everything, was that developers were obliged to put a (disturbingly small) sum of money per new dwelling towards infrastructure.

    There was no stipulation as to what infrastructure or the levels required, nor was there any indication of the TWBC’s direction, involvement or demands on this. Leaving it entirely at the mercy of developers. They had planned two new support roads across green belt land in spite of obviously better road options, which lead to more unanswered questions about further development after this one.

    On the subject of transport Mr. Boughen suggested the future was all about electric bicycles and cycle lanes. Interested how the 150 elderly people in the room felt about that or everyone else who has to drive on a very busy road every day before any of this has been built let alone after. He said that Southeastern Rail said they had no interest in building a new station on the line that passes directly through the proposed development like the Thames through London, based on the ‘CURRENT’ lack of capacity/demand. This was clearly with no regard to the new development at all.

    It is most disturbing how little if any of this ‘imposed’ development of expensive ‘low-cost’ housing is not being proposed elsewhere in the borough. The councillors clearly don’t want it in their own backyards and have kettled it into our constituency.
    Still…hard to see how any developer could build anything when the site is under water half the year. Concerning that infrastructure to deal with this might displace a lot of water and cause a far worse flooding issue in Five Oak Green. However with the unstoppable expansion of the quarry bordering directly along the exact edges of the proposed sites, obviously having been planned to support construction, it is hard to believe that this is challengable at all, and not a done-deal.

  4. Avatar for Council Administrator

    Mr and Mrs Lambert of Brampton Bank

    Why so many homes? 6000 in Paddock wood and 2800 here in Tudeley. Tunbridge Wells borough has to build 13000 new homes but why 9000 in a 4 square mile radius? What about the rest of the district? There is also the development at Woodgate Way in Tonbridge only 2 miles away and no infrastructure in place to support this and a new development with a sudden and large increase in this area’s population. There is absolutely no infrastructure in place to support a community of this size. No new GP surgeries a suggested and a hint that the village school could cope with the extra children or be extended to do so, there isn’t room to build on the school site. There are no footpaths so the school run will be done by car, where will they park? The road is now reduced to a single carriage way at school time try adding a couple more thousand cars trying to get through! What with the new development in Tonbridge 2 miles away I doubt there will be space at Primary schools there either. We also do not have mains gas here, so a new gas pipeline coming from where? Where is the water for 2800 homes going to come from? Our own water supply is slow as we are at the end of the pipeline from Five Oak Green. Also the sewer pipes are only built for our small community are they planning to improve this before they build. With 9000 new homes is our local police force going to be able to cope? Is that new Tunbridge wells hospital going to cope?
    It is the destruction of a small and happy community and that of an area of outstanding natural beauty. Our wildlife, we are told, is on the decline. We have pheasants, owls, hawks and buzzards here. All can be seen and heard every day. We have a lot of insects, butterflies, crested newts and slow worms and even the occasional grass snake. We are told that the bird population is on the decline, but we have both red and green woodpeckers and many others in the gardens and a lot of bees. The loss of this wildlife that cant be replaced should be considered. There are also a great many areas of woodland full of old Oak trees that we should be protecting. Also, the loss of a large area of agricultural land and orchards with a growing population where is the food going to be grown if we start to demolish good agriculture land.
    Despite being reassured by the councillor that the environmental agency said it won’t flood. We have an underground stream which was discovered when our extension was built. So the foundations are not as deep as they should be. We have a drainage ditch that runs the length of Brampton Bank to help with excess water from the fields. When there is heavy rain you only have to drive passed and you will see the rain water gushing down the drives and the road floods down hill towards Five Oak Green. There are many ponds in the bluebell woods around here to help with the drainage. The land that they want to develop encompasses many ponds which are full most of the winter.
    Has carbon footprint of a new community with no direct transport links been considered? (an increased bus service? Maybe for the senior schools but not the commuters). No shops suggested for the new village and a 2mile drive to the nearest shop. No footpaths from Tudeley in either direction along the B2017 so it would be dangerous to walk. The environmental impact of a possible 4000 extra cars on the B2017 (Five Oak Green Road). The road already struggles to cope with the traffic and it is sometimes impossible to pull of our driveways along Brampton Bank in the morning and dangerous even though the road speed was reduced to 40mph. There are bus stops and it is hard to cross the road to access these in the mornings as it is. This road is also used when there are problems on the A21. It’s not just the noise of the extra traffic but the smell of exhaust when there is a traffic jam which happens often even now in the early mornings then when it gets to the Five Oak green bottle neck the village will suffer even more and the other direction there is always a traffic jam at the entrance to Sommer hill school, but it took nearly 30 years to sort the A21 so I feel very sceptical about any new roads being built. Most people travel Tonbridge or Maidstone, where are all these new commuters going to park? There is a 3year waiting list for Tonbridge Station Car park.

