Otterpool Park Update: Some flesh on the bones.

EXCLUSIVE – updated 17:00

The joint developers of the Otterpool Park master-plan – Folkestone & Hythe District Council & Cozumel Estates BVI – submitted their planning application to the local planning authority on the 28th Feb 2019. It has now been validated as an application and will according to Julia Wallace (pictured) the Otterpool Park Garden Town Project Manager, go live on the Council website next week.

The planning application runs to 11,000 pages. It is possibly the largest planning  application the planning department have ever had to deal with. Instead of a six week consultation as was previously announced, it will now become a ten week consultation, due in the main to the applications size.

Katie Perrior, former Downing Street comms director who quit in April 2017 after Theresa May called the snap General Election, now head of PR agency iNHouse Communications is currently at MIPIM Cannes, the world’s leading property event, pimping Otterpool Park. Katie is there on behalf of several clients and she does not want to miss the opportunity to talk to anyone and everyone about the exciting developments at Otterpool Park.

According to Inside Housing, a document released yesterday at the international property event MIPIM in Cannes, the Department for International Trade (DIT) revealed a portfolio of housing schemes seeking private investment which include investment opportunities for the £2.8bn Otterpool Park in Folkestone, Kent, which has plans to build more than 10,000 new homes.

Inside Housing report by Jack Simpson (15/03/19)

Below is an illustrative map which forms part of the planning application. It is illustrative, as it is still open to change due to comments which may be received during the extended consultation.

We have always known that Otterpool Park will be built out in phases over a number of years, and that phase 1A, the phase closest to the station will go first. The map below show that phase 1B will happen on Council land and phase 1C on Council land where they have an agreement.

As you can see approximately 50% of the whole development will be green open space and that doesn’t include gardens belonging to any of the houses. That is up from the 40% initially set out. Also 28% – 2380 of the properties to be built out will be flats and 72% – 6120 will be houses. Of the 8,500 to be built out across the eight phases 1725 of them will be ‘affordable‘ and 657 homes will be for extra care/retirement/supported living.

The Otterpool Park housing strategy ie the breakdown of what percentages and numbers will be built can be seen below. The numbers for each phase at this moment is not known, but it is clear it will be a building plot for many years to come.

There will be five new primary schools built out over the eight phases. However it is not known yet whether Otterpool Park will have one or two secondary schools.

The health proposals – and note the word as nothing is finalised regarding health – make it clear that health care facilities will be phased, meaning that existsing services initially will be stretched even further than now.

Of course employment has always been key and phase 2C is when the employment area will be built out. It’s anticipated that Otterppol Park will over time create/generate up to 9,000 jobs.

One of the key issues for Otterpool Park will be water. As climate change becomes ever more present in our lives this natural and vital resource could potentially make or break the scale of the development. The planners have, so they believe, resolved the issue for water and their strategy to mitigate the consequence of water are as the map below:

Now whether or not the orange arrows which represent water flow will work in ever more extreme weather climate is yet to be discovered. Only time will tell.

The aim of the design for Otterpool Park is to make your home no more than 10 minutes walk to any of the given services. The plans encourage a heritage trail across the site, highlighting the Roman Villa, Westenhanger Castle whose history began almost 1,000 years ago, in 1035, when King Canute owned the estate, and the Bronze age Barrow at Barrowhill to name but a few features.

We said a in Nov 2016, the Reuben Brothers are not ones for buying a Pig in a Poke . It would look like the effort of all those involved has now finally come to fruition. Yes it will go to consultation, so things may well change but not significantly according to the planners.

We understand there will be a further rally opposing Otterpool Park on Saturday April 27th 2019, details where and what time will follow. It’s not done and dusted, as nothing is over until the ‘fat lady sings’ as they say.

There will be more flesh on the bones of Otterpool Park next week, when the planning application goes live. When it does, you can be sure that we’ll bring you another Otterpool Park update.

The Shepwayvox Team

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