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A decision regarding a controversial proposal for homes to be built at the end of a residential street on Sheppey is to be made tomorrow – despite the developer already having marketed the houses online.
Swale council’s planning committee was due to vote on Keepmoat Homes’s application to build 153 homes off Belgrave Road in Halfway on December 5.
The developer wants to build 44 two-beds, 83 three-beds and 26 four-beds on the 13-acre site.
However, the day before, the plans were withdrawn from the agenda.
A couple of days before the application was removed from the agenda, there was fury among residents who had found an online marketing page for the new homes, which have not yet been given planning permission.
According to the page, on Keepmoat’s website, the development – called Belgrave Place – is “just a three minutes drive from Queenborough Station”, where “you can catch regular services to Sittingbourne for onward connections to London St Pancras”. The page has since been taken down.
Caroline Barkway, who lives in Queenborough Road, spotted the new homes being advertised on property website Rightmove.
She said: “This advert has caused a great deal of upset, astonishment and disbelief, not only with those residents that live in and around Belgrave Road, that are likely to be directly affected if planning were to be approved, but also by the wider community, that are now questioning the integrity of the planning process.”
Swale planning officers recommended permission be granted, despite a number of concerns being raised including existing properties becoming overlooked, that Halfway is unable to cope with any more traffic and the junction of Belgrave Road and Queenborough Road is already being extremely dangerous and difficult to navigate.
Swale council's Planning Committee will now discuss the plans at an extraordinary meeting tomorrow.
A council spokesman said: “We’ve moved the application review for 153 homes in Belgrave Road, Halfway on the Isle of Sheppey to the second planning committee meeting being held later this month on December 17.
“We’ve had a lot of applications to get through so have added an additional meeting this month to make sure we cover as much as we can.
“We were contacted by the Lower Medway Internal Drainage Board earlier this month regarding the performance of drainage features just outside the site boundary and are currently investigating the issue so an update can be provided to the planning committee at the second December meeting.”
To view the plans, click here and use the code 19/501921/FULL.
Read more: Click here for all the latest news from the Isle of Sheppey