We’re taking the fight for the Hoo Peninsula to the Planning Inspectors!

Our campaign has now reached a critical stage, with specialist lawyers, an ecologist and a planning barrister involved in challenging the proposals through the formal Local Plan process. If you can help us continue this work, please click here to donate to our CrowdJustice fundraiser. A huge amount has happened since we launched the legal fundraiser.

Thanks to the generosity of people who care about the Hoo Peninsula, Save The Hoo Peninsula has been able to instruct Richard Buxton Solicitors, specialists in environmental, planning and public law, together with an experienced professional ecologist.

In March, our lawyers wrote directly to the independent Planning Inspectors examining Medway Council's new Local Plan, raising serious concerns about important supporting evidence that had not been available during the Council's Regulation 19 consultation.

The Inspectors subsequently referred specifically to the points raised in our lawyers' letter when questioning Medway Council about the missing evidence.

Further consultation was then carried out on supporting Local Plan documents.

But we didn't stop there.

Our lawyers examined the additional evidence and made a further detailed legal submission in July, including serious concerns about the Habitats Regulations Assessment and whether there is sufficiently robust evidence to demonstrate that the environmental impacts of thousands of additional homes can be adequately mitigated.

We have since submitted a formal Hearing Statement to the Local Plan Examination.

And we have now taken another major step.

Jack Parker of Cornerstone Barristers has been instructed to represent our case before the independent Planning Inspectors.

The formal Medway Council Local Plan Examination hearings begin on Tuesday 15th September.

This is where many months of legal, ecological and campaigning work begin to come together.

The proposals we are fighting are enormous.

Around 6,000 houses are proposed around Chattenden, Hoo and High Halstow, alongside thousands more elsewhere on and around the Hoo Peninsula.

These proposals could permanently change our countryside, farmland, villages and wildlife habitats.

The Hoo Peninsula is home to nationally and internationally important wildlife, including Nightingales, breeding waders and threatened farmland birds, while its surrounding estuaries and marshes support huge numbers of wintering and migratory birds.

We need to make sure these proposals are subjected to the strongest possible scrutiny.

BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP TO KEEP GOING

Taking professional legal and ecological advice costs money.

Barristers, solicitors and specialist experts all need to examine evidence, prepare submissions and respond as the Local Plan Examination develops.

There may be further hearings, further evidence and further legal work required.

We don't yet know how much professional work will ultimately be needed - but we want to make sure that when important decisions have to be made, we have the resources to act.

If everyone receiving this email donated even a small amount, it would make an enormous difference.

£5, £10, £20 or whatever you can afford genuinely helps.

The councils, developers and major landowners involved in these plans have access to professional planning teams, consultants, lawyers and technical experts.

Our community needs professional expertise too.

Your donations have already enabled us to build that team.

Now we need your help to keep them fighting for the Hoo Peninsula.

Please donate if you can:

DONATE TO SAVE THE HOO PENINSULA

And if you are unable to donate, please consider forwarding this email or sharing the fundraiser with friends, family and neighbours.

Thank you to everyone who has already supported the campaign. We genuinely could not have reached this stage without you.

Together, we are making sure the Hoo Peninsula has a voice.