Rochester Airport Group Executive (RAGE) Web Page
Threat to Rochester Airport
What follows is the text of a letter we sent to Medway Council's Investment and Development Manager, Paul McKim, on 20 th August 1999
Mr P McKim (Investment & Development Manager)
Economic Development & Tourism Division
Medway Council
Civic Centre
Strood
Rochester
ME2 4YAU
Thank you for attending our committee meeting last night and clarifying a number of matters.
To confirm the main points raised: we are in receipt of the Council's letter of 30th July 1999 (incorrectly addressed to the Vice-Chairman for DERAC) concerning the Medway Local Plan. Unfortunately this letter does not give any details of the current Plan's impact on this area, and we had heard nothing from your office concerning the possible development of the Rochester Airport site. Our greatest concern regards this very topic, as the site is adjacent to this estate.
You claimed last night not to be aware of DERAC, even though we have been in existence for many years, are well known to many parts of the Council, and indeed continue to have occasional contact with—and regularly receive correspondence from—Medway Council. If you had had any intention of letting this estate's population know about this consultation period and its tight deadline for submitting comments or objections, you could easily have found a way to contact us.
As you know, we heard about all of this from other sources, and we have also been shown a copy of the relevant parts of the Local Plan.
As the Residents' Association representing residents on the adjoining residential estate, we feel that we should have been kept fully in the picture about all matters impacting this area, including at least being sent a copy of the plans. At least you have now furnished a copy of the Local Plan as well as some other documents that directly concern the airport.
The Council has put a time schedule for objections that leaves us very little time to arrange a public meeting, bearing in mind that the DERAC committee received a letter advising us of their plans only a few days ago. Many residents would not have the opportunity to attend such a meeting as they are on holiday, which leads us to question why this period has been timed to coincide with the holiday season. It seems very strange indeed, especially as no allowance was made for this factor by extending the period for objections to be made to, say, ten or twelve weeks.
I would have hoped that Medway Council believe in consultation, especially as you state that it is one of your "core values". yet this whole affair seems to have been specifically designed to preclude consultation with those closest to (and therefore most affected by) the site in question. The residents on the Davis Estate should have been surveyed as a matter of course, but instead it has come to light that you have already surveyed residents of Weeds Wood, an area out of sight of and unaffected by the airport: it is not even on the flight path. That survey is therefore at least partly—and probably entirely—irrelevant.
It was also a waste of public money. Only a handful of the several thousands of residents of the Davis Estate have been included in the survey, perhaps two percent. As I said above, it is clear that this Residents' Association and the Davis Estate residents themselves were intended to be excluded as far as possible from any real opportunity to participate in the consultation process. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the survey was specifically conducted in this manner in order to obtain the answer the Council wants, not the truth.
As we discussed last night, in order that we can involve our residents, we need a further period—say two weeks—to conduct a leaflet drop and collection exercise around the estate: this means something approaching 1,500 deliveries and the same number of collections. Funding for this ought to come from the Council, and you said that you thought this should not present a problem. A sum of £300 should be enough to cover our additional costs of conducting this exercise and the other activities that we now need to perform.
Despite the short time-scale, we shall indeed be holding a Public Meeting on Thursday 26th August in the DERAC Community Centre, Barberry Avenue, at 7:30 pm. You will be interested to know that there is considerable media interest in this subject and there will be press and radio (and possibly television) coverage of this meeting. I strongly recommend that you attend in order to put the Council's point of view and answer questions raised.
Yours sincerely
Mrs J Patching (Chairman of DERAC)
This letter was copied to :
Vernon Hull (Chairman, Economic Development and Europe Committee)
Mark Hume (Economic Development and Europe Committee)
Jane Chitty (Economic Development and Europe Committee)
The Mayor
The Deputy Mayor
Ken Slater (Ward Councillor, Horsted)
Mark Bowman (Ward Councillor, Horsted)
John Griffin (Ward Councillor, Warren Wood)
Mark Jones (Ward Councillor, Warren Wood)
The Head of Rochester Flying School)
Jackie Clarke (Co-ordinator, Flying School)
Lynn Wallis-Elde (BBC Radio Kent)
Meridian Television
The Council for the Preservation of Rural England
Kent Rural Community Council
If you would like to make an input to the ongoing debate, please pass your comments to the Secretary using any of the contact methods given below. However please be aware that telephone contact might necessitate your leaving a message on an answering machine.
Secretarial contact details:
45 Madden Avenue
Davis Estate
Chatham
Kent ME5 9TH
Tel': Medway (01634) 318 422
Fax: Medway (01634) 318 423
Email: johnward@argonet.co.uk
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