Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be separated into three main categories: physical infrastructure (such as highways and public realm improvements); community infrastructure (such as schools, adult social services, and cultural facilities); and green, grey, and blue infrastructure (such as play spaces, natural and semi-natural open space, and sports pitches, as well as other essential infrastructure such as flood mitigation, utilities, and digital connectivity). These can be explained as follows:-

Green: network of natural and semi-natural features, including, for example, street trees, green roofs, parks, ponds, rivers, woodlands.

Grey: human engineered infrastructure, including the pipes, pumps, ditches, and detention ponds engineered by people to manage stormwater.

Blue: linked to water and includes pools, ponds and pond systems, and watercourses.

The Local Plan Vision is clear; it is expected that future infrastructure to mitigate the impact of development, or in the case of the strategic sites at Paddock Wood including east Capel, to deliver 'betterment' in flooding terms to particular areas, should be largely funded by development to ensure that the development is acceptable in planning terms.

As required by the overarching Local Plan policy STR/SS1 there is a certain amount of strategic Infrastructure required to support the development of Paddock wood and land at east Capel. This is set out on page 149 – 150 of the Local Plan.

The Council will set up an Infrastructure Delivery Board (IDB for short) to oversee the delivery phases of the strategic site at Paddock Wood and land at East Capel (Policy STR/SS1) developments. The members of the delivery board will be appointed by the Council from the developers and Paddock Wood Town Council and Capel Parish Council. More information will be provided on these pages when the IDB is operational.

Historically there has already been housing development which has seen Paddock Wood expand in accordance with previous local plan policies. These developments are now largely complete with some of the associated infrastructure having being delivered and some still to come.

These pages will be updated as the Infrastructure delivery becomes clearer and as development applications are determined.