Locals say 116 home development will hurt small Tonbridge village

KentOnline / KMTV

The village of Hadlow could potentially have up to 500 more homes according to locals, which they say would put pressure on already strained locals services.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

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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