Town Council defends Kendal’s Borders

Kendal Town Councillors have been mapping the impact of proposed development sites on the town’s boundaries. Responding to a consultation from South Lakeland District Council, the Town Council’s Planning Committee offered up a robust defence of the green spaces between the edge of Kendal and the surrounding villages. Chair, Cllr Doug Rathbone said, ‘our communities expect us to defend the integrity of the spaces they call home. Some of the proposed development sites for the new Local Plan just splurge across green fields, without any reference to the neighbouring communities. They don’t account for climate change, they don’t account for the pressure on local services, on water or sewerage, traffic and travel, schools or health facilities. We can and must do better than this if our town is to develop, fit for the middle of the 21st century.

Of particular concern were proposals to develop the remaining green field heights to the west of the town up to the bypass, and to ‘fill in’ the defining open spaces between urban Kendal and the rural village of Natland. Cllr Rathbone added, ‘the town is adjacent to a World Heritage Site. There is huge pressure on affordable housing, and we are all a lot more conscious of the environmental impact of different styles of development. The Town Council wants to see Kendal thrive in its existing footprint as much as possible. Any breach of the existing settlement boundaries must be for the benefit of all our residents, not just a handful of developers building generic, could-be-anywhere, poorly designed homes and neighbourhoods.’

South Lakeland District Council has been consulting on its new Local Plan for two years, with the current phase incorporating responses to a ‘Call for sites’ in which developers can nominate areas they would like to develop.