Updated 30 Dec 2024 @16:30
No plan survives its first contact with reality is a common refrain due to price fluctuations, inflation, interest rates or unforeseen regulatory shifts; which can render a company’s strategy ineffective, and this goes for Otterpool Park LLP, owned by Folkestone & Hythe DC. An example of optimism bias by Folkestone & Hythe DC’s,who own the LLP, can be found in the history of the battle for Princes Parade. when costs rose from £29m to £45m, a rise of 55%.
This coming Tuesday, 3 Dec 2024 at Sellindge Village Hall, there will be a consultation about plans to deliver a Wastewater Treatment Works, associated Wetlands and Primary Sub Station at Otterpool Park.
However, when one reads a document or hears an announcement, it’s not always what’s being said that is important. It is sometimes, what is not being said that’s important. And there is a lot not being said about what happens prior to the Wastewater Treatment Works, associated Wetlands and Primary Sub Station begin to work. Of course, this project will need planing permission and can be “called in” so it comes before the planning committee.
This infrastructure must be built prior to the first home being occupied to counter the growing issue of nitrates and phosphates across the Stour Catchment Area; which are affecting the Stodmarsh lake systems outside Canterbury.
What the good people of the district are not being told is that the on-site wastewater treatment works and wetland’s system require a minimum of 400 homes to be connected for there to be sufficient flow through the works. So between house number one and house number three hundred and ninety nine where does the waste produced on site go?
Well the answer to the question lies in the Folkestone & Hythe District Council Core Strategy adopted in 2022 in a foot note at the bottom of page 204. It says:
The on-site wastewater treatment works require a minimum of 400 units to be connected for there to be sufficient flow through the works. An interim measure such as tankering off-site or the installation of a package treatment works will be required to treat the foul waste from the development prior to the occupation of 400 units. The interim measures will be agreed with the relevant regulated water company and the appropriate statutory bodies.
This raises four initial questions.
The first is how long will it take to build 400 homes at Otterpool? We estimate around two to three years potentially.
The second question is which option the Council and Otterpool Park LLP will be taking – tankering off site; or the installation of a package treatment works?
The third question is: how will Otterpool Park LLP fund this exactly?
The fourth is who will pay for the tankering and/or package treatment works?
Tankering will cause noise, more usage of the roads and emissions. How does this fit with his; and the developments net zero emission ambitions?
A broad aspirational answer to this question is answered in the interview Cllr Jim Martin (Green) Leader of FHDC and Cabinet Member for Otterpool, gave to the LGiU, in May 2024, where he explained the rationale of the project, its aspirations and ambitions.
As tankering is a possibility where will will the tanker vehicles go to dispose of the waste?
How far will they travel?
How many wastewater vehicles will there be each day, week, month, year trundling by residents homes?
And where will the vehicles travel to dispose of the waste – through Hythe, through Lympne, through Sellindge, through…?
The good residents of these communities have a right to know, as it will have an affect on their “quality of life”?
Wastewater tankers are already ‘ruining quality of life’ for residents of Elham, Hythe, Newington & Peene because Southern Water lorries are carrying sewage to the Range Road Wastewater Pumping Station, as heavy rain over the winter “has put significant pressure on its network”, in these areas.
Southern Water is ruining the quality of life for residents, and communities for business for tourists. Southern Water have history. Remember Horn Street which began in July/August 2018 and took a year to resolve. Then there’s the dumping into the sea; which closed St Mary’s Bay beach for swimming (now re-opened) and now Dymchurch with an enforceable do-not-swim warning due to poor water quality.
If you attend the Consultation on Tuesday 3 Dec at Sellindge village hall between 15:30 and 20:00 hrs, then please do ask how long it will take to build 400 homes; how much it will cost given the financial viability plan will change with its first contact with reality. What will happen to the waste produced by the homes; and where will it be disposed, before this piece of infrastructure comes online, as it’ll take two to three years potentially to build the 400 homes.
The person who ought to know the answers to these questions is Cllr Jim Martin (Green) Leader and Cabinet Member for Otterpool Park – jim.martin@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk – let’s hope he and others in the know will be in attendance, to give some transparent clarity to the proceedings, not forgetting it’s for the consulter to decide the issues on which it wants to consult. They who pay the piper…
The Shepway Vox Team
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