Additional reporting by Daisy Page
Around 70 protesters gathered for a second time to fight against plans to build a housing development on a town’s much-loved orchards.
Esquire Developments Ltd has put forward plans for 750 homes off Pump Lane in Rainham.
The company is looking to build on 126 acres of agricultural land, which would also see a nursery, shop, care home, community centre, and land for a primary and secondary school.
The previous application, which was first submitted in 2019, was for a 1,250-home development.
Medway Council refused the application in 2020 and successfully defended the decision at a planning appeal the following year.
However, much to the campaigners’ dismay, the authority – which has since moved from Tory to Labour control – included the land in its draft Local Plan. Published last month, this document marks the land for residential-led development.
A consultation was held at the town’s Oast community centre on July 21 and attracted around 40 protesters from the Stop Pump Lane Development campaign.
Another protest was held yesterday (July 31) at the community centre from 5pm to 6pm, with local MP Naushabah Khan in attendance.
Local resident Jo Sage says she has “many concerns” about the plans, explaining: “The site is wrong for that type of development.
“I recognise the need for new housing, but this is prime agricultural land. It’s a productive orchard.
“Orchards provide a really important and valuable habitat for a whole bunch of species, and once it’s lost, it’s lost forever. We’re never going to get those trees back.
“We’re already being overdeveloped in Rainham as it is.
“I think for the community, it’s the stress of anybody trying to get around on these rural roads – getting to school and into work.
“We don’t want the air quality to deteriorate still further in Medway. The quality of life for people would just be awful.”
Protester Phil Fisher, who also lives in the area, said: “I’m very much against the proposed development.
“Nothing has changed in the past four years. If anything, the situation has got worse locally because we’ve had so many more new build homes.
“The infrastructure locally can’t cope any more. It’s only right that this particular planning application is thrown out again.
“Our local hospital is under immense pressure generally, the infrastructure is so poor in my opinion that the Medway towns can’t afford to have a big population explosion.
“It would take the heart out of Rainham. We’re just becoming an extension of London.”
Former councillor Martin Potter, who is a member of the Against the Development of Pump Lane Orchards Committee, says it would cause “traffic mayhem” if approved.
He added: “We just can’t believe that the council has taken the decision it has to once again try and develop this site.
“It was such a strong and decisive rejection by the planned inspectorate, affirmed by the Secretary of State in 2021, and it just seems crazy that we’re back here again fighting it.
“We need to show the council and the planning inspector who will look at the local plan that this is not a sustainable site for development, particularly of this scale.
“If this development did go ahead, it would be the loss of a valued landscape and a loss of over 50 acres of productive orchards. It would lead to traffic mayhem.”
MP for Gillingham and Rainham, Naushabah Khan, also attended the protest due to having “serious concerns” about the proposed development
She said yesterday: “I’m a big supporter of developing new homes and I recognise the need, I also do support Medway having a local plan.
“My concerns are specifically with this site, which I don’t think should be included in that local plan because of the impact on the road infrastructure and some of the wider impacts on the environment.
“I’ve got serious concerns about development on this site, the impact it would have on this area, and what it means for the local infrastructure, so I’m here to support the protest.
“We’ve got to think very carefully about certain sites, and this particular site is one I cannot support.”
But council leader Vince Maple (Lab) is encouraging local residents to share their views.
He said: “It’s worth saying right off the bat, there’s no planning application that’s been submitted yet.
“The developer, as is often the case, is seeking the views of residents before they submit that planning application, so I’d encourage everybody to share their views.
“One of the big differences between when we had the previous planning application and what is currently being discussed is that we as a council had £170million of funding that was going to help with infrastructure on the Hoo Peninsula.
“That funding’s been taken away by the previous Conservative government, and therefore we’re looking in the new local plan, which is currently out for consultation, at having more housing spread across Medway – less on the Hoo Peninsula, but more across Medway.
“That’s meant some difficult choices, and of course, I absolutely respect everybody’s right to protest and right to share their views strongly.
“But from my perspective, I’d encourage viewers and those residents who live across Medway to share their views, both on this individual application when it finally comes in, but also on the wider local plan, which is out to consultation until August 11.”
An application for a proposal is to be submitted only after the adoption of Medway Council’s Local Plan, which is expected to happen late next year.
