On Thursday evening Thanet Labour Group Leader Cllr Clive Hart put a motion to Thanet District Council to increase the minimum floor area size for all new flats to - at the very least - match those for decent social landlord housing requirements.
Cllr Hart says "During recent consultation on the Cliftonville Development Plan Document, residents expressed concern at the number of small units being created, leading to over-development and an overcrowding of the population in Cliftonville West, something my fellow ward councillors Linda Aldred, Doug Clark and I have argued strongly since our election in 2003.The conversion of properties into flats across Thanet has often resulted in cramped living conditions where smaller flats have been created to achieve a higher density of dwelling units. This has contributed significantly to over-development and over-crowding in parts of the district and in addition to everyday quality of life issues, there are serious knock-on effects regarding physical and mental health and crime in these areas of the island.
The Council's current ‘Conversion to Flats' guidelines specify a minimum standard of 50 m sq for a two-bedroom flat. This standard is simply not appropriate for modern day living here in Thanet. Through the 'no one-bedroom flat' policy in Cliftonville we have discovered that registered social landlords already insist on larger minimum sizes for their flats than TDC does for newly built or converted flats in the private sector and we call on the council to end that anomaly and fix one decent minimum size for all new flats in Thanet".
The motion has been passed on to the TDC Cabinet.
Note - The actual motion put to council on Thursday by Cllr Clive Hart - Seconded by Cllr Doug Clark :
"Following lengthy discussions with residents and neighbouring ward councillors during the consultation on the Cliftonville Development Plan Document and our many attempts throughout that process to have the minimum sizes for new flats increased, and as the council expressed the view during the DPD consultation that any size limitation on new flats should be decided for the District as a whole and not just for Cliftonville,
We now call on full council to increase the minimum area size for all new flats to - at the very least - match those for decent social housing requirements without further delay".
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