Local Plan – Have your say, protect our green belt

TMBC stylised map

A message from Ightham Parish Council to our Parishioners

HAVE YOUR SAY – PROTECT OUR GREEN BELT

Local Plan Consultation – Deadline 3rd November 2022

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council’s (TMBC) new Local Plan will shape our communities until 2040. The requirement from Government is to plan for 15,941 new homes within the boundaries of Tonbridge and Malling during this time. No sites have yet been committed in developing this new Local Plan. First, TMBC are asking you – through their consultation – for your thoughts on the principles that should determine where these homes should be built.

There are a number of sites in Ightham, as well as the larger Borough Green Gardens site (3000+ dwellings) in Borough Green, which TMBC are being asked to consider. Please see overleaf.

View of Ightham Parish Council – The villages of Ightham and Ivy Hatch sit within the Metropolitan Green Belt (MGB) and the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). The purpose of the MGB is to protect the countryside and prevent urban sprawl. Many of the developments would see loss of the Green Belt. We believe the Green Belt should be protected, as should the individual identity of our villages. We shall be responding as a Parish Council on this basis.

We urge you to respond in order to protect our MGB and AONB. The number of responses will have an impact on TMBC’s decision making as well as our ability to challenge the final version of the Local Plan if necessary.

You can view the Local Plan on the TMBC website. Click on ‘The Local Plan (Regulation 18)’.

You can take part in the consultation on the TMBC Local Plan website. Click on ‘Take part in Regulation 18 consultation’ then ‘Read and comment on the Local Plan’

OR You can email TMBC with your comments on localplan@tmbc.gov.uk

You may wish to consider how some of these proposed developments could impact our villages:

Loss of the Metropolitan Green Belt
Harmful development in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty
Increased traffic through the village of Ightham, on the A227, the A25 and on country lanes
Loss of the ‘green wedge’ between Ightham and Borough Green
Impact of overdevelopment on our historic village
How Ightham and Borough Green will be adversely impacted should the hugely disproportionate development of Borough Green Gardens go ahead.

The consultation questionnaire is very long. There are 50 questions. You do not need to answer them all.

If you want to comment on specific sites go to ‘Appendix B: list of sites’ at the LH top of the Consultation and after viewing the sites, make your comments at the bottom of the page. You MUST INCLUDE THE SITE NUMBER in your response.

Another way to view the sites is on the TMBC Local Plan home page. Click on ‘List of potential sites by site reference’.

If emailing a written response, you must make your points very clearly so that they can be data captured and when commenting on the sites under consideration, you MUST INCLUDE THE SITE NUMBER.

Borough Councillor Robin Betts can be contacted on 07971 289256 or at betts.tmbc@gmail.com He is happy to help with this consultation process.

Further information about the campaign to stop the Borough Green Gardens development can be found on the Borough Green website.