Representation by East Kent Wellbeing (East Kent Wellbeing )
- Date submitted
- 7 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
East Kent has been associated with health giving properties since the Georgians first took to the coast in the 18th Century. Bathing machines were invented in Margate for ladies to change. Piers were built to allow people to get the maximum health benefit from 'taking the sea air'. Herne Bay combined tourism with ‘healthmaking’, and postcards from the time promoted the town as ‘the healthiest spot in England’. The popularity of the British seaside peaked with the arrival of the railway. Then in the late 1970's competition from cheap foreign holidays with guaranteed sunshine arrived. As a consequence, many of Britain's seaside towns went into a steep decline.
More recently though, the dynamic has been changing. Tourism to this area is again on the increase, people are moving from London looking for a healthier lifestyle, and more people are setting up in business for themselves. There is now a wealth of individuals and groups in the area that offer services that enable a proactive approach to good health and wellbeing and ill health prevention.
We live and work in East Kent as wellbeing practitioners, and are working to put this area back on the map as one of the healthiest destinations in England by building an online directory and hosting health and wellbeing events.
This cargo airport would mean that far from being a healthy destination, East Kent would become less accessible by road due to the increased congestion from commercial vehicles, more polluted (both noise pollution and air quality), and would become less of a destination of choice by those wanting a healthier lifestyle. This would not only be very bad for business for all the health and wellbeing practitioners living and working in East Kent, but would reduce the quality of life of those of us who chose to live here.