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Plans to redevelop a “time bomb” former asbestos factory have been approved despite concerns from villagers it will bring the "road infrastructure to its knees" and put lives at risk.
The "systematic redevelopment" of the Nuralite industrial estate in Canal Road, Higham, was approved at a meeting of Gravesham council’s planning committee.
Remediation of the centuries-old asbestos landfill, identified in council reports as a public health hazard, will see materials imported to cap and remove areas of hydrocarbon pollution, as well as the laying of new service and utility infrastructure.
Work is estimated to take place over three years and will pave the way for the construction of 11 new purpose-built light industrial type units.
The planning report had considered the industrial development as "inappropriate" in what is formally described as green belt land, but "very special circumstances" were cited as outweighing harm to the countryside, including the need to contain asbestos contamination and provide much-needed employment post pandemic.
But the move has angered some local residents and councillors who criticised what they perceived to be a “fundamentally flawed” application that could see HGVs travelling through Lower Higham’s narrow country lanes “every four minutes, 10 hours a day, 5.5 days a week”.
Gravesham council opposition leader Cllr Jordan Meade (Con) put forward a motion at the meeting to defeat the application, which was seconded by his Conservative colleagues.
Speaking after the meeting, he said: "I fundamentally stand by the view that the application itself was flawed on planning grounds.
"The site, which is situated in our green belt, will now be developed into units which have a floor plan that is 50% greater than the buildings already in situ."
Cllr Meade said this “cataclysmic disruption” would create a worrying precedent for building on the countryside which translated, in his view, to the start of a "green belt grab" across the borough.
He added: "After listening to the debate, I stood completely unconvinced that residents' concerns over traffic and safety had been addressed and I felt that the application was contrary to both local and national planning policy.”
Higham villager Ian Adams says he will be directly affected as the additional lorries will regularly pass his home in Gore Green Road.
The 58-year-old expressed his disappointment at the decision which he claims will subject a quiet hamlet and its surrounding neighbours to a “barrage of traffic” that will eventually bring the “road infrastructure to its knees”.
He explained the prospect of 40 tonne tipper trucks coming down a hill and around bends at potentially dangerous speeds struck fear into the hearts of local people.
This includes school children, horse riders, dog walkers, cyclists and all others who regularly rely on the road which is without cycle or walking paths.
Mr Adams added the width of the narrow county lanes were not capable of withstanding the high volume and weight of traffic proposed and the designs were a “recipe for disaster”.
“Out of the blue you are turning a small back-road into a major lorry artery, disrupting people's live for three years, all for the sake of profit,” he said.
“It sounds dramatic but I think there will be a very nasty incident.
"I believe people affirming this decision will have blood on their hands and I hope it sits well with them."
Mr Adams called for government intervention to ensure the landfill site and other affected land is capped properly and that ongoing health and safety issues are addressed.
Canal Road resident Peter Parr also spoke out against the plans and presented his objections to last week’s virtual planning meeting.
“I think the first thing that needs to happen is some people take it seriously,” he said.
“I have lived here for 54 years and have been fighting this for most of that time from the early days,” Mr Parr added, explaining neighbours regularly lodge complaints about new HGV applications for the site in the absence of help from authorities.
He said many questions remained unanswered including outstanding issues over the servicing of properties with his bungalow and others cut off from the gas network and relying on fuel deliveries, as well the emptying of cesspit tanks.
Meanwhile, neighbour Robin Manwaring said damage to property and vehicles caused by existing HGVs accessing the Nuralite site was nothing new to villagers.
The 65-year-old has lived in Canal Road, where a new traffic light system is proposed as part of the scheme, since he was a teenager.
He said neighbours had reported various incidents of damage to front garden walls and property and that earlier this month his daughter-in-law, who lives opposite, had her parked car “wiped out” by a passing lorry.
Such incidents were regularly reported to the police, he said, but often perpetrators drove off leaving them to foot the bill.
Mr Manwaring, whose grandparents both worked at the Nuralite site and died of illnesses related to asbestos, said the need to cap the historic landfill site and eradicate the hazard it poses remained clear.
“We have got nothing against them capping the site,” he added. “It is [asbestos] everywhere down there… it is a time bomb.”
But Mr Manwaring said further assurances were needed to ensure this work was completed safely and without massive disruption to local people.
He said: “We are in a conservation area but that does not seem to matter. You can’t build a porch but you can get permission to do all this work.”
“We are in a conservation area but that does not seem to matter."
Higham Councillor and leader of the Independent Group, Harold Craske, faced a backlash from some residents after voting in favour of the application.
The councillor, who acted as co-chairman at the meeting, said it had been “the most difficult decision” he had been tasked with making in his 14 years on the planning committee.
He explained that he had reached his conclusion with a “very heavy heart” and that it was based on the “long-term interests of the parish and the borough as a whole”.
“The site must be cleared of asbestos as it is not only a health hazard now but a long-term one,” Cllr Craske explained.
“There has been an attempt in the past to do this. This proved to be inadequate and we have seen just how the asbestos has come to the surface again."
Cllr Craske added: “We have here a disaster which will only get worse.”
“Whether the site is cleared now by the applicant or by the borough or government, those lorry movements will take place.
“If we had done nothing we would have no powers to control traffic whatsoever.”
Cllr Craske went on to add he would continue to push for the “strongest possible planning conditions” to address concerns raised by residents relating to traffic.
A spokesman for Gravesham council said: “The traffic and road safety implications were a matter of significant concern, and accordingly were the subject of repeated review/analysis and submission of further information during the course of the application’s assessment, with detailed comments provided by both Gravesham and Kent County Council’s transport officers, and also by Highways England.”
The authority said issues of health and safety due to the added traffic impacts were discussed during the two round of consultations and set out in the committee report.
It added: “The planning committee were advised that if the proposal was permitted, this would provide the opportunity to remediate a site that is a significant health and safety risk and give greater control over activities on the site with a combination of planning conditions and a legal agreement.”
