Sir Howard Davies has formally rejected plans for a new London airport on the Isle of Grain on grounds that it would be too risky and too expensive. Environmental and wildlife concerns, and the need to deal with the Montgomery wreck, weighed heavily in the decision.
Category: Planning
Sun Pier problem resolved
Thanks to everyone for your replies, which you can read below. Cllr Kelly Tolhurst (Vice Chair of MSBA) is working with Medway Council to ensure that officials do not make rash promises regarding use of the pier by commercial operators with large vessels. The council will be drawing up some rules to ensure that the pier will remain available for all, especially recreational boaters for whom the restoration was carried out at significant public expense.
Large pontoon for Queenborough
Queenborough Harbour Trust is purchasing a massive 60 metre long by 9 metre wide concrete pontoon, formerly used by the Gosport ferry in Portsmouth harbour. This will not only provide space for alongside moorings but will enable the trust to reposition the harbour lookout office and storage unit on the water. A fuel dock is also proposed. The pontoon will be anchored a few metres north of the existing All Tide Landing and linked to it by a bridge. The yacht club has promised that the ATL will be repaired and back in service by Easter. Discussions between the trust and the club over the long term future of the ATL are ongoing…
Please indicate your support or otherwise for the planning application by using the Reply button below or by emailing secretary@msba.org.uk by 28 March 2014. Your feedback will be sent to the Marine Licensing Authority via the RYA.
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Environment Agency consultation closes on 22 December
Mark Loos of the Medway Swale Estuary Partnership reminds us that the closing date for comments on the Environment Agency’s ‘Challenges and Choices’ consultation is Sunday 22nd December. Please submit your comments at http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/research/planning/33252.aspx
Will Qatar gas deal scupper plans for airport on Grain?
In a £4.4bn deal, Centrica, which owns British Gas, announced a four-and-a-half-year agreement yesterday to buy up to 3 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas from Qatargas. Sixty percent of our gas will be imported by 2020 and the Isle of Grain terminal is the largest in Europe. For security reasons, the terminal would need to be moved at huge expense if an airport were to be built there. Read more…
Sun Pier repair delayed
Weather has delayed the reinstatement of the landing pontoons and two walkways which was to have taken place this week. The pier was expected to be back in commission by the end of November.
Queenborough Harbour Lookout – planning appeal
Patrick Moore of Queenborough Harbour Trust asks all Medway/Swale boaters to support their appeal against refusal of retrospective planning permission for the temporary harbour lookout at Crundell’s Wharf. [Unfortunately Patrick gave the incorrect reference at last week’s meeting. If you have sent an email, or other type of correspondence, to the planning authorities supporting Queenborough Harbour Trust, please resend quoting the correct number, APP/ V2255 / C /13 / 2204432.]
Patrick asks, “Should you wish to make any observations supporting Queenborough Harbour Trust, would you please do so either in writing (3 copies required), addressing your letter to the Planning Inspectorate 3/23 Wing, Temple Quay House, 2 The Square, Bristol BS1 6PN, quoting reference: APP/ V2255 / C /13 / 2204432 ; or via the Planning Portal at www.planningportal.gov.uk/pcs or by emailing teame1@pins.gsi.gov.uk
“The Planning Inspectorate will not acknowledge your letter unless you specifically ask them to do so. They will however, ensure your letter is passed to the inspector dealing with the appeal. Please ensure that any representations you wish to make on this appeal are received by the Planning Inspectorate by 22 October 2013, otherwise they will not normally be seen by the Inspector and will be returned. A copy of your letter will then be sent by the Planning Inspectorate to both the appellant and the Council.”
Many thanks to you all.
Stuart Bradley, Chairman MSBA
Faversham Creek: it’s not a street
At Faversham Creek sailing barges and other traditional craft are still moored and repaired, but for how much longer? Planners and developers seem ignorant of history and geography, also blind to what is lost if the edges of such navigable waterways are simply covered with housing and shops as if the creek was a suburban street.
Dr Arthur Percival, director of the Faversham Society’s Fleur de Lis Heritage Centre, has written a wonderfully eloquent letter to the clerk of the council on behalf of Faversham Creek Trust: http://favershamcreektrust.com/2013/06/30/arthur-percival-its-a-creek-not-a-street/