There are plans to knock down a village hall to make way for new houses.

Iwade parish council has put forward a proposal to build the eight properties, in Ferry Road, Iwade, near Sittingbourne, following the demolition of the building which is used by the parish council and a nursery group, as well as other local groups, clubs and committees.

The application has been submitted to Swale council after another proposal, by farming firm GH Dean and Co, for up to 466 houses, a country park and a community hall was revealed last summer.

Despite a decision on the latter not yet being made, a planning document for the village hall scheme says representatives from Iwade parish council had been “directly involved” in the design of the purpose-built community facility in the new plans.

It added that the council, together with the hall’s users, would relocate to the new hall once permission had been granted and construction was completed.

“This timing will ensure there would be no loss of community facility arising from this proposal,” it said.

Cllr James Hunt, who lives in the village, said a new hall for Iwade was “much needed”, but he was surprised a detailed application for the existing hall had come forward at this time.

He said: “This has been looked at in the past when there was a possibility of having a new village hall on land within the Persimmon development at School Lane. At that time, an outline application was approved for housing on the current village hall site, with the idea that once a new hall was delivered the current site could be used.

“That was slightly different to now in that the development that will deliver a new village hall has not yet been approved and is subject to a lot of housing that residents have concerns about.”

Cllr James Hunt is concerned approval for demolishing the current hall will be used as a bargaining chip by developers.

He added: “I feel the timing of a detailed application in the current site is wrong and it would have been better to have waited until there are assurances that a new hall will be delivered and that the old one won’t be disposed of before a new hall is ready.

“Whilst it is good to have any profit from the existing site put forward to a new hall, I feel that whilst the development that would include it has not yet been determined it can be seen as dangling a carrot to help get approval.

"I feel the timing of a detailed application in the current site is wrong."

“Whilst this is seen as the case with many applications, it feels more so when the detailed discussions have taken place on the current site.

“I believe the parish council is doing what it can to deliver what is needed, however it should be recognised that residents will see this as just more housing in Iwade and communication on what is being done would have been beneficial for residents and the parish council.”

A joint statement from the Iwade Village Hall committee, which owns and runs the hall as a registered charity, and the parish council, which holds the land in perpetuity for the village, said both parties "started investigating how to achieve building a new hall" following a survery in 2013 that suggested residents wanted a new one.

The existing hall needed "a substantial amount of money" to carry out repairs, the statement added, as well as additional meeting rooms, and the issue that "any major building work would necessitate the closure of the hall for, possibly, some considerable time", would be "extremely detrimental" to users.

It went on to say the committee and parish council talked to Hillreed Homes, plans were drawn up for the new hall and outline planning permission was sought for the existing site to fund the project, but when Persimmon took over the development, the project came to a halt.

The land adjacent to the medical centre was then looked at, but was identified as amenity land and could not be used.

It added: "Following the emergence of Swale council’s latest Local Plan and the inclusion of the development on Grovehurst Road therein, the developer has come forward and agreed to give land and build a new hall, which will have better facilities and be able to cope with the increased demand of our village.

"The new hall will be funded by the housing development on the old site, i.e. a land swap, which has been approved by the Charity Commission.

"Those hiring the existing hall, both long and short-term, can rest assured that they will be able to continue to do so right up to when the new hall has been built and is ready to use; then everyone will transfer to the new site."

To view or comment on the plans, visit swale.gov.uk/planning and search for the reference 20/502385/FULL.

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