Planning Application Coming Soon For Old Silver Spring Site Folkestone.

Proposals are expected to come forward for a planning application of the 3.8 hectare (9.39 acres) for the former Silver Spring site, in the near future. The land is owned by Ravensbourne Gateway Limited.  The price stated to have been paid on the 8th Oct 2014, was £5,428,000 according to land registry documents. The site is nestled in the heart of the Park Farm Industrial Estate, Folkestone Kent, and has laid abandoned, after demolition, for nigh on three years.

Ravensbourne Gateway Ltd person of significant control is Mr Adrian Kirby; who is a convicted criminal. Shepway District Council paid Mr Kirby (pictured) £1.5 million for the contaminated land at Biggins Wood Cheriton in Dec 2016. He owns Ravensbourne Gateway Ltd, via his company based in Luxembourg, a known tax haven called Ravensbourne Holding SARL. The only name attached to any documents we have seen are Mr Adrian Kirby’s (see below). The address (not the company) where Ravensbourne Holding SARL is registered turns up in the Panama Papers. The address for the other company mentioned in the document below, Atlantic Investments Ltd, shares the same address as HSBC which is in the Panama Papers, on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific; which everyone locally now calls the Crook Islands

Mr Kirby lives 10,500 miles away in Verbier, Switzerland and was mentioned in the Swiss Leaks documents in The Guardian with the title of: Part 5: Unsavoury Clients

Shepway District Council have worked “closely” with the owner; and have indicated that proposals are expected to come forward for this site via a planning application in the near future as we said. Infrastructure requirements have been identified in the emerging policy formation which has been undertaken.

The emerging Places & Policies Local Plan Preferred Options proposes mix use development, including business (B1), leisure (D), selective retail (A1) and hotel (C1) uses for the site.

The site apparently offers the potential, alongside other sites, to address the shortage of good quality office space in Folkestone which has been identified as an issue in the recent Shepway Employment Land Review

Shepway District Council Constitution does not allow the Overview & Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise Individual decisions, relating to planning applications.

Shepway District Council Planning & Licensing Committee have rights as Cllrs to access information that we as member of the public do not have. However, that said they cannot go on “fishing expeditions”.

When taking/making any decision Cllrs must not allow their personal prejudice to influence their decision. Nor can they take a word in their shell like into consideration. Cllrs must be objective and honest and any reasons they give for, or against, must be objective and adequate. We just hope they will ask for as much information as they are allowed, enabling them to make an informed decision, when the planning application appears on the agenda. After all, the application will belong to an “unsavoury client“, who is a convicted criminal.

The Shepwayvox Team

There are legitimate uses for offshore companies and trusts. We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities included in this blogpost have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly, unless found so by a court of law.