Gravesham council’s vision of how the borough will look in 2028 has received backing from Kent County Council.

The Local Development Framework (LDF) includes a target of at least 4,600 new homes built by 2028 and at least 4,600 new jobs.

By then, says the report: “Gravesham will have reinvented and regenerated itself from an area with heavy riverside industry to one that offers a more diverse range of employment and housing which respects its unique built, historic and natural environment.

“The openness of the green belt will have been safeguarded and maintained.”

The council adds that it will support additional development in Gravesend town centre to improve its provision of shops and jobs as well as to provide new homes.

There will be no building on green belt land and the natural, built and historic environment will be protected and enhanced.

Cllr Bryan Sweetland (Con), KCC councillor for Gravesham Rural and cabinet member for the environment, said: “I welcome the common sense approach that Gravesham council (GBC) has now taken in drawing up its 20-year plan.

“The revised Local Development Plan now gives protection to Gravesham’s green belt from unwanted and inappropriate development and is a vast improvement from GBC’s original proposals last year.

“KCC support the target of 4,600 new dwellings as a minimum to the year 2028, which I accept might be exceeded if further suitable development sites come forward, providing they are not in the green belt.

“I also support Gravesham’s general approach to affordable housing, again providing it is not on green belt land.

“We have a duty to protect the green belt for future generations and I hope this plan now balances the need for additional housing while protecting our precious countryside.”

The eight-week public consultation on the LDF finished on Tuesday.

The plans are now with the secretary of state for final approval.

The 2028 plan earmarks Northfleet Embankment and the industrial areas known as Swanscombe Peninsula East as substantial opportunities for riverside regeneration.

“Development will bring significant benefits to existing adjoining residential communities and the borough as a whole through the delivery of new housing and jobs while achieving environmental improvement, especially in air quality, and a high standard of design,” the report says.

The proposals for developing a massive leisure area – one of the biggest theme parks in the world, known as Paramount park – are discounted by the planners as they say the plans are insufficiently developed.
Important deep water wharves will be retained.

Together with Ebbsfleet the sites will provide 970 homes, 114,000 sq m of employment space and more than 2,200 jobs. Areas next to The Hive will provide 530 homes, shops and open spaces.

Twenty sites face development, including several put forward since last year by developers and landowners:

• South of Astra Drive, Riverview Park, Gravesend
• East of Thong Lane, south of Rochester Road, Gravesend
• North of High View, Higham
• North of The Drove Way, Istead Rise
• West of Cheshunt Close, Hook Green
• South of Melliker Lane, Hook Green
• South of Istead Rise
• Lomer Farm, Meopham Green
• Steele’s Lane, Meopham Green
• East of Conifer Drive, Culverstone Green
• Land near Chalk Church
• Part of Southern Valley Golf Club, Thong Lane, Gravesend
• Adjacent to Home Farm Cottage, School Lane, Lower Higham
• 64 Downs Road, Istead Rise
• Longfield Hill
• South of Shipley Hills Road, Meopham
• White Post Lane, Sole Street
• Culverstone Valley
• Tigers Hall Farm, Whitepost Lane and Newlands Lane, Culverstone
• Whitehorse Wood, Commority Road, Vigo