Consortium submits plans for major new garden suburb in Kent

The development will be delivered in four phases over a 20 year time frame. The plans are for three distinctive neighbourhoods including a high street, a secondary school, four primary schools, a park and extensive areas of recreational and green space. 

Crucial to the design of the proposed scheme is a sustainable transport strategy that will connect Chilmington Green and Ashford using a network of footpath and cycle routes, in addition to bus services, the consortium said. A renewable energy strategy for the scheme will ensure its environmental sustainability.

On 17 May 2012, the Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) launched a report entitled Creating Garden Cities and Suburbs Today promoting garden cities and suburbs as one solution to the housing shortage. The purpose of the report was to set out ways in which sustainable new communities can be delivered using 'garden city' principles. The aim is to unlock land by local authorities, landowners and developers entering into a 'garden city joint ventures'.

TCPA chief executive Kate Henderson said: “We are currently presented with a unique opportunity to shape the future of the nation. There is no doubt that we will build new homes, but the challenge is whether we have the determination to leave future generations with a legacy of beauty and durability which truly meets the challenges of the 21st century; ensuring we have the right range of skills and expertise over the long term will be pivotal to realising this ambition." 

Henderson said that the report was a call for action to renew the commitment to building "outstanding, inclusive and resilient places that justly merit the accolade of ‘Garden Cities".

"Plans for Chilmington Green re-invent Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City principles for the 21st century", said project manager to the consortium Ian Bull according to a report in the Construction Index.  

"Garden Suburbs based on Howard’s principles have stood the test of time and continue to set a benchmark for new communities.  They are popular well-designed places that offer communities a lifestyle of wellbeing through a range of employment opportunities, cultural facilities and services, a mix of housing tenures including affordable housing, well-connected and walkable neighbourhoods, and the chance for people to connect with nature through carefully landscaped streets, parks, private gardens and allotments" he said.It is anticipated that Ashford will determine the outline planning application in spring 2013.