East Kent might actually be able to build things again
Plus more flag news, a lack of meetings at KCC, news in brief, and more
Thanks for reading the Kent Current! It’s great that you’ve decided to join us, and we hope you had a lovely Kent Day earlier this week, however you chose to celebrate. Today, we have news that things might finally be able to be built in east Kent again following the creation of a nutrient credit system in the area, so we’ve been learning what that all means. Further down, we have yet more news about flags, a curious trend at Kent County Council, news in brief, and more.
East Kent might actually be able to build things again
Since 2020, councils in east Kent have been forced to sit on thousands of stalled housing applications after Natural England ruled that new development across swathes of Canterbury, Ashford, and parts of Folkestone couldn’t go ahead. The culprit was Stodmarsh National Nature Reserve, an area of wetlands east of Canterbury, where excess nitrogen and phosphorus from sewage and agriculture were degrading the ecosystem.
Fast forward to 2025, and one of the country’s most notorious planning logjams may finally be shifting. Developers may once again be granted permission to build in parts of Kent, thanks to a nutrient credit system operating through a joint venture between Ashford Borough Council and Canterbury City Council that allows the environmental impact of new homes to be offset against mitigation projects elsewhere in the river catchment. It’s technical, bureaucratic, and long overdue, but it might just work.
The scheme is being delivered through Stour Environmental Credits Ltd, a company co-owned by the two councils. Developers will pay for credits based on the nitrogen and phosphorus their projects are expected to produce. The money will then be spent on schemes that reduce pollution elsewhere, like converting farmland into wetlands or upgrading septic tanks.
It’s a potential breakthrough five years in the making. In October 2020, Natural England’s advice on Stodmarsh halted new developments across large parts of east Kent overnight. Suddenly, planning applications in Ashford, Canterbury, and other catchment areas were judged not just on local need or design quality but on the chemical consequences of every flushed toilet.
With no offsetting mechanism in place, most developments were simply frozen. By 2022, more than 20 major projects across the area had stalled. These issues didn’t just impact housing developments, with a £30m mixed-use redevelopment in the centre of Canterbury also falling foul of the rules.
In the meantime, water quality hasn’t improved. In fact, reports after the rules were put in place blamed worsening river pollution on failing wastewater infrastructure, blocked drains, and outdated treatment works.
Along the way, efforts have been made to get things moving again, from lobbying the government for help or proposing site-specific sewage treatment works, which controversially led to the approval of 6,000 homes at the Chilmington Green development near Ashford.
Now, with legal and financial mechanisms in place, Ashford and Canterbury are preparing to start using the nutrient credit system to get building underway once again.
The implications are significant. In Ashford alone, around 7,000 homes have been stalled due to the problem. But the challenge now becomes one of balance. The Stodmarsh protections were put in place because the site is part of a legally protected habitat network, and its deterioration is serious. Any credible solution must be environmentally sound and not just a paperwork exercise. The new credit scheme is designed to meet that standard with legal agreements for measurable reductions and oversight, but the nature of local government means it will take some time to judge its effectiveness.
The need for housing across Kent is still urgent. Kent’s population is growing, and the county is under pressure to deliver tens of thousands of homes by the end of the decade. Local Plans in Ashford, Canterbury, and beyond depend on unlocking strategic sites not just for homes but for infrastructure like schools, roads, and health provision.
The new system doesn’t necessarily solve every problem. Credits are finite, and not every site will be viable. But for the first time since 2020, developers may have a clear route to approval, and councils have a working process that will allow them to start meeting their housing need in a way that maintains the natural environment. It’s a compromise between growth and protection, and other areas across the country will be looking to see how well it works.
After being stuck for five years, east Kent’s housing pipeline may finally start flowing again. The test now is whether this new model can deliver the new homes and infrastructure that the county needs while also protecting an already delicate area of the natural environment.
Have a Kent story you think we might be interested in? Get in touch via hello(at)kentcurrent(dot)news - We’re always happy to talk off the record in the first instance…
Look, we know you’re bored of hearing about flags
Somehow, with everything else going on, flags have become one of the big issues in local politics. This was most notable last week, with the new Reform administration at Kent County Council pledging to remove the Ukrainian flag from the council chamber and refuse to fly any pride flags on or in KCC buildings.
So it is perhaps somewhat surprising to see a planning application submitted by Kent County Council shortly after the local elections requesting permission to fly, among others, the EU flag, the Progress Pride flag, the Romany flag, and the Windrush flag on County Hall in Maidstone.
Taking aside the slightly weird scenario where Kent County Council has to seek planning permission from Maidstone Borough Council to fly flags on Kent County Council’s headquarters, the timing of the application is curious. The application was submitted on Wednesday 7 May, less than a week after Reform won control of the county.
