GRAVESEND: Residents oppose 'eyesore' sheltered housing scheme (From News Shopper)

GRAVESEND: Residents oppose 'eyesore' sheltered housing scheme

12:46pm Monday 8th March 2010 in

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PLANS to build sheltered housing on green space have been met with furious opposition from local residents.

More than 100 people have signed a petition against Sanctuary Housing Group’s plans to build 73 flats for the elderly on a field between Taunton Vale and Truro Road in Gravesend.

The building will range from two to five storeys in height and will replace Wimborne House, a 31-flat sheltered housing block already on a section of the land.

If the planning application is permitted by Gravesham Council, the new area of development will consume around one acre of the field.

Truro Road resident Mandy Hearn and her partner Tim Multon started the petition because they say the development will “change their lives for the worse”.

Miss Hearn, 41, said: “I bought this house because of the field out the front and the outlook we have, and this new building will take that away.

“Children play on the grass and people walk their dogs there, so the land is a big part of this community.

“This building will block sunlight from our homes and be an eyesore. We don’t want it.”

Truro Road resident Alice Sakura Dartnell, 23, plans to apply to Kent County Counil to have the land declared a town green, which would ban development.

She says the land should be preserved as it is one of the few green spaces in central Gravesend.

A Sanctuary spokeswoman said the flats will be part of its Extra Care scheme, where elderly residents live independently but have access to support staff.

She said: “The scheme is much-needed in the area because there is currently no Extra Care housing in the borough.

“To build the scheme we will be using a very small proportion of the total green amenity space and have designed the building to have minimal visual impact on the surrounding properties.”

Public consultation on the planning application ends today (March 10) and Gravesham Council is expected to decide whether to approve it next month.