Plans for a new housing estate on farmland have been sent back to the drawing board following fears some houses were being “segregated” from the rest.
An application for the 16 homes was submitted in October 2024 to Canterbury City Council (CCC) for land off Bullockstone Road, Herne Common, near Herne Bay.
The applicant behind the scheme, Adam Roake, said the estate, planned for near a new roundabout, would deliver much-needed housing for the area, including affordable housing.
Of the 16 homes planned, three are earmarked for affordable rent, and two for shared ownership.
CCC’s planning committee met in July to make the final call on the proposal, but raised some concerns.
In particular, they criticised the design, with all five affordable homes proposed to be clustered together, facing onto Canterbury Road.
“It does look very much like segregation and I believe that is in breach of our local plan,” said Cllr Ian Stockley (Con).
He argued that small development sites like this are preferable to huge estates, but that there should not be any “segregation” .
“We can’t put social housing in a ghetto with a fence round it and pretend it’s not there and stick it on the road, I don’t think that’s viable at all.
“This sort of development would help prevent the large scale development we see all over Herne Bay which are very troubling.
“This would be a much better development, apart from the ghettoisation aspect, and I think anybody who can’t see that really isn’t looking,” he added, proposing the development be refused on those grounds.
Cllr Dane Buckman (Lab) said the segregation would “make the people who live in there feel even more isolated”.
Other councillors raised fears over road safety, with Cllr David Thomas (Con) questioning whether the location of the estate and new roundabout would lead to “an accident waiting to happen”.
“Having people turn left off the roundabout and then a sharp right, it’s going to cause a major crash in my opinion,” he said.
Seven objections from members of the public were sent to CCC’s planning department over the planning application.
But, prior to the meeting, planning officers had recommended councillors approve the plans, with documents stating: “The site is currently used as an agricultural field and is largely surrounded by agricultural development.
“The site is designed to be low density at 15 dwellings per hectare and they’ve been orientated so they sit away from neighbouring dwellings.”
Adam Roake, the applicant, attended the meeting to speak in favour of the scheme, and said the goal of the development is to “repair [the] streetscape following the imposition of the roundabout which inevitably introduces a very urban element into the hamlet of Herne Common, and secondly to deliver much-needed housing including affordable housing”.
He described it as “a scheme which makes a positive contribution to the conservation area and to the streetscape, so as to reduce the urbanising effect of the new roundabout and restore some of the previous character of the hamlet”.
“I’m grateful to the officers for their help and encouragement in delivering a scheme that I think we can all be proud of,” he had added.
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The proposal to approve the plans was defeated by nine votes to three, and a second vote called on a deferral – asking the developer to look again at the plans before it comes back to the committee.
The motion for a deferral passed with nine votes to three.
