Whitfield Action Group

	Our Mission
	Who We Are
	Contact Us
	Downloads

What The Plans Are

Thousands of new houses are proposed to be built on the beautiful Greenfield sites around Whitfield.

No to Whitfield New Town !!! – Plans for 6,000 new homes revealed….

November 2007.

Building 2,024 new homes in Whitfield was the key part of the July 2006 Preferred Option for 10,000 new homes in Dover District over the next 20 years. DDC are now considering 4,000 extra homes – all to be built at Whitfield!

The Panel report of the Draft South East Plan has recommended an increased allocation of 8,100 with the majority held back until the latter stages of the Plan period. Although this is more than Whitfield Action Group would have liked, it is broadly supported as a maximum number by most of the District’s Town and Parish Councils, KCC, SEERA, SEEDA and CPRE.

Scenes like this will disappear from around Whitfield

The latest news from DDC’s Local Development Framework Group is that DDC want to carry on regardless with its initial plan for 10,000 throughout the District and to explore plans for 14,000! All this is based on dubious interpretation of demographic statistics and vague predictions of job creation with no actual details.

The latest draft of the Council’s Core Strategy shows that if this option is agreed, 6,000 of these new homes would be built at Whitfield. The Village will become a town more than 4 times its present size. Dwellings will increase from 1,806 to 7,806 - Population from 4,438 to 19,182 - Cars from 2,353 to 10,175. Whitfield will be nearly two and a half times the size of Sandwich !

The only support DDC have is from landowners, developers, consultants and Chamber of Commerce, all with an eye on the profits to be made. They will not have to live with the consequences.

The Core Strategy put before the Council’s LDF committee is devoid of any detail on the requirements for improvements to local infrastructure, utilities and community services and it ignores local opinion.

Meetings of the LDF and full council will discuss these latest proposals over the next 3 months. The preferred option of the Council will go forward for a 6 week Public Consultation period in March 2008.

Whitfield Action Group urges Dover District Council not to commit to increased housing development. We will monitor the process and oppose any such plans.

The July 2006 Preferred Option to more than double the size of Whitfield will require 1,790 homes will be built on land on the open countryside adjacent to Newlands, Archers Court Road, Cranleigh Drive, Farncombe Way, Beauxfield, Napchester Road, The Drove and Sandwich Road. Other areas in Whitfield to be built on are at Old Park , on the ESSO Filling Station site, on the Guilford Avenue play area and Brownie Hall site and on land at the Royal Oak pub.

Land Owners and Developers are also pursuing separate plans for 200 plus houses to the West of the Village in the Singledge Lane / Lenacre area. The houses here would be classed as 'Windfall' development and will be in addition to the 2,024 under the Dover District Council preferred option.

We have no information where the proposed 4,000 extra homes would be built.

Whitfield Action Group believes that large-scale development of Whitfield is unacceptable. A survey of the village showed overwhelming opposition to any more than 300 new homes in Whitfield. The results showed that Whitfield’s residents were against any Greenfield development and that they want Whitfield to remain a Village, not to be included in ‘Urban Dover’.

High-density housing and growth of this scale will bring with it a range of social, economical and environmental issues. House values will be dramatically reduced and the area will be disrupted by a possible 20 year building program.

Whitfield Action Group believes that Dover District Council plans for the District as a whole are ill-conceived and foolish.

Whitfield Action Group - fighting for the community