Vision for Pluckley 2020 – A grandiose name for the Pluckley Parish Plan.

In December 2003 Pluckley Parish Council, in response to a request from Ashford Borough Council, sent in a Wish List for the parish. This was a very basic parish plan and following further discussions the amendment set out below was also sent to the borough council in August 2004

The Village Appraisal came out in 2000 and now needs to be updated. Funding has been made available from the KCC and Action with Communities in Rural Kent. A short survey will help to plan how the village develops - or does not develop - over the next 10 years. The new Ashford Plan is called The Local Development Framework (LDF) and the villages will be mentioned in the section Tenterden and the Villages.

The Village Appraisal was followed by the Design Statement. We’ve also carried out a housing needs survey. But as usual, things change and some of the earlier questions need a bit of updating.

Pluckley carried out a survey in the form of a questionnaire for their Parish Plan: a document that shows how you, the residents of Pluckley, feel the parish should develop over the next decade. Not just in the way of housing, but for recreational and leisure pursuits and quality of life. The survey covers topics such as: are more recreational facilities needed? How difficult is it to get to surgeries or the hospital? Are the cars and lorries going too fast? What kind of housing is needed? And so on.

The results are analysed and an information day, or two, takes place in the village hall and everyone can see the results and discuss what they think. It is the villagers that decide how the future develops.

The Parish Plan Steering Group think that this short questionnaire covers some of these aspects – but there was space at the end for you to add any further comments that you feel need to be considered. You can read the results of the questionnaire by clicking on this link

Although all comments have been collated, any resident who wishes to add other suggestions for discussion may do so by posting these on this website's comments page or discussing it with anyone on the steering group (Ann Murray, Jackie Allen, Janet Gwillim, Alan & Leita Davies, Peter & Margaret Osborne, Vicky Buchanan, Jenny & Martin Newman, Keith Edwards, Jackie Grebby, Jeff Moody, James Ashby.)

It is the responsibility of everyone in living or working in Pluckley to put forward good, workable, proposals for solving the many issues affecting the quality of life in the parish for the next ten years or more. Where do you want your children to play? Where should they be able to go to school? When they are grown up - where do you want them to live? How do you want to spend your leisure time? What medical facilities are important to you? If you are unable to drive, how would you expect to get about? Where do you want to live in your old age? Where would you like your parents to live? What....? When...? Where...? How...? There's many more questions/problems that need solving. It's up to you to bring these to the attention of the steering group.

Amended Pluckley Parish Plan (Wish List)

Introduction

As the parish council understands more about the structure of the Local Development Framework, it is essential that some details have to be added.

Sites for housing.

Ashford Borough Council say in their leaflet Parish Wish Lists and the Local Development Framework Update that in reaching the council target of houses by 2031, some 700 houses might be built in the villages around Ashford.
It is possible that some of the land in Pluckley parish may satisfy some of requirements for:

  1. Extra houses in the Ashford area,
  2. Local needs houses required in Pluckley
  3. Affordable housing for sale or to rent in Pluckley

There are areas in Pluckley which satisfy the Parish Design Statement and on which one two or even three small estates could be built. However, if this were so, then there are definite requirements, which would be essential.

  1. The houses would have to satisfy the requirements of the Parish Design Statement.
  2. There must be mixed development of houses for sale, to rent, affordable and rural needs houses. The affordable and rural needs houses must be ‘pepper-potted’ around the estate and not bunched together. (The Westfield estate in Pluckley is one such scheme.) It should also be possible to have small business offices and workshops, with the proviso that large delivery trucks would never be necessary.

If such an estate were to be built near the centre of the village, then the village would require an extension to the recreation field, which would provide a football field, a car park for both fields, space for a new village hall and space, in the future, for a new village school. The present village school holds about 110 children and some of these come from the neighbouring villages. Phasing out this intake would thus provide schooling for increased numbers of children from Pluckley parish.
If an estate were to be built near the station, then the following would be needed:

  1. Car parking for the station for about 50 more cars. The station also serves the neighbouring villages of Charing, Charing Heath and Bethersden.
  2. A footway from the station area up to the village centre.

Special Landscape Area

A map of the SLA in Pluckley parish is given in the parish design statement on page 10. It is desired by the parish to extend this to include the fields to the east as far as Bethersden road and to the north to ‘The Avenue.’ This avenue is the old way from Surrenden manor once owned by the Derings to the village centre. The views from and up to The Avenue are spectacular and are clearly shown on page 11 of the Parish Design Statement. A map is enclosed marking in green the extension.