Kent County Council faces challenge over decision to scrap historic lamp posts

THE Deputy Chairman of the Canterbury Society has said the organisation will be fighting the decision by Kent County Council to replace historic lamp posts.

Speaking on GB News, Guy Mayhew said: “Canterbury is uniquely placed. We have three World Heritage Sites in our city, so the setting around those, including the historic streets, the street lighting, they’re all subtly part of that identity that is Canterbury.

“It is why people come and visit our beautiful city.

“These lampposts can last generations with fair maintenance. So things like painting, routine works, the highways authorities, so Kent County Council, they’re responsible for maintaining these assets. Canterbury City Council, the local council, is the planning authority, so they’re responsible for maintaining the conservation area.

“The two should work in tandem. But what we’re seeing is that Kent County Council are charged with maintaining these assets, like street lighting, and the city council should specify how that’s done, so whether it’s like for like replacements.

Kent lamps GB News.jpg

“I believe that with a fair amount of TLC, and you know, perhaps using some of the works like the £20 million levelling up money that the city has been awarded that could have been used to have kept these lampposts going for future generations down the line.

“We looked at the various planning tools available. The challenge with listing is that that’s quite a lengthy process with Historic England, and it doesn’t necessarily stop the permitted development that the county council are currently doing.

“The most expedient way that we found for this to stop happening is to issue what’s called an article four, and that’s within the gift of the current city council.

“What that does is it takes permitted development rights away from the county council because it’s in a conservation area and forces any changes or modifications to what’s there already under the planning microscope and then due process and dialogue can happen.

“The emergency article four can be issued straight away, so that’s what we’re calling for. It’s the most expedient course of action in our view.”