Brown's plan for new Eco Towns not appropriate for Kent

"In Gordon Brown's desire to play the green card for political purposes, he has identified the wrong issue," says Hugh Robertson, commenting on Gordon Brown's plans to create five new Eco Towns in the South East.

“In Gordon Brown’s desire to play the green card for political purposes, he has identified the wrong issue,” says Hugh Robertson, commenting on Gordon Brown’s plans to create five new Eco Towns in the South East.
“Part of my own Constituency is currently blighted by the proposed Kent International Gateway development”, said, Hugh.

He went on, “The problem in Kent is not the environmentally sustainable nature of proposed development, but the fact that there is simply too much of it. This is putting an enormous strain on the infrastructure and leading to a dramatic decline in the quality of life and green open space.

Furthermore, every time someone like Gordon Brown announces new development initiatives, it simply encourages developers to bring forward all sorts of inappropriate schemes, such as the Kent International Gateway, under the green banner. This results in huge blight – as is currently happening in Bearsted where I have already heard of three property deals being cancelled, with all the resulting expense, because of worries about the proposed development.

Kent’s planning system needs to be brought back to local communities not decided by Whitehall dictat or get caught up in party political battles.”