King Charles is facing a backlash over his plan to build an ‘ideal town’ in Faversham, Kent.
Reisdents are furious over proposals by the Duchy of Cornwall to build 2,500 homes on 320 acres of farmland in a historic market town. They fear the move will ‘swallow up historic villages' and turn the area into an ‘urban mass’.
They also point out that “This seems totally at odds with HRH’s public stance on environmental and farming issues.”
The Mail Online reports: The plans, which were first announced when the King, as the then Duke of Cornwall, managed the Duchy in 2018, seek to build 120 homes each year across a 20-year period.
An application for consent for an initial 261 homes was submitted to the local council in December last year, sparking outrage among locals who argue the town does not have the infrastructure support such a development, The Telegraph reports.
Some have claimed the proposals will negatively impact the local environment and contradict the King’s love for the natural world, while others say it will increase traffic and air pollution
The houses are earmarked for a plot of land to the south-east of Faversham which was acquired by the Duchy in 1999.
The proposals have been put forward to address the housing crisis and will deliver an ‘ideal town’ in line with a similar urban development in Poundbury.
It will deliver ‘affordable homes designed and built to the same high-quality standards, indistinguishable from market homes’, according to a website for the development.
The website adds: ‘South East Faversham will be an attractive, modern and enjoyable place in which people can live, work, shop and relax. It will be guided by local needs and inspired by the character of Faversham.’
There will also be space earmarked for ‘food stores and independent retailers, craftmakers and producers’, while a new high street will feature a range of restaurants, cafes and office spaces.
‘There will be a new primary school and options are being explored for a care home and potentially a range of health related facilities,’ the website states.
A new ’employment area’ will also feature on the eastern part of the site and will include ‘light industrial and distribution businesses encouraged to relocate nearer junction 7 of the M2’. Faversham’s cricket club will also be relocated in the new development, with its current location being redeveloped into housing.
Niamh Harris
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