At the Hythe Town Council meeting on October 17 2024, long time Save Princes Parade supporter, Chris Farrell had a question for Folkestone, Hythe & District Council leader, Jim Martin.
As you know, Princes Parade is a unique piece of land to the east of Hythe, between the Royal Military Canal and the English Channel.
It is an area loved and cherished by the local community and by visitors further afield who return again and again to enjoy it’s natural beauty and tranquility.
Many councillors here this evening were part of the long, hard, bruising battle to save Princes Parade from being developed by the last Tory led District Council. None more so than Councillor Jim Martin and his wife, Elaine. In fact, Jim became a councillor to prevent Princes Parade being developed. So I would like to personally thank Jim and everybody else here, regardless of party, for saving Princes Parade. This is a very special area to me personally.
This wasn’t the first time that Princes Parade has come under scrutiny as a piece of land ripe for development. In the 1980s and 90s Princes Parade was considered as a site for a marina. Before that, a holiday camp and several times unsurprisingly as a housing development.
Between 1946 and 1975, Princes Parade was used as an unrestricted council rubbish tip. Tests conducted on behalf of the district council revealed high levels of injurious toxins just beneath the surface.
Regardless of the serious levels of contamination on the site, I am certain that at some point in the future Princes Parade will once again be regarded as a prime target for development.
I know that Councillor Martin, as leader of FHDC is holding a public consultation in the very near future asking people’s opinions on its future use. I expect the majority of people, like me, will want the area allocated as a haven for wildlife with minimal external intervention. But I am concerned for it’s long-term future. So, my question to you is…
Can you provide me with an update on the future of Princes Parade. What is being done to safeguard it from development and what steps are being taken to protect Princes Parade as a public space in perpetuity?
In response District Council Leader, Jim Martin said that what stopped the recent plans to develop Princes Parade was the contamination – and that it will be the contamination that will protect it in the future.
He explained that with Princes Parade being so close to the sea, tidal forces tend to push the contamination to the surface (a process known as dynamic hydrology) and said “…no-one has found a solution for this”.
He went on to say that removing the contamination was not an option. Referring to the application to build a marina in the 1980’s he said that “in today’s money” it would cost £100 million to remove the contamination completely.
To prepare a plan for the future of Princes Parade, Councillor Martin proposed a consultation in two stages. The first stage being an on-line questionnaire to enable [council] officers to get a feel of public opinion. The options being to keep the open space as it is and explore the potential use of the site to accrue biodiversity net gain credits; to maintain the existing car park and open space along with the play area; to support the canoe centre at its current location and look into providing a kiosk for refreshments.
“Once we get a feel of what people want, we will get some proposals together and have a face to face consultation.”
Councillor Martin said that he couldn’t promise a permanent solution – anything that this Council puts in place could be undone by a future administration and joked that “every 15 years someone comes up with an idea for Princes Parade so I think we should we should be absolutely safe for 15 years…”
Finally, going back to the contamination he said that there are no airborne contaminants but no one can say what’s on the surface at any particular time… it’s safe to walk on but you can’t risk ingesting the contaminants, you could get very ill. He warned that dogs sometimes eat grass and mentioned his concerns about people picking blackberries.