April 2019 residents meeting with Berkeley Homes

The Hawkenbury Village Association attends bimonthly meetings with Berkeley Homes to address issues raised by residents in the local area. The meeting is attended by representatives of the HVA, Berkeley Homes, our local Park Ward councillor, Cllr Tracy Moore, and officials from TWBC Planning department.

Our last meeting was held on 2 April 2019 at the Berkeley Homes site offices. I have summarised some of the points below and the full minutes are attached to this article, for your attention.

Maryland Road / Forest Way

• The damage to the 3m section of pavement outside 18 Maryland Road will be temporarily repaired by Thursday. A full repair will follow in 2 to 3 weeks, after KCC Highways have granted BHEC a licence to carry out the work.
• UKPN (UK Power Networks) are due to install the electrical cables for the site any time now. This work is expected to take 6 to 8 weeks and there will be temporary traffic lights along Maryland Road and Forest Way. Start date unconfirmed.
• BHEC will see if a temporary parking prohibition order can be obtained for one side of Forest Way. This will stop the chicane style parking we currently have.

Storm water drains – Chieveley Drive / Maryland Road

• Filters are to be installed to catch any silt from the site and the drains that are currently blocked will be cleared.

Sewage Blockage

• The sewer at the back of 46 Hawkenbury Road was blocked due to domestic waste (a disposable nappy). This sewer belongs to Southern Water. BHEC have voluntarily cleared the drain for residents.

Traffic Management Plan

• Site access signage will be erected again. The first set was taken down under instruction from KCC Highways as BHEC did not have a licence to erect them. A licence has now been granted.
• Any contractor or delivery company not using the approved access routes to and from the site, will be banned from the site.

Forest Road / Hawkenbury Road

• A 4-way traffic light system is due to be installed whilst the rising foul water main is installed. This is likely to be for 2 weeks from the last week in April.

Hawkenbury Primary School

• BHEC has met their commitments under the Section 106 Agreement.
• KCC have not accepted ownership of the land yet. Berkeley Homes still own it.
• BHEC is undertaking additional gas testing on behalf of KCC, but BHEC are not required to do this.
• BHEC does not know when KCC is likely to take ownership of the school site.

That ends the summary of the meeting.

Since the meeting, our Chair, Dean Kenward, has been in telephone discussions with Cllr Catherine Rankin, our West Kent County Councillor, regarding the school at Hawkenbury. She has spoken to the relevant officer in charge of building the school. Cllr Rankin ascribes the lack of progress down to gross incompetence on the part of the County Council and tardiness in submitting the planning application. She did not get the impression that the school construction would be cancelled, but it has definitely been delayed. She was unable to confirm when work would start on site or when the school would open.

She could not confirm whether or not a overage clause had been added to the initial contract selling the land to Berkeley Homes. This would mean that TWBC may be entitled to a further sum of money, should Berkeley Homes build further homes on the site and the condition on building a school was not be met. The TWBC local plan would also need to change if the school was scrapped.

Our chair has asked for an official statement from KCC to be forthcoming to reassure local residents. We will publish that as and when we receive it.

In a further development, BHEC have agreed to place a banksman on the Hawkenbury / Forest Road junction to stop contractors and delivery vehicles using this stretch of road. This measure should be in place by Monday, 8 April 2019.

The next meeting will be in June 2019. Please let us know if there are any issues or concerns that you would like us to raise on your behalf.