Otterpool Park Update:

In early December 2018 we informed you the Folkestone & Hythe District Council purchased The Willows within the Otterpool Park Boundary, on the A20 between Barrow Hill Sellindge and Newingreen. They paid £500,000 for the property.

On the 5th February 2019,  FHDC purchased the Craylands property on the same stretch of A20 for £755,000, according to the Land Registry. See map below

We also know that the Council are in the process of purchasing two further properties, according to the Land Registry. They are Red Barn Farm and Quorum both on the A20 between Sellindge & Newingreen. These two properties are as we said in the process of being purchased so the price is not presently known, but it will be in the not to distant future become available on the land registry.

Properties purchased or being purchased by Folkestone &Hythe District Council – Google My Maps

Properties bought in Otterpool Boundary by F &HDC

We know that more properties will be purchased by the Council.

The developers (Cozumel Estates & The Council) will submit their planning application to the planning department for registration. However, the application must be checked by the planning department to see if it is a valid registration. This will take some time as it is a large planning application and there is much to go through. If it is validated, then and only then it will become visible on the Council’s website, not before.

Here is the notice under Article 13 of Application for Planning Permission for Otterpool Park published in a local newspaper this week (25th Feb – 1st March 2019)

Over the next few years land between  Sellindge and Otterpool Park will become a continuous building zone where housing will be built as per the map below.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) has published its Draft Core Strategy 2019 for consultation. The draft strategy shows where the Council plans to build future housing developments across the district, up to 2037. Read about it at:

• folkestone-hythe.gov.uk/Core-strategy-review-2019

There are links to view the draft strategy and also how to comment upon it.

The main document is a daunting 182 pages long, but zero in on the following pages for this area:- Policy CSD9 for Sellindge runs from pages 152 to 159 with development east and west of the current development being built by Taylor Wimpey. Policies SS6 and SS7 describe a great deal about the proposed Otterpool development, from Westenhanger and Newingreen across to Barrow Hill. Pages 82 to 101 will tell you everything, and more still about the future of Sellindge.

You can see from the map (above) that there are a number of sites within Sellindge that FHDC considers suitable for major housing developments. There are sites where houses are already under construction, others which may soon be developed and more sites earmarked for future development. These sites total more than 200 acres and the developments would rob the village of the open green fields that give Sellindge its attractive rural character.

The potential housing developments shown would be in addition to the 10,000 houses proposed at the new ‘Garden Town’ at Otterpool Park.

We were assured by our District Councillors and planners that the creation of the new town at Otterpool Park would spare Sellindge from other ‘piecemeal’ developments in or around the village. This draft strategy now shows where FHDC would intend to build extra piecemeal developments in Sellindge.

You need to express any concerns that you might have about FHDC’s Draft Core Strategy before 10th March 2019. This can be done via the above website or email the Council at

• planning.policy@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

and ask for a printed form.

You may prefer to send an email saying in your own words what issues you think that the draft strategy has not addressed properly. These might include any of the following:

• Lack of proper consultation prior to major decisions that will affect our communities.

• Insufficient time given to local communities to study the draft strategy and respond.

• Ashford, Canterbury, Thanet and Dover are planning for 34,000 new houses.

• Hospitals and GP practices can barely cope with existing population.

• Unrealistic projections of water supply and consumption (90 litres per person per day).

If the Draft Core Strategy is approved, these extra housing developments in Sellindge would be hard to oppose later and would change our way of life forever. You need to act now!

The Shepwayvox Team

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