The Harbour Plan: Economic, Environmental & Social roles in Sustainable Development

The Folkestone Harbour & Seafront Development Plot F, G & H, Harbour Plan reserved matters application is part of a sustainable development. 

 The agreed definition of sustainable development is:

“Sustainable Development” meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

It was introduced into the 2013 Core Strategy via the March 2012 NPPF. It is also mentioned in the 2022 Core Strategy

There is an automatic presumption in favour of sustainable development. 

The purpose of the planning system is to contribute to the achievement of sustainable development. This goes back to the viability paragraph first mentioned in the March 2012 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) –  it said:

Ensuring viability and deliverability

173. Pursuing sustainable development requires careful attention to viability and costs in plan-making and decision-taking. Plans should be deliverable. Therefore, the sites and the scale of development identified in the plan should not be subject to such a scale of any obligations and policy burdens that their ability to be developed viably is threatened. To ensure viability, the costs of any requirements likely to be applied to development, such as requirements for affordable housing, standards, infrastructure contributions or other requirements should, when taking account of the normal cost of development and mitigation, provide competitive returns to a willing land owner and willing developer to enable the development to be deliverable.

The concept of sustainable development has a focus on the economic, social and environmental for future generations.  None of the three can be considered in isolation. This is the case for decision makers, objectors and supporters of the proposed development as the three are mutually dependent.

The reserved matters application 24/0505/FH, Plots F, G & H, The Harbour Plan is sustainable development.

 

The first of the roles is the economic role the development must fulfill to:

1 – contribute to building a strong, responsive and competitive economy, by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type is available in the right places and at the right time to support growth and innovation; and by identifying and coordinating development requirements, including the provision of infrastructure.

In the reserved matter application is the:

Folkestone Harbour Economic Impact Assessment

It is a material consideration upon the location and the wider economic community, so is can be used in any support or objection of the application. 

There is nothing in the document about rent in the housing association sector.  Given all the “affordable housing“; is shared ownership – part mortgage and part  rent,it would be reasonable to include such information on rent rates for shared ownership properties. Also the affordable housing must be “a minimum of 8%” or  66 homes, of the 1,000 intended to be built. 

The provision of infrastructure such as the Drainage plans  for 24/0505/FH are a material planning consideration, along with other elements of infrastructure. 

Secondly the social role of the proposed development location and its wider responsibilities to the community are also a material planning considerations.

2 – a social role – supporting strong, vibrant and healthy communities, by providing the supply of housing required to meet the needs of present and future generations; and by creating a high quality built environment, with accessible local services that reflect the community’s needs and support its health, social and cultural well-being; and

The ward of Folkestone Central, East and Harbour have the three highest levels of deprivation in the district. One aspect of the social role is the use of Health Impact Assessments in Spatial Planning.

As of Oct 2020, the following paragraphs (below) according to the NPPF at that time, set out why it would be prudent for a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) to be undertaken.

HIAs used in Spatial Planning for Health are a material planning consideration.

 

Spatial Planning For Health: A guide for local authority public health and planning teams say Health Impact assessments can support the Council to discharge their legal duty to take appropriate actions to improve the health of local people under the Health and Social Care Act 2012.  

Set out in Folkestone & Hythe District Council’s current Places_and_Policies_Local_Plan, it states residential developments of 100 units or more need a Health Impact Assessment.

Policy HW2

Improving the Health and Wellbeing of the Local Population and Reducing Health Inequalities

For residential development of 100 or more units… a Health Impact Assessment (HIA) will be required.

The whole site will create up to 1000 homes. It’s reasonable to expect a HIA for the site, but a substantial scour of the Council’s planning portal, it would appear that no HIA has been submitted (If we missed it, please do share). Given health is a material planning consideration, it ought to be among the documents.

Last but not least is the Environmental Role. This is also a material planning consideration for the decision makers to take into account as a whole, as it is mutually dependent on the other two.

