“New homes need to benefit local community” says Kentford and Moulton campaigner Jonny Edge

Liberal Democrat campaigner for Kentford and Moulton, Jonny Edge, has set out his thoughts on the large housebuilding project that has been given the green light in Kentford. 
Jonny said “New homes are not necessarily a negative thing for the local community, but they can be if they are not properly managed.
Any new homes need to tangibly benefit the local community and fit in with the character of what is already there. Many people living in the villages of Kentford and Moulton choose to live here instead of Newmarket because of the feeling of living in a peaceful village in the countryside. We don’t want that charm to disappear due to overdevelopment.
This is a great matter of concern given the quantity of imminent development. A 230 home development on the Animal Health Trust site on the edge of Kentford, was previously rejected by West Suffolk Council, but the Labour Secretary of State recently approved it and more. It has not had consideration within the West Suffolk local plan and is now set to consist of approximately 1,000 new homes and industrial usage. That will pretty much double the population of Kentford. 
There are also a further 30 homes planned for Moulton increasing the population of the villages by 2,431. This on top of the 500 new homes over the county border in Kennett and 988 planned houses going into Newmarket itself, in total increasing the local population by 5,942.”
Jonny continued “We can’t stop these new developments but need people within the existing community to work hard to make sure they are net positives. We need to see benefits through investment in public spaces, local health services, education provision and our transport network. Developers need to be held to account.
Unfortunately, as our current Conservative County Councillors have considerable property interests themselves in Newmarket and the surrounding area, they are incentivised to be soft on developers. We need County Councillors in Newmarket, Kentford and Moulton who are local people without vested interests and can represent the average resident.
Liberal Democrats in West Suffolk have been calling for a fixed Community Infrastructure Levy, which would replace the current negotiated system for infrastructure in new development with a simple fixed system, for every square meter of land being built on, the developers must give the council a fixed amount of money towards local infrastructure. I believe this would make the system so much fairer to ordinary residents, and housebuilding companies can be properly held to account.”