Yahoo News New 110-home estate in Kent village would include GP surgery and shop with space for Post Office
Forty-three affordable homes will be built as part of a new estate in Kent which will have 110 homes, a new GP surgery and a convenience store with space for Post Office. The new "countryside community" is seven miles from Maidstone.
As KentLive reported last year, Fernham Homes lodged its plan for Haven Farm in the village Sutton Valence, in 2022. One year later, in October last year, Maidstone Council’s planning committee approved it.
Councillors had been told by a planning officer in his report: “It would cause harm to character and appearance of countryside which would usually result in a recommendation for refusal.”
But he stressed the "urgent need for a doctors’ surgery,” and the fact the site was earmarked for housing in the authority’s emerging Local Plan. There had been 134 objections about the new estate lodged with the council.
Read more: Kent hit with 12-hour Met Office rain warning as torrential showers expected
Read more: Person pronounced dead after Kent train track incident
Maidstone-based housing association Golding Homes and Fernham Homes in West Malling have exchanged contracts for the build of 43 homes. They will be one and two-bedroom flats and three bedroom houses for affordable rent and shared ownership.
They are due to be built by the middle of 2027. Golding Homes said: "They’ll form part of a countryside community in the historic village comprising 110 new homes, all set within eight acres of landscaping and open space."
"In addition to the homes, it’ll also see the creation of a much-needed new GP surgery for the village where existing facilities are currently running at capacity, along with a new local convenience store with space to incorporate a Post Office."
Tom Casey, director of development and strategic asset management at Golding Homes, said they were "much-needed new homes, which will help meet local housing need in this area of Maidstone".