3 – an environmental role – contributing to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment; and, as part of this, helping to improve biodiversity, use natural resources prudently, minimise waste and pollution, and mitigate and adapt to climate change including moving to a low carbon economy

Everything mentioned in the following environmental documents are considered to be material planning conditions and must be taken into account as a whole, by decision makers, objectors or supporters

Folkestone Harbour Plots F,G,H Biodiversity Net Gain Report

The biodiversity gain objective of at least 10% net gain applies to the overall development (not each phase). The contribution of each phase to achieving net gain may vary, providing a net gain of at least 10% is achieved for the overall development at the time of its completion.

This objective biodiversity gain is to generate and sustain a 10% increase in biodiversity value relative to the pre-development biodiversity value of the onsite habitat. This increase can be achieved through onsite biodiversity gains, registered offsite biodiversity gains or statutory biodiversity credits.

Folkestone Harbour Plots F,G,H Habitat Assessment Report

This reports states: The mud flats have not been assessed as they are outside the building area and application boundary. They will remain un-impacted by the proposal. However, we know the site is contaminated. Any potential release of contamination into the marine environment could reasonably effect the delicate ecosystem of the mud flats, directly or indirectly. The potential risk of the mud flats becoming contaminated is reasonably foreseeable as the Harbour site is known to be contaminated. As such, it would be prudent to be prepared and undertake a mud flats assessment and put in place a strategy/plan to deal with any contamination of the mud flats, the harbour, sunny sands wildlife, natural habitats and marine environment. Not forgetting Idom Merebrook the Council’s consultants have said “The reserved matters application does not include any additional information on land contamination issues.” 

Folkestone Harbour Plots F,G,H Noise Impact Assessment 

How could we forget Shoreline, and its problem with “Tinutus”. So noise created by the development, effects those inside and outside the plot site and is a material planning consideration.

The Harbour Plan site is contaminated. The level of contamination is an unknown. The terms “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” are often used in project management and strategic planning circles.

According to records held by British Geological Survey Borehold Records, as can been seen on their map, the borehole records for the site are considered to be confidential and so there is restricted access to these records, making it impossible it to comment on information which is not in the public domain.

However, The Folkestone Harbour Plots FRA-02 and Drainage Strategy Document – dated 4/04/24 – states at page 20:

“any contamination associated with former uses is likely to be found around the northern and eastern parts of the site, although a full ground investigation and detailed risk assessment have not yet been carried out”

The northern boundary sits next to the mudflats and the eastern part next to the sea.

As we said earlier the Council’s consultants have said “The reserved matters application does not include any additional information on land contamination issues.“

In Jan 2013 the Environment Agency slapped nine conditions on the first outline planning permission Y12/097/SH, five of them relevant to contamination. Effectively no commencement on the site can happen until the nine are fulfilled.

Putting all the three roles together; economic, environmental and social, they are mutually dependent.  Future decision makers on the Council’s planning committee must consider to:

1 approve the development proposals as it accords with the development plan without delay; and

2 where the development plan is absent, silent or relevant policies are out of date, granting permission unless:

–– any adverse impacts of doing so would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and Planning Policy Guidance, taken as a whole;

or –– specific policies in this Framework [NPPF] indicate development should be restricted.

There are other documents like the Design & Access Statement (DAS) which has 27 parts (NB: Part 22 appears to be missing from the planning portal). The DAS can be accessed here as a single searchable document.

Design & Accessment Statement 1 – 27 

There are other documents which need to be considered if you wish to make a statement for or against the reserved matters application 24/05/05/FH.  The documents below are searchable.

Original Section 106

Deed of Variation to the original s106

Harbour Plots Planning Statement

Folkestone Harbour Heritage Townscape and visual impact assessment

Statement of community involvement

There are also more documents and plans which when writing a statement supporting the development, or against it, must be taken into account by the decision makers as a whole, while not forgetting there is a presumption in favour of sustainable development.

So thinking caps on, and remember as there’s a lot to think about, in any supporting or objection letter/comment.

The earliest deadline for comments is, 23.59.59,  16 May 2024.   

The Shepway Vox Team

Discernibly Different Dissent