Otterpool Park Update: Council rename Otterpool – Tebbit Town – as everyone will be on their bike
Folkestone & Hythe District Council last night voted unanimously to change the name of the £2.9 billion Otterpool Park Garden Town to – Tebbit Town – as everyone is expected to get on their bike to move around the 750 hectare site.
But seriously, the Otterpool Park development has long since dealt in numbers which to many are unimaginable sums.
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£5.2 million to buy the Champney Land on Otterpool Lane in Dec 2015.
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£2.9m to purchase Westenhanger Castle in 2019
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£3.9m to buy various properties along the A20 between Newingreen and Sellindge.
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£25m to buy the Reuben Brothers racecourse.
Then there’s the Land Option Agreements with Jo Butcher at Haringe Farm, Sellindge with R Price & Sons at Barrow Hill Sellindge and M Owen of Berwick Manor Farm at Lypmne, the price for these are as yet unknown.
Folkestone & Hythe District Council pumped £1.1 million of equity into Otterpool Park LLP on the 2nd Feb 2021, according to their payment to suppliers data.
Otterpool Park LLP will act as the master developer for the project and as the planning applicant; amongst other roles. The LLP will facilitate the development of up to 10,000 homes on the Otterpool site rather than the Council. The LLP is controlled by FHDC as it owns the shares of the company.
We also understand the company has instigated a Dormouse survey in the woods which stand between the old Lympne airfied – owned by Homes England – and the back of Upper Otterpool.
Upper Otterpool Wood – Google My Maps
A Dormouse Survey is being undertaken here as the land around the area will have up to 10,000 homes on it between 2022 and 2040
Now for those of you who are not aware, the wood is approx 25 years old and sits on an old landfill site. It’s not known exactly what went into the landfill site by way of refuse, but we have been informed there is no intention in cutting down the woodland to put housing on it.
According to experts we’ve spoken to regarding the trees in the wood, they’ve made it clear they are not trees suited for phytoremediation.
Also on March 26th the Phase One consultation took place . However, it was NOT a consultation. In a response from a Otterpool Park LLP spokesperson they stated:
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The event on the 26th March 2021 is not a formal consultation of the type previously conducted by the council… It is simply an engagement exercise to provide the public with further information about Phase 1 of the development.
So why call it a consultation when it was nothing of the sort?
Anyway, at the two virtual public information events, all members of the panel were keen to stress residents walk or get “on your bike” to move around the massive 10,000 home housing estate, so we’ve renamed Otterpool Park – Tebbit Town – because the Tories love people getting on their bikes and it certainly works for Damian Collins MP.
The Shepway Vox Team
Journalism for the People NOT the Powerful
Had to check the calendar to see if it was April 1st. Keep up the good work
It would be good to see some real facts. For example what sort of profit will Otterpool llp make, how will this reduce future council tax for local people, what contribution towards the housing obligation imposed by the government?
The profit is said to be in the region of £193 million, without taking into account inflation. The Council have not yet stated how or if it will lower council tax. That is their stated ambition. It’s possible the housing number forced on council to build each year could rise from 730ish to over a thousand.
When Tebbit said about his dad getting on his bike, it was more about emphasising that he had a father, not that he was a bike owner!