Land east and west of Church Street — the outline permission

The applicant’s own Utilities Assessment, filed with MC/22/0254 in February 2022 and put before the Inspector at the appeal as core document CD1-15, records a high voltage overhead line crossing the site at the location of the proposed playing fields, running from pole 712400 at the rear of ‘Rectory’ on Church Street and states that it is to be left where it is. The site plan Medway is being asked to approve under condition 41 shows no line, no pole, no easement and no clearance. The group raised the same point in its Objection Addendum of 11 October 2022, which called the presence of a 33kV overhead cable over a public sports field untenable. The appeal decision later recorded, at paragraph 63, that the existing overhead cables would be removed and redirected underground. The group filed a supplementary objection on this single ground on 8 September 2026, to be read with its objection of 7 September. It asks Medway to require a drawing plotting every overhead line and pole with its voltage against the proposed layout, to obtain UK Power Networks’ written position on the layout now proposed rather than on the illustrative one the operator commented on in August 2021 and to put the question to Sport England. Separately the group is writing to UK Power Networks direct, because the operator has never been asked about this layout and its answer is the one that matters. Neither the operating voltage nor how many lines cross the ground can be established from the documents on the council’s file. Comments on MC/26/1646 close on 24 September.