This is reposted because the deadline for objecting to the plans to gentrify Standard Quay has been put back – there is still time for intheboatshed.net readers to make a difference!
How would you feel, if I told you someone wants to plonk a restaurant right in the middle of the site shown in this photo – and that this would likely be the first step in a redevelopment of the area that could include more restos and cafes, and maybe housing?
Wherever this happens, working boats, sailing barges and the people who work on them come under pressure and generally have to leave. It’s been a blight all round our coast, and most of the boaty working folk have felt driven to leave Faversham’s Standard Quay already.
If like me you feel the planning authorities should take steps to save this historic old quay and return it to its old use as a boatyard and busy wharf, we have just a few days to place our objections to the restaurant plan. Read the background here.
To do so, go to the website www.ukplanning.com, search for Swale Borough Council, then go to the applications and use the search box to hunt down applications applying to Standard Quay. There are just a few days left to lodge your reasons for objecting to the proposed development.
I guess we’ll all have our own objections, and that they will become obvious from reading the documentation. My guess is that some intheboatshed readers might include the planned changes to Building no 1 itself, and perhaps the undeniable fact that establishing a restaurant at this site will be the end of hopes that Standard Quay will again be bustling with traditional craft – which it was until not long ago, before established marine businesses left in a hurry.