A huge 450-home development planned for Kent farmland is set to go ahead - despite 800 objections calling for the proposals to be thrown out. The application to build homes, a children’s nursery, and a retail unit on Gibraltar Farm, Ham Lane in Hempstead has been in the pipeline for three years. Council officers have now recommended approval for outline planning permission for the nearly 30 hectare site.
But the number of objections mean councillors will to make a final decision on the application. And conditions, including that a quarter of the new houses must be delivered as affordable homes, the provision of a nursery, and £5.6 million must be made in contributions to local infrastructure, have all been attached.
If approved, the money will go towards mitigating the impacts of the development on local services. This includes providing funding to school provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, youth services programmes, waste collection, walk and cycle paths and roads, and public realm improvements in Gillingham and Rainham town centres. Some of the funding will also go towards offsetting the environmental impacts of the development, including 20 dormouse boxes, 24 bat boxes, 24 bird boxes, and 20 invertebrate habitats.
Additionally, 75% of buildings with integrated bee bricks, which allow bees to build nests within them, and 149 roosting and nesting features on buildings for bats and birds. Other conditions for the proposals include creati.