00:00Helen Waitley, thank you very much for joining us on the Kent Morning Show. It's good to
00:04have you on. First of all, can you just explain to me why you've been objecting to this development?
00:10I've been objecting to the Highstead Park developments because it's so huge. So it's
00:168,400 new homes coming to my constituency. That will be around 20,000 people moving into
00:25the area over the next 10, 20 years. And that's on the back of multiple other developments
00:31also coming to my constituency. There's one called Heathlands just near Lennon, which
00:35is thousands of homes. Lidsing, Winterbourne View, potentially the Duchy near Faversham.
00:40So that will increase the population by possibly even as much as 40,000 people out of 80,000
00:46people or so constituency. That's an extra 50% the number of people living in the area
00:52that I represent. And that will just have a huge, huge impact, an impact on the character
00:59of the area, which is rural, which is agricultural, which is countryside, an impact on the infrastructure
01:05on the roads, so much traffic we can expect, an impact on public services. It's going to
01:11make a huge difference. And my constituents are very, very unhappy about this development.
01:19Well, I think you can guess what the argument opposing it would be is that the country is
01:24in need of more houses. What's your sort of response to that? People would say as well,
01:29this would help the council meet its local plan targets as well.
01:34So I recognise the need for more housing, but already many hundreds and thousands of
01:40homes, new homes have been built in my constituency over recent years. We've had lots of new developments.
01:48So it doesn't seem to make sense to just build more and more on the wonderful agricultural
01:53land that we have in this area, which actually is a very precious and it is scarce resource
01:59around the country. What I would like to see is more homes being built in the urban areas
02:06of the country, places that are already towns or cities like London, that are brownfield
02:11sites, that are opportunities to build at greater density and still have really high
02:15quality housing to make our cities more like a city like Paris, which is much denser than
02:20London, for instance. So that's where we should be building, not in the countryside, not on greenfields.
02:25We've been hearing from a lot of business owners in the area who say that they're crying
02:30out for this development and that they need new homes in the area. I'm just wondering,
02:34what have you heard? Have you been speaking with your constituents on the matter?
02:38I've had many conversations with my constituents and I've been doing meetings around the area
02:44that I'm newly elected to represent between Favresham and Sittingbourne and the number
02:51one topic in those meetings I've been having, often in local pubs and cafes, has been high
02:56stead and how desperately people don't want to have that development on their doorsteps.
03:03We know the inquiry is obviously set to take place this week. It's going to be beginning.
03:08Lots of people criticising it, saying that it's a waste of money for the council to have
03:11to go along to it and sort of defend itself, defend its decision. What's your take on that?
03:17Yeah, I mean, it's hugely expensive for local councils to hire the legal representatives and
03:22take part in this kind of inquiry. I mean, one of the things that I'm really unhappy about is
03:28that this decision was taken away from our local council. So literally within hours of the planning
03:36meeting, where I know that local councils were going to decide against the development,
03:43the MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey wrote and got the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner to
03:51call in the planning decision. So that means that instead of it being decided locally,
03:56it's being decided nationally, which means that local people don't get a say. And I think it's
04:02imperative and it's that we do get a say. It's one reason why I'm supporting some of the fabulous
04:08campaign groups who are opposing this development. We really want the planning inspector and indeed
04:13the Deputy Prime Minister to listen to local people.
04:16Well, I think we've heard from Quinn Developments, as well as I know the Football Club,
04:20for example, who are set to benefit from it, say that they would have appealed against the decision
04:25anyway. So is it, you know, regardless of sort of the MP and the infighting and the,
04:30you know, this party says this, this party says that, we would have maybe ended up in this
04:33situation regardless. So I wonder, when the government says that there is a lot of red
04:38tape around planning and it wants to kind of get rid of some of these barriers, is there a sense
04:42that there is a lot of bureaucracy around it? Well, I mean, you called it infighting. I think
04:48it's a really important job of a Member of Parliament to represent their constituents.
04:55That's what we are elected to do. And my constituents are very, very unhappy about this
05:02development. So I actually think it's really important that I speak up for them.
05:07And that's what a Member of Parliament, yeah, that's what a Member of Parliament should do.
05:12You mentioned, of course, that the developer is keen on the development. Well, that's no surprise.
05:17And I know that, as you mentioned, the Football Club is because they could get a new ground out
05:21of it, which, I mean, fabulous to have new football facilities, but that's not a good enough
05:26reason to build thousands and thousands of homes on our countryside in an area which
05:34doesn't have the infrastructure to support it. And while I know the developer says they're going
05:38to invest in infrastructure, we know that so often those promises are made in the planning stage,
05:44and developers just don't get on them. And the worst of all worlds is what we could end up with,
05:49which is new housing development, basically housing estate just in the middle of nowhere,
05:54very poorly connected, with people living isolated, totally reliant on cars to get around,
06:01instead of blocking up the local roads, putting extra pressure on public services
06:05and destroying what is at the moment lovely countryside and important agricultural land.
06:10Yeah, it's interesting what you mentioned about parking there. I wanted to, sorry,
06:12traffic there. I wanted to come on to that because part of the development, I know it's
06:16quite a big one, as you mentioned, is to introduce this new relief road. People would
06:20say that that would free up some of the roads and lessen traffic.
06:27Well, I support, in general, investment in infrastructure, including in local roads. That's
06:32really important. But that doesn't make it worthwhile building a whole new development
06:39of this kind of scale, over 8,000 new houses. That could be like 20,000 more people in the
06:45area. That's a town the size of Faversham. So if we do get the relief road out of it,
06:50I don't think, you know, that doesn't make it worthwhile. And then the big question is,
06:55when would that actually be built? And would it actually come good? Because so often,
07:01developers say they'll build infrastructure and then it doesn't happen in practice.
07:04Well, lots still to discuss as the inquiry begins this week.
07:08Helen Waitley, thank you very much for joining us today.
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