A chunk of Thanet’s Green Wedge has been spared with the decision to refuse permission for a 74-unit housing estate on the edge of Broadstairs.

Developer Land Allocation Ltd, from Hull, had chosen to ignore Thanet District Council’s long-standing Green Wedge policy, which aims to keep open countryside between the three main towns of Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs, and build on farmland at the junction of Reading Street and Convent Road.

The council’s decision notice said the planned development would mean the “irreversible loss” of Green Wedge and “best and most versatile” farmland. It also referred to the cramped nature of the proposal, additional traffic and increased recreational pressure on the Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay Special Protection Area and Sandwich Bay and Hacklinge Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest.

The site was not allocated for development in the Local Plan.

Jenny Matterface, speaking for Fight the Reading Street Road Development, said: “They [local people] felt very strongly about this because if the Reading Street part of the field was to go with the 74 homes, they could see the next area which would go.

“People also felt incredibly strongly about the loss of prime agricultural land.”        

Thursday, March 10, 2022