Potential Planning Proposal for Horsted Retail Park

Royal London’s Exhibition Invite
The ward councillors have been advised of a potential planning application by Royal London Mutual Insurance Society Limited for new retail facilities on the northern end of the Horsted Retail Park, Maidstone Road.
There is to be a public exhibition of the proposals on Thursday 20 July from 3 – 7 pm at The Maidstone Suite, Bridgewood Manor Hotel, Walderslade Woods, Chatham, ME5 9AX. Outline details of their proposals are on the attached letter. This community consultation will, they tell us, feed into the final proposals which will form the planning application. Members of the project team will be on hand to answer resident questions.
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As ward councillors we have arranged a meeting with Royal London next week as well to discuss the proposals. We do recognise that the northern end of the Horsted Retail Park is under used and unattractive and the car park has been prone to incidents of ASB in the past. There is no outright objection in principle to a sympathetic development on and investment into that part of the Retail Park. However we would be concerned about any knock-on effect stemming from any intensified usage on residents’ ability to safely exit the Davis Estate at the roundabout and will want to discuss this with them.
Clarification around the suggested opening times of the proposed new units too will need to be considered in any planning process as the Retail Park is currently locked before 11 pm. This was an arrangement we came to with the site’s management company to deal with ASB problems in the car park opposite Highview Drive a couple of years back.