00:00Kent is known as the Garden of England, and it isn't hard to see why.
00:04Rolling hills, winding roads and acres of green space, but one village in the heart
00:09of the county say they're worried because of housing development in the area.
00:13Now this is normal, with rising housing targets across the country, it's not exactly rare
00:17to hear about this, but for the small village of Hadlow, they've had multiple developments
00:21be submitted, and with a new application for 116 homes being raised, locals say it would
00:27be too much for the village to handle.
00:29I called a public meeting along with some other people in August this year because
00:33we heard about a planning application up Carpenters Lane in Hadlow for 100 houses, and we knew
00:39other ones were coming.
00:41So we had a public meeting and from there we formed a group called Home, Hadlow opposes mass
00:46expansion because we are in line for roughly 500 houses in this village, and we don't have
00:53the infrastructure.
00:54Now, Hadlow isn't exactly a large village.
00:57It's got a population of about 4,000, and with that, residents say that services aren't
01:02especially good as well, with only the one primary school, one secondary school, and also,
01:07the traffic is quite concerning.
01:08It's just about 3pm now, and you can hear some of those commuters actually behind me, and
01:13you can see the traffic is quite severe, and locals worry that with these extra homes that
01:19they've totalled up over different planning applications to be about 500, that all this
01:24would get a lot worse.
01:25This is, you know, 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
01:28If you were to come here 3 or 4 hours later, you wouldn't be able to move.
01:32It's pretty locked.
01:33And the limited amount of parking there is in the square.
01:36So, instead of people walking from various parts of the village, which is sustainable, they have
01:44to use a car to come a long way, and then they find there's nowhere to park.
01:49The application does take parking into account, with a community car park being part of the
01:53plans.
01:54But locals with HOME added they thought the site was too far away from the village to be
01:58effective.
01:59The largest two developments are the most recent on Court Lane in the south of the village
02:02with 116 homes, and another for 100 homes in the Greenbelt by Carpenters Lane.
02:08And the company's responsible responded to the residents' concerns, saying requests
02:12for financial contributions towards infrastructure will be made by consultees.
02:16These will include health, education, leisure and open space.
02:19And Red Row Homes, working on the Court Lane development, say they've been working
02:23closely with the Local Planning Authority, Highways Authority and the Housing Officer to update
02:27our proposal following the consultation period, ensuring it aligns with the draft local plan
02:32and the needs of the local community.
02:34Kent has plenty of countryside and Hadlow is no different, but locals will hope that if
02:39the 116 home development does pass, that it will fit the village rather than fill it beyond
02:45what it can handle.
02:46Finn McDermid for KMTV in Hadlow.
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