THE Princess Royal is to attend a seminar at St Margaret’s, near Dover, this summer as President of the Rural Housing Trust.

The seminar, which is being held at St Margaret’s Village Hall on Wednesday, July 7, is being organised jointly by the Trust and Dover District Council.

It aims to highlight the best ways of promoting and building affordable homes for local people in villages.

Attendance is by invitation only and will include rural district councils in Kent, in particular council members with planning responsibility and planning officers.

Established over 25 years ago, the Trust hopes its practical experience at solving village housing problems will increase delegates’ understanding of the process.

The Trust advocates the use of “exception sites” - whereby planning consent is granted on land that could not otherwise be used for housing - as the best means of achieving affordable housing in perpetuity for local people.

In St Margaret’s, the Trust is about to start building 14 affordable homes for local people. The scheme has been researched and promoted in close partnership with St Margaret’s Parish Council.

In all schemes undertaken by the Trust, parish councils play a significant role in ensuring that schemes meet the needs of local people and that parishioners accept the proposals as being of benefit to the community.

The detailed fieldwork which is carried out before a scheme is built, especially the assessment of housing need, is a vital part of the bid to gain planning permission.

The Trust has built more than 3,000 homes in 320 villages across all regions of the country. In Kent, it has built 24 schemes.