Letter to Editor of Kentish Gazette

12.00.00am GMT Thu 7th Jan 2010

The city council has set out its vision for the future of the district in its Core Strategy Options Report. The council's strategy lacks imagination. At the moment, the council's strategy suggests building thousands of new houses on green field sites to the south of Canterbury, on land highlighted as an Area of High Landscape Value. If concreted over, this landscape will be lost forever. There will be other problems too - for example, it will make congestion around the city centre worse.

A much better option would be to develop Hersden, which has the largest brownfield site in the district. The former station at Chislet could be reopened, giving the expanded village access to the High Speed rail service as well as to local rail services, minimising the impact on the busy road network. Alongside housing, community facilities, such as shops, schools and a health centre, could be built or improved to the benefit of current and future residents.

The local development framework is the council's opportunity to plan strategically for the future. A new community at Hersden could be developed using sound social and environmental principles with appropriate infrastructure, providing a sustainable development for the 21st century. Unfortunately, the Conservatives seem to want to miss this opportunity and instead seem determined to add to congestion and destroy our environment. This policy is open for consultation from January 21 for six weeks. Please join me by engaging in this process to try to change the council's mind.

Guy Voizey