77 objections and no letters of support across the three Cliffe applications. A residents' group says two 1940s and 1950s deeds for the sports ground were never filed.

The consultation on the detailed plans for 250 homes at Cliffe closed on Thursday and Friday last week. Medway Council’s planning register now carries 77 objections across the three applications, and not one letter of support.

We counted them on the register on Sunday 31 August:

  • MC/26/1465, the 250 homes: 63 letters on file, 45 of them objections
  • MC/26/1466, the community hub: 28 letters, 17 objections
  • MC/26/1467, the replacement sports ground and pavilion: 18 letters, 15 objections

The rest are responses from statutory consultees. Southern Water, National Highways, Kent Police, UK Power Networks, SGN, National Grid and National Gas Transmission have all replied on the housing application. Natural England has replied on the community hub. The Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Residents Development Group has put in a submission on all three.

We could not read any of those responses. Medway’s planning portal now serves its document files behind a bot check, and every attempt to download one on Sunday returned an empty file. So we can tell you who has replied and when, but not yet what any of them said.

What the council can and cannot take into account

The principle of building here is not in play. The outline application, MC/22/0254, was refused by Medway Council and then allowed on appeal by a planning inspector on 28 November 2023, under reference APP/A2280/W/22/3313673. That decision fixed the maximum of 250 homes and the three access points, from Church Street, Cooling Road and Buttway Lane.

What is left for the council to decide is narrow: appearance, landscaping, layout and scale, plus the details of the hub and the sports ground. An objection about whether Cliffe should take 250 houses at all cannot carry weight now. An objection about