Representation by Stuart Richard Chappell
- Date submitted
- 24 February 2023
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
It is not in the national interest to grant consent to a proposed development order without providing replacement ancient woodland. The consent order proposes use of immature tree saplings on fragmented sites. The loss of ancient woodland and its associated long-established complex eco-systems, including several ancient and veteran trees cannot be considered as in the national interest given the level of fragmentation and immature replacement planting provided in the development consent order. It is not in the national interest to grant consent to a proposed development consent order where the development scheme is placed upon an area commissioned and undertaken by English Heritage therefore as archaeologically significant and mapped aerially by the Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project* publication and the University of Cambridge Collection of Aerial Photography (CUCAP). Sites such as the Shorne Bronze Age barrow and ring ditch* photographed as part of the CUCAP collection, together with the surrounding unique sarsen stone deposits recorded on the Kent HER Historic Environment Record in the development consent order are without mitigation. Metropolitan London Green belt designated land is irreplaceable and was established in the national interest alongside National parks and SSSI designations to provide a national framework of protected sites based on landscape classification and characterisation. A proposed highway scheme can be replaced and relocated. A sustainable solution towards maintaining the national framework of land designations is to construct the highway infrastructure project at the existing infrastructure tunnel site thereby ensuring the scheme is sustainable and not impacting negatively within the Metropolitan London Green Belt designated site. *Carpenter et al (2013) Hoo Peninsula, Kent: Hoo Peninsula Historic Landscape Project. Historic England Research Report Series 21-2013 **University of Cambridge (2022) Geography Department; Collection of Aerial Photography(REDACTED) Accessed: 24 February 2023 ***Collection of Aerial Photography (1976) Barrow, 0.75 mile NW of Shorne, University of Cambridge (REDACTED) Accessed 24 February 2023