Folkestone and Hythe District Council spent £4.4m on a failed developemnt

Leader of the authority, Jim Martin, joined The Kent Morning Show to talk about the findings.

Transcript

00:00Prince's Parade is a unique piece of land which has gone through various stages in its life.

00:11It is effectively a reclaimed beach, first and foremost. It was part of a defensive structure

00:19that was built for the defence of southern England against Napoleon, initially,

00:25hence the Royal Military Canal's position. Then in 1939, there was a huge storm which washed the

00:37road out and got in and created a large hole in the site. During the war, this wasn't repaired.

00:47During the 50s, well into the 60s actually, that hole was filled in as the town tip. It was a

00:58large hole where people just turned up and dumped all their rubbish. So the site is full of

01:04unsegregated contaminants. It's mainly household rubbish, but there's a whole host of other stuff

01:14that's gone in there. No, there was no records kept. And every single survey that's ever been

01:20done has turned up new stuff. So it's a real mix of contaminants. There's been various schemes over

01:31the years. There was a plan to turn it into a caravan park. Then there was a plan to excavate

01:40it all and turn it into a deep water marina in the 80s. And that got as far as a select committee

01:47at the House of Commons. There were other proposals for a fully flatted scheme. Then there was

01:54proposals to build a school on there. So this is really just the latest iteration that we've seen.

02:02150 beachfront homes and a leisure centre. Sadly, like all of the other schemes, the thing

02:14that has defeated the proposal is the presence of the contamination. And it's a very, very,

02:22very complex situation because it's not only the contamination, it's the presence of the sea

02:29and the effects of the tide on the contamination. You can cap the top of the contamination,

02:37you can cap the sides, but you can't cap the bottom. And every time the tide comes in

02:44and goes out, it puts upward pressure or downward pressure on those contaminants. So they're moving

02:52around within the site. And this is the major engineering problem, hence the expense.

03:02Morning, Jim. It's Gabriel here. So you're now in charge. You have got a large site on the seafront.

03:08Last time I was down there, I had the whiteboards, although I believe they were being taken off last

03:12I heard. But what's going to happen to the site now? What can happen to this land? You say it's

03:16contaminated. What would you like to see being put on that land, if anything at all?

03:22For sure. Well, it's very interesting, Gabriel. You're quite right. All of the white holdings

03:29have gone. They've all been moved up to be repurposed up at Otterpool. And the site has now

03:38been given an open palisade fence so people can see it again and see as the wildlife is returning

03:48to it. People can enjoy the site. On the graphic that you're showing there, you can see the white

03:56line. That's the holdings that were up there. Now, we just concluded a consultation, an online

04:06consultation or public engagement, we're calling it. Now, this was really just to canvas local

04:13people's views about what what they feel should happen to the site. I know this is an unusual

04:21thing for a politician to do, to actually ask local people what should happen. But that's what

04:28I intend to do. So over the next few weeks, there'll be face to face consultation held locally,

04:38likely, I would guess, to be in Hyde Town Hall. And we will be presenting what we have as the

04:47most popular suggestions for the site. Now, we've got something like 2000 responses. Now, if the

04:58majority of those want to see, you know, the site developed, we'll go down that road. But

05:06my feeling is, is that most people will want to see the play equipment renewed. They would like

05:14to see more public access across the site, maybe an east to west footpath. They will want to see

05:22greater protection for the badgers that live there. They will like to see greater protection for

05:29all of the invertebrates. At the moment, Princess Parade is a really, really important place

05:36for migrating birds. It's like a service station for the birds that cross the channel.

05:43It's a very, very important site.