Representation by Cllr. Tony Harwood
- Date submitted
- 15 March 2021
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
The very special and perhaps unique landscape and ecology of the Swanscombe peninsula make it inevitable that significant harm would result if this scheme were to proceed. There exist other more sustainable sites, better related to the road and rail network, where a development on this scale can be achieved without as significant an impact upon landscape, biodiversity and the highway network. Further, severe weather risk and access and egress challenges make the tidal floodplain of the Thames an inhospitable location for a leisure park on this scale. Having studied the supporting plans, this scheme falls short of an exemplar in environmental terms and particularly in relation to ecology. The disturbance, lighting, 'tidying', application of pestcides and fragmentation by roads described in these plans would inflict a profoundly negative impact upon such a special landscape and ecology, which is a remarkable survival so close to our capital city.