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District councillor David Godfrey has alerted Shepway planners that plots of land without planning permission, off Gibraltar Lane in Hawkinge are being offered for sale by a land dealing company.

A plan in their brochure of an area, named Churchill Views is shown as having over 120 marked out plots for sale.

The sellers quote the following excerpt from the Shepway District Council Adopted Local Plan: 'Outside the urban area most villages have a limited range of local facilities to serve new development. This together with their rural location generally makes them inappropriate places for substantial new development. However, Hawkinge is close to the main urban area of Folkestone and is identified in the Kent Structure Plan as a new development node for housing and employment development (Strategic Site Policy EK3). It also has the best range of facilities and services outside the urban areas and the Marsh towns. For these reasons, and having regard to the development needs of the District, the District Planning Authority considers that sites at Hawkinge are the most sustainable option, along with sites within and on the edge of the urban area.'

The company have however made their position clear by stating that they are land dealers and claim no specialist knowledge or expertise as to the future prices of land and the likelihood of land being reclassified.

They say they do not offer advice or speculate as to predicted land rises and that historical rises in the value of land are not a reliable guide to the future price of land.

Whilst they say, it is reasonable to predict that some greenbelt land will be reclassified in the future, it provides no guidelines or guarantees that land sold by the company will be of this type and no return can be guaranteed.

After being notified of the scheme district councillor David Godfrey spoke to the planning department at Shepway District Council who confirmed that they agreed with his concerns that this is not only misleading for investors but also that this land could be sold off as leisure plots with small areas fenced in. The Council planning department will investigate what, if any, preventative measures might be taken."

Councillor Godfrey said: "This is a case of “buyer beware”. There is no planning permission and the use of quotes from Kent County Council, Shepway District Council and the Government appearing to support the scheme could be misleading.

"The "Gibraltar Avenue” avenue shown on the company’s site plan seems to be a figment of someone's imagination.”

Full details can be found by clicking here  http://www.tpdl.co.uk/.