Council-owned company submits rejigged plans for 8,500-home garden village

A council-owned company has resubmitted outline plans for a 8,500-home garden village development in Kent following feedback on the scheme. 

A development vehicle, set up by the local authority Folkestone and Hythe District Council, to deliver Otterpool Park handed in the revised planning application late last week. The submission has not yet appeared on the council’s website. 

The Otterpool Park delivery vehicle said in a statement that the amendments to the village, which is planned for a 800-hectare site near Folkestone, Kent, “will assist with the delivery of the development across the long-term”. 

Of the 8,500 homes planned for the new garden village, which would include the former Folkestone Racecourse and villages Newingreen and Westenhanger village, more than 1,870 will be affordable and 400 self-built. The project is receiving a share of £6m of funding allocated to 21 garden towns and villages across England in January 2020.  

Andy Jarret, director of planning at Otterpool Park, added: “Extensive work has gone into amending the outline planning application to incorporate feedback and present a proposal that will address local housing needs, deliver substantial infrastructure improvements and create direct opportunities for the area, as well as being able to respond to changing and growing needs in the future.”

Further consultation will be done on detailed master planning and design, “allowing for flexibility in order to best suit the needs of the local population”, Otterpool Park said. 

The Otterpool Park partnership was set up in 2020 and the council first announced plans for the village in May 2016. 

Consultations with the public and statutory consultees followed the submission of initial outline plans by Folkestone and Hythe District Council in March 2019.

According to Otterpool Park, the development will deliver 9,000 jobs over the next 25-30 years and is made up of more than 50 per cent green space.