Kent International Gateway

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The Kent International Gateway is a controversial rail-freight and logistics depot which is proposed to be built in the countryside near the historic villages of Bearsted, Thurnham, Hollingbourne and Lenham in the district of Maidstone, Kent.

[edit] Proposal

The proposed development would be built in a theoretical corridor between the village of Bearsted, the M20 motorway and the High Speed 1 rail line. Comprising in excess of 112.3 hectares, it is intended that the site would cut motorway freight traffic by utilising the rail network and creating a distribution hub in a key location between the Kent coast (with its proximity to continental Europe) and London which is approximately 45 miles to the north-west.^[1]

The proposal is broadly aligned with the present government's Thames Gateway strategy which seeks to encourage business and residential expansion from London into north Kent and Essex (however the strategy is principally focused on the borough of Swale, a few miles to the north).

[edit] Objections

Since the site is located principally in a designated Special Landscape Area in the lee of the Kent Downs (an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and with close proximity to the historic mediaeval villages of Bearsted, Thurnham and Hollingbourne, the project has received extensive criticism and objections from local residents and Members of Parliament.^[2][3] The Campaign to Protect Rural England^[4] are also a key supporter of the local objections.

[edit] References