News

HAWKINGE EMPLOYMENT LAND BRIEF SPELLS ECONOMIC DISASTER FOR AREA

Swingfield Parish Council Chairman, Cllr. Colin Tearle is appalled at the contents of the Hawkinge Employment Land Brief and has placed it on this month's Swingfield Parish Council agenda because of the disastrous consequences which could affect the whole of the North Downs East area, should it be adopted unchanged.

Cllr Tearle told the Gazette: "If the brief is adopted unchanged by Shepway District Council it will put so many economic hurdles in the way of developers, so as to put off any plans they may have to develop the land.

"The District Council constantly pays lip service to economic regeneration for our rural towns and villages, yet they are consistently putting obstacles in the way of rural regeneration. This is all the more pertinent for this area where there is a dire need for some industrial infrastructure into an area with little to no jobs, that has been so massively over-developed with new homes.

"It is disgraceful in my view that our District Councillors have let us down by doing absolutely nothing about the brief and failing to understand how potentially damaging this would be to the area.

"The very least they could have done would have been to hold a public meeting, or failing that, distributing a newsletter to the electorate outlining the brief's implications."