Labour's bulldozing through planning laws sets a 'dangerous precedent' for democracy

THE steady stream of bright green protest signs is unmissable. Proudly displayed outside people's homes, they make clear a fierce battle is being fought in the usually quiet residential streets of Whitstable.

- Adam Toms

Lismore Road, situated less than two miles from the north coast of Kent, has many more cars parked along it than is usual. Next to a huge patch of farmland at the street's south end, a large crowd of locals has gathered. Winter weather has set in but, wrapped in coats, hats and gloves, the campaigners refuse to let the chill stop them from making their presence known, so anxious are they that the character of their seaside community is at grave risk.

One gentleman stands with two border terriers. He, like others, has taken the opportunity to combine a dog walk with the chance to voice his opposition to a new housing development on the exact land where we are standing.

It is a development with 1,400 houses, the largest-ever one in Whitstable. And for a town of only around 30,000 people, famous for its oysters, it will be an unrecognisable increase.

The protesters have called their campaign group Save Brooklands Farmland. They have a long list of concerns, top of which is interference from Whitehall who they fear will ultimately decide their fate.

Last week it was revealed how Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner plans to force councils to allow building on large swathes of green belt land by reclassifying huge areas as "low quality green belt" or "grey belt" so Labour can meet its target of building 1.5 million homes by 2029.

If green-lit, the Brooklands Farm development will be built over agricultural land outside nearby Chestfield, a village essentially already swallowed up by Whitstable. The plans include a primary school, SEND school and new slip roads onto a dual carriageway.

Residents in Whitstable say the overhaul of planning laws is being enforced already in the nearby town of Sittingbourne, which could set a dangerous precedent as communities risk losing their identities, more of which later.