  5. Avatar for Council Administrator

    Mr and Mrs Lambert Brampton Bank

    Why so many homes? 6000 in Paddock wood and 2800 here in Tudeley. Tunbridge Wells borough has to build 13000 new homes but why 9000 in a 4 square mile radius? What about the rest of the district? There is also the development at Woodgate Way in Tonbridge only 2 miles away and no infrastructure in place to support this and a new development with a sudden and large increase in this area’s population. There is absolutely no infrastructure in place to support a community of this size. No new GP surgeries a suggested and a hint that the village school could cope with the extra children or be extended to do so, there isn’t room to build on the school site. There are no footpaths so the school run will be done by car, where will they park? The road is now reduced to a single carriage way at school time try adding a couple more thousand cars trying to get through! What with the new development in Tonbridge 2 miles away I doubt there will be space at Primary schools there either. We also do not have mains gas here, so a new gas pipeline coming from where? Where is the water for 2800 homes going to come from? Our own water supply is slow as we are at the end of the pipeline from Five Oak Green. Also the sewer pipes are only built for our small community are they planning to improve this before they build. With 9000 new homes is our local police force going to be able to cope? Is that new Tunbridge wells hospital going to cope?
    It is the destruction of a small and happy community and that of an area of outstanding natural beauty. Our wildlife, we are told, is on the decline. We have pheasants, owls, hawks and buzzards here. All can be seen and heard every day. We have a lot of insects, butterflies, crested newts and slow worms and even the occasional grass snake. We are told that the bird population is on the decline, but we have both red and green woodpeckers and many others in the gardens and a lot of bees. The loss of this wildlife that cant be replaced should be considered. There are also a great many areas of woodland full of old Oak trees that we should be protecting. Also, the loss of a large area of agricultural land and orchards with a growing population where is the food going to be grown if we start to demolish good agriculture land.
    Despite being reassured by the councillor that the environmental agency said it won’t flood. We have an underground stream which was discovered when our extension was built. So the foundations are not as deep as they should be. We have a drainage ditch that runs the length of Brampton Bank to help with excess water from the fields. When there is heavy rain you only have to drive passed and you will see the rain water gushing down the drives and the road floods down hill towards Five Oak Green. There are many ponds in the bluebell woods around here to help with the drainage. The land that they want to develop encompasses many ponds which are full most of the winter.
    Has carbon footprint of a new community with no direct transport links been considered? (an increased bus service? Maybe for the senior schools but not the commuters). No shops suggested for the new village and a 2mile drive to the nearest shop. No footpaths from Tudeley in either direction along the B2017 so it would be dangerous to walk. The environmental impact of a possible 4000 extra cars on the B2017 (Five Oak Green Road). The road already struggles to cope with the traffic and it is sometimes impossible to pull of our driveways along Brampton Bank in the morning and dangerous even though the road speed was reduced to 40mph. There are bus stops and it is hard to cross the road to access these in the mornings as it is. This road is also used when there are problems on the A21. It’s not just the noise of the extra traffic but the smell of exhaust when there is a traffic jam which happens often even now in the early mornings then when it gets to the Five Oak green bottle neck the village will suffer even more and the other direction there is always a traffic jam at the entrance to Sommer hill school, but it took nearly 30 years to sort the A21 so I feel very sceptical about any new roads being built. Most people travel Tonbridge or Maidstone, where are all these new commuters going to park? There is a 3year waiting list for Tonbridge Station Car park.

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