The Leader of the Council is aware that all Peninsula residents, children, workers, and visitors in order to get to their home or place of work are being forced to travel through Four Elms Air Quality Management Area where nitrogen dioxide levels exceed the legal standard for air quality and, in my opinion, is substantially increasing.
Residents do not trust Medway Council or proposals set out in the new Local Plan as the A228 Peninsula Highway already looks like the M25 and no works have started on the £11.1million improvements to Four Elms Roundabout or other roundabouts approved by the Council 4 years ago to improve traffic flow and reduce toxic air pollution for the Four Elms roundabouts.
The Peninsula has already suffered substantial increases in air pollution from 4,000 new houses built/approved that will generate 28,000 additional daily vehicle movements. There will also be substantial additional air pollution from thousands of white van movement from Ikea and Amazon warehouses and additional HGVs from increasing commercial businesses.
Peninsula residents believe that Medway Council does not demonstrate in any way that they care about their health or the adverse impact of invisible high levels of nitrogen oxide from increasing numbers of vehicles is having on the general health of the Peninsula population especially the young, elderly and the weak.
That the cumulative effects of air pollution from new housing developments is not being properly considered by Medway Council or the Planning Committee. The residents’ concerns are:-
(a) Predatory developers in order to reduce 106 and mitigation payments are not providing proper or detailed information or Environmental Impact Assessments to the Council or the Planning Committee that shows the cumulative projected effects of air pollution for all new developments is having on the health of Peninsula residents.
(b) That the Planning Committee when considering Peninsula planning applications has not been given information to properly assess the cumulative effects of vehicle pollution from any new housing development proposals with regard to the Four Elms Air Quality Management Area as required by the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004.
(c) The Local Plan is silent and makes no proper mention that 12,000 new homes programmed for the Peninsula will result in additional daily car journeys of up to 84,000 (based on the Planning rule of thumb of seven vehicular movements per dwelling per day).
Taking into consideration paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) above which all have substantial and consequential health implications for Peninsula residents, can the Leader confirm the current evidence based 5 yearly air pollution projections for nitrogen dioxide from vehicles until 2035 being used for the Local Plan for Peninsula scenarios?
Minutes:
“The Leader of the Council is aware that all Peninsula residents, children, workers, and visitors in order to get to their home or place of work are being forced to travel through Four Elms Air Quality Management Area where nitrogen dioxide levels exceed the legal standard for air quality and, in my opinion, is substantially increasing.
Residents do not trust Medway Council or proposals set out in the new Local Plan as the A228 Peninsula Highway already looks like the M25 and no works have started on the £11.1million improvements to Four Elms Roundabout or other roundabouts approved by the Council 4 years ago to improve traffic flow and reduce toxic air pollution for the Four Elms roundabouts.
The Peninsula has already suffered substantial increases in air pollution from 4,000 new houses built/approved that will generate 28,000 additional daily vehicle movements. There will also be substantial additional air pollution from thousands of white van movement from Ikea and Amazon warehouses and additional HGVs from increasing commercial businesses.
Peninsula residents believe that Medway Council does not demonstrate in any way that they care about their health or the adverse impact of invisible high levels of nitrogen oxide from increasing numbers of vehicles is having on the general health of the Peninsula population especially the young, elderly and the weak.
That the cumulative effects of air pollution from new housing developments is not being properly considered by Medway Council or the Planning Committee. The residents’ concerns are:-
(a) Predatory developers in order to reduce 106 and mitigation payments are not providing proper or detailed information or Environmental Impact Assessments to the Council or the Planning Committee that shows the cumulative projected effects of air pollution for all new developments is having on the health of Peninsula residents.
(b) That the Planning Committee when considering Peninsula planning applications has not been given information to properly assess the cumulative effects of vehicle pollution from any new housing development proposals with regard to the Four Elms Air Quality Management Area as required by the Environmental Assessment of Plans and Programmes Regulations 2004.
(c) The Local Plan is silent and makes no proper mention that 12,000 new homes programmed for the Peninsula will result in additional daily car journeys of up to 84,000 (based on the Planning rule of thumb of seven vehicular movements per dwelling per day).
Taking into consideration paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) above which all have substantial and consequential health implications for Peninsula residents, can the Leader confirm the current evidence based 5 yearly air pollution projections for nitrogen dioxide from vehicles until 2035 being used for the Local Plan for Peninsula scenarios?”
Councillor Jarrett stated that work was continuing on the development of the new Local Plan and the evidence base to support that. There was a significant amount of work being undertaken that would inform the justification for any allocations within the Local Plan and which would set out the infrastructure that was required to support that growth. That included work on strategic transport assessment, air quality, health, sustainability appraisals, education, habitat regulations, open space and leisure employment.
It should be recognised that Medway was growing and the population was increasing. The Council must plan for that growth and provide the housing along with the employment and other services that were necessary. That growth must be planned in a sustainable way to help Medway realise its potential as a 21st century waterfront university city, with an amazing historic and natural environment. A great place to live, work, learn and visit.
The evolving Local Plan placed an emphasis for that growth on the regeneration of Medway’s town centres and waterfront areas. However, that would not meet all the needs of Medway’s growing population and there was a need to look at the Peninsula, along with some limited suburban expansion, to help meet those needs, in a sustainable way.
The Peninsula did have a role to play and indeed that is recognised by public responses to consultations on the Local Plan work thus far.
The need for supporting infrastructure had always been recognised by this Council. The 2003 Local Plan proposed some growth on the Peninsula, which was included in Councillor Freshwater’s housing figures, but this was on the basis of improvements to the A228. This work had been completed, thereby supporting the growth proposed at that time.
Work was continuing on the Local Plan and it was anticipated that the draft plan would go out to consultation with the evidence base to support it. As part of that evidence base there would be health impact assessments, strategic transport assessments, and air quality assessments – all of this was feeding into the plan.
The recent approvals given by Planning Committee and on appeal, did not relate solely to the Peninsula, but there were significant approvals in Rainham, Capstone, and importantly within the Council’s regeneration sites in Chatham, Rochester and Strood. Yes there had been recent approvals on the Peninsula which equated to just under 1000 dwellings, not 4000 referred to by Councillor Freshwater. The Council had also just refused an application for 550 dwellings at Chattenden.
Air quality was an important consideration for all these applications. Monitoring results in the Four Elms Hill AQMA did not show increases in nitrogen dioxide concentrations. The three year trend at the Council’s two long term monitoring sites showed levels were as they were, or slightly better than when the Council started monitoring in 2015.
Air quality assessments for applications coming forward on the Peninsula were required to consider cumulative impacts.