We can safely assume that the new Reform administration were not behind the application given the time frame and, well, Reform themselves, so who at KCC was behind the request to raise the flags above County Hall? The full application does include a number of more Reform-friendly flags, like ones marking VJ Day or Armed Forces Day, but it is hard to imagine Reform will be eager to fly the EU flag anytime soon.
We asked Kent County Council about the timing of the application and whether or not they will continue with the application given the county’s new administration, but we received no response.
If you have any insight on why KCC made the request days after Reform took control, particularly if you’re a mischievous officer seeing what they can get away with, we’d love to hear from you.
The shape of things to come?
With a new administration in place at County Hall, you might expect that they might be eager to hit the ground running and start putting all their meaningful policy pledges into action.
That doesn’t appear to be what is happening at Kent County Council though. After winning the election on 1 May, one full meeting of the county council met last week, but meetings in the coming weeks are very sparse.
In fact, all KCC committee meetings outside of appointments at Personnel Committee have either been cancelled or postponed for the next several weeks.
4 June - Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee - cancelled
4 June - Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel - postponed
11 June - Planning Applications Committee - cancelled
12 June - Governance and Audit Committee - cancelled
17 June - Regulation Committee - cancelled
As it stands, the first regular committee meeting expected to take place is Environment & Transport Cabinet Committee, scheduled for 24 June. However, there is a chance that someone just hasn’t got around to cancelling that either.
At last week’s KCC meeting, new council leader Linden Kemkaran promised to create a new Department of Local Government Efficiency (DOLGE) to try and tacke wasteful spending within the organisation. Perhaps this ‘streamlining’ of meetings is all part of that process. After all, it’s hard to waste money if you don’t have to make any decisions on how to spend it.
In brief
🏗️ A 1,600-home development on the edge of Birchington looks set to go ahead after the government refused to call-in and examine Thanet District Council’s approval of the scheme.
🚗 Nearly 80,000 speeding tickets were issued in Kent last year, with the M25 at Swanley catching the most number of motorists.
🚒 Kent Fire and Rescue have been fighting a fire at a scrap metal yard in Northfleet for three days. Residents in the area were advised to keep doors and windows shut as firefighters tried to control the 5,000-tonne metal fire.
🗄️ According to Home Office data, just over 1,000 asylum seekers are receiving support in Kent. This figure is lower than across much of the UK.
👩🏾⚕️ A nurse working at the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford has described experiencing constant racial abuse on the job. One incident earlier this month also saw her physically attacked during a racist tirade.
🚐 Travellers have won the right to stay on Medway Council land following a judgement from Canterbury County Court. The court ruled that removing them from the site they originally had permission to use would breach their human rights in a case that could have implications for other councils across the country.
🏘️ Spending on temporary accommodation in Folkestone and Hythe has increased by 148% over the past year. It is a pattern likely replicated across the county as more households face homelessness.
🏗️ Plans for up to 100 new homes south of Faversham have been submitted to Swale Borough Council. The plans also include extra care accommodation, commercial space, and a drive-through restaurant on land adjacent to the town's new Aldi and Premier Inn.
🇵🇸 A women’s football cup final being held at Maidstone United’s Gallagher Stadium was abandoned after the Kent club objected to fans waving Palestinian flags. After fans refused to take them down, both teams walked away from the fixture rather than play the game behind closed doors.
💣 A wartime bomb was detonated on Minster Leas beach in Sheppey after being found in a nearby garden shed. “I was actually quite excited. It's not every day something like this occurs,” one local resident told KentOnline.
🦟 Kent is the ‘perfect place’ for new mosquito species to establish themselves in the UK. Another climate change bonus.
⛴️ Uber Boat is operating a Kent to London leisure service on seven dates through the summer. Return journeys from Gravesend to London Bridge cost £25.70.
🎲 The Isle of Thanet News has been meeting the area’s game-loving nerds.
🐚 An artist is spending hundreds of hours restoring part of Margate’s Shell Grotto.
🎨 Great British Life thinks there is an ‘exciting resurgence’ happening in Dover, highlighting the blossoming arts and culture scene of the town.
🚂 Deal Town Council wants to introduce a seafront ‘land train’ between the town and Walmer, saying it would turn the area into a “premier tourist destination.” Sure.
🚫 Premier tourist destination latest: Walmer Town Council has closed a multi-use games area in the town due to the rather contradictory reasons of ‘regular complaints of noise’ and ‘lack of use.
Footnotes
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I'm glad the original Thanet article was intentionally 'nerd'-based, otherwise I'd have something to say about local government obsessives in glass houses...