Nonington Public Meeting

Thursday 8^th March 2007

Nonington Village Hall

Meeting Notes

Present. AM Barnett (NPC), Matthew Norris (Baxter Associates) Mike Terry (SEEDA),

Mike Smith (KCC Highways), Terry Elvey (KCC), G Wellings (minutes) plus approximately 80? Nonington residents.

1) Chairs opening remarks. The aim of the meeting is to discuss the Regeneration of the Snowdown Site, where the project is at present and the road issue that are going to derive from it together with the Aylesham Development.

2) Overview by Mike Terry. The planning application for the development of Snowdown Colliery was submitted in October 2006. Since then there has been a potential problem with English heritage listing some, or all of the existing buildings on the site. This process is being responded to with technical arguments being put forward for not listing the Colliery site. If the buildings are listed this could prevent any economical development and sustainable employment use of the site

A substantial degree of the consultation process for the planning application has now been completed, and the planning officers are currently focusing on more detail aspect. i.e. the potential retention of one or two of the buildings, ecology issues to ensure that mitigation measures are in place, and the design and access to the public open spaces. The highways have been partially designed and the Stage 1 audit process is nearing completion. This requires certain design standards based upon anticipated traffic flows which has to be agreed with the KCC.

The current Planning Application is for Outline Permission only and there will be further opportunity for consultation during the detailed Detailed Application process of the project. A decision from English Heritage is anticipated during April and it will take approximately 2 months to resolve the remaining planning issues on the project before the current phase of works will be completed. It is anticipated that the development works will commence in May 2008. The first stage of the construction works will be the highway junction, the new access road into the site and preparation for the development of the business units (site infrastructure) SEEDA will be building the first 50,000 sq ft of units for business use on the site - subject to planning approval.

3) Questions were raised.

a) Concern was shown over the existing buildings being demolished. English Heritage has worked with groups in the past to make it viable to preserve existing buildings. The buildings are part of the local heritage and independent architects should be brought in. SEEDA indicated that consideration is being given to the retention of one or two buildings on the site for possible heritage/ training use, and this had been identified in the current Planning Application. This was dependent upon a sustainable use being found (in business terms) as previous studies had indentified that the buildings were beyond economic use.

Mike Terry agreed to meet Ian Williams on the site to discuss the possibility of a tip fire

b) The Chair stressed that the main purpose of this meeting was to discuss the road issue, as more detail is needed before this development begins. There are 10 issues that need solving.

Matthew Norris gave a presentation on the transport assessment. The assessment included capacity upgrade, traffic management and safety upgrades. The strategy for HGV is that they will have to use the prioritised route. Since it was possible that there might be some impact on the surrounding villages from the new traffic flows, calming measures may need to be introduced. It will be up to the Parish Council to decide what their priorities are in this area, and to liaise closely with DDC/KCC on the possible measures that might be appropriate. SEEDA indicated that a fund would be set aside financed by both the Aylesham developer and SEEDA that would be used to deal with these issues. As a result of ‘lobbying’ from Nonington Parish, SEEDA had already committed to generating a footpath at the Northern side of Holt Street, which was subject to further consideration by Nonington PC, and final agreement with the landowner.

c)Further questions were raised.

1) How large was the amount of money that would be available to the Parish Council for traffic calming measures. SEEDA indicated that this is had not been agreed with DDC / the Aylesham Developer, and had therefore not been fixed at this stage.

In terms of implementing any works prioritised, SEEDA indicated that the Aylesham Development would provide funding with SEEDA’s contribution, to allow either the Aylesham Developer or KCC to carry out any works prioritised. SEEDA indicated that the intention was that this grant would contain conditions to ensure that this money put aside for traffic calming in the villages will be used solely for this purpose. It is not yet known how large the grant will be.

Planning consent, if granted is likely to contain conditions covering the highway works required. These conditions will define the agreed traffic strategy. All this work will be finalised as a legal document, which will state that the development cannot come into use until work on certain junctions has been carried out to ease the traffic flow. The grant will be used wisely to solve as many as the traffic problems as possible in conjunction with the Parish Council.

2) Concern was shown over the position of the footpath and the possibility of steps being incorporated.

ABA indicated that it is impossible to incorporate a ramp but the steps will be wide enough for pushchair use and lighting will be included. It is not been possible to secure the land to have a pavement at ground level and a compulsory purchase order could take up to 3 years. It has been requested that the footpath be made a priority and SEEDA had given a commitment to providing this if Planning Approval is given and the development goes ahead a footpath will be in place, subject to further consideration in terms of the design issues raised at the meeting and a review of the support for this item, along with the land being made available to SEEDA /KCC. SEEDA indicated that this may be subject to ongoing maintenance by Nonington PC It will be up to the Parish Council to decide on the priority of any items that they identify . The Parish Council will be given an idea of how large the fund for traffic calming etc would be as soon as the information is available.

The Aylesham development has been taken into account when projecting the traffic flow. The measures have been based on the existing traffic and information from the National Data Base System.

There will be support for the development providing the first issue is the control of traffic to make Nonington a safer place.

3)The Snowdown Heritage group is hoping to visit the site in the near future with a Heritage Architect to look at the buildings. SEEDA indicated that this was not possible currently for H&S reasons and prior notice would be required as identified.

A traffic survey was carried out in 2003 and 2005 of Nonington and the surrounding villages. Mike Smith agreed that the traffic will be monitored again for volume and speed in consultation with the Parish Council and if it is found that there is a large increase action would be considered. .

The meeting closed at 8.20pm.