MINUTES

29 August 2003
Dunkeld House, Leslie Road, Birchington

2. Also present: Mr Clayson.

3. Apologies: were received from Dr Cohen, Mr Luck, Mrs Randall and Miss Westgarth.

4. Minutes of the last meeting: Minutes for the previous meeting were accepted as a true and accurate record.

5. Matters arising: Mr Mairs informed the meeting that the AGM on 26 September would be held in the television room of The Royal Temple Yacht Club in Ramsgate at 8 pm. The bar would be open if those present chose to socialise after the meeting. The cost of hiring the room would be £10, which would be met by CPRE Kent.

With regard to a public meeting, Mr Vilette said he would speak to Diane Pound, who had worked with English Nature on such matters. The main theme of the meeting would be to strengthen opposition to the idea of 1,000 houses on greenfield land at Westwood and to encourage those who had already made relevant representation to the Thanet Local Plan to persevere with their cause.

It was asked if CPRE had objected to this plan, and under whose name, ie the previous chairman’s or CPRE’s. Mr Mairs said he would seek to clarify the matter. Dr Neden asked if Colin Fitt, a Thanet District Council planning officer, could provide a list of people who had objected to the Westwood housing development. Mr Mairs said he thought this unlikely but would attempt to find out.

There was also concern among members about the possible idea within the local plan of a Minster lorry park, while Dr Quested suggested that Mr Fitt be asked about the percentage of brownfield building within the plan. It was believed that a target of 60 per cent brownfield was the general target – was this actually incorporated in the plan?

Mr Clayson said that the whole procedure relating to local plans had changed. The Inspector was now more of a negotiator, he told the meeting. Mr Vilette concurred, saying that it was an attitude of ‘let’s sit down and discuss’ or ‘consensus building’.

Talking again specifically about the Westwood housing plan, Mr Vilette said that the idea behind it was that the anticipated incoming Pfizer employees would not wish to mix with ‘Thanet types’ and would choose instead to live in a separate community, ie Westwood.

Mr Clayson agreed, saying that the mooted Westwood/Pfizer ‘regeneration’ would not benefit Thanet at all. Nevertheless, if the battle against the Westwood development was lost, CPRE should still be fighting to ensure that adequate amenity land, shops, schools and transport infrastructure should be included. He continued by saying that a terrible thing was ‘absentee landlord syndrome’, and Westwood would just be a step along from that, where the only thing that its residents contributed to the rest of Thanet was council tax

Mr Mairs mentioned the problem of jet-skis around the Thanet coastline that seemed to flagrantly break any supposed by-laws relating to where they were permitted. Members weren’t sure whether the matter fell within the CPRE remit, so Mr Mairs said he would check with CPRE Kent on the matter.

6. Planning issues: It was pointed out that Bernard Baldwin had resumed tipping waste over the cliff at Pegwell in defiance of a planning order. Only recently, six loads of topsoil, one of chalk and one of road scrapings had gone over the edge – it was thought that the chalk came from the Castle Keep site in Kingsgate. Mr Baldwin is apparently proprietor of Thanet Waste.

Mrs Randall told the meeting that she was still pursuing her objection to the siting of a telecommunications mast at Pegwell.

INDEX