Planning for change in Tonbridge?...

Last night I went to the Civic Society's monthly meeting at the Angel Centre to hear what Steve Humphrey had to say. Steve has got some fancy title but basically he's in overall charge of planning matters in Tonbridge (and let's not forget Malling.) He and his team have a large say in what buildings go and which don't go in our town. Many of the decisions he takes effect Tonbridge not just right now but for future generations too. He ran through the main developments under consideration at present and they include the Botany area, which has just had a major and rather hideous in my opinion, planning application rejected, West Kent College's new building, which is a £70 million project, large in anyone's book; and then there was Tonbridge School's new sports and media centre, the Riverside Centre, with its 11 storey church tower and the list went on. Many of these developments could change the skyline of Tonbridge for good, and it is slightly worrying, but also a bit exciting, that there is no cap on the height of a new building in the town; each case is taken on it's own merits according to Steve. It has to be inkeeping with the town and it's overall strategic plan and it has to be, to use Mr. Humphrey's phrase, fit for purpose. So in other words it's completely down to the imagination of the developers and the discretion of the handful of, probably overstretched, workers in the planning department at the council. We are pretty much in their hands. There have been a few notable exceptions where the voices of the townsfolk have been heard when they've objected to large projects, such as Oracle's 15 storey tower block development, but these instances are few and far between. The civic society in Tonbridge seem to have their heart very firmly in the right place, even if they are by nature a rather genteel pressure group, but is that enough? The town it seems is at a crossroads in it's development, and the recession, by the way will only slightly delay the final outcome: will Tonbridge stay as a quaint little one street town hanging on to it's market town past? Or will it embrace change and not stand in the way of developers, who may have spotted its potential to develope into something much more significant? Next time you're down that way take a look at the vast acres of space around the Angel Centre, Botany, the railway car parks and imagine how it would look with a huge shopping centre and 15 or twenty story flats and offices above. Ask yourself do you like what you see....