Against Lidsing Garden Development (ALGD) was formed in December 2020 following the discovery that Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) proposed to include a ‘Garden Community’ at Lidsing comprising of 2000+ houses in their emerging Local Plan.
ALGD is a sub-committee of Bredhurst Parish Council (BPC) and is made up of BPC Cllrs working together with residents from Hempstead, Lordswood and Rainham.
Lidsing is a hamlet of 13 houses adjacent to Hempstead, Lordswood and Bredhurst and is accessed by rural country roads. The proposed development area comprises 127 hectares of predominantly agricultural land (Grade 3) and lies within the jurisdiction of MBC at its furthest northern boundary with Medway Council. The main access road to the proposed development is a new spur road to Junction 4 of the M2 which is to be built on farmland in Bredhurst which is in the AONB. The spur road would need to be elevated significantly causing an even greater impact on the AONB with light and noise pollution. Council tax will go to MBC, but all services and facilities will be provided by Medway Council who strongly oppose the scheme.
The first public consultation (Regulation 18b) was held in Dec 20/ Jan 21. 1700 objections were made to MBC specifically on the Lidsing Garden Development. In its formal response to MBC, Medway Council strongly objected to the Lidsing Garden Community due to the impacts on transport, the environment, sustainability, green and social infrastructure, risk of settlement coalescence, landscape impact and harm to Purple Hill SSSI and the Kent Downs AONB.
In October 2021, despite the 1700 objections, MBC Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Committee (SPIC) voted to proceed with the draft Local Plan and referred it to a Full Council Meeting. They approved the Local Plan 26-23 votes.
The second public consultation (Regulation 19) ran for 6 weeks until 12th December 2021. Further changes were made to the proposal, for example, the primary school was relocated within the site to land owned by the proposer of the development, Kevin Attwood, because Medway Council would not let their land be used and objected to the Lidsing proposal in its entirety. There were 2260 submissions with a large majority of approximately 1000 objections relating to Lidsing Garden Community. The remaining were split between other proposed sites within the plan.
In March 2022, despite being presented with a 3500-signature petition urging MBC to remove Lidsing from the plan, the SPIC voted to submit their draft Local Plan to an independent Government Inspector who will assess the plan for ‘soundness’ and ‘deliverability’ at an Examination in Public, probably to be held in Autumn 22.
ALGD are now fundraising to hire experts to continue the fight! Please donate and share.
Cheques, payable to Bredhurst Parish Council, may also be sent to
Steve Hill, BPC Clerk, C/O Englefield, Dunn Street, Bredhurst, Gillingham, Kent. ME7 3LY. Please enclose your name and address.
Funds will be ringfenced and administered by Bredhurst Parish Council.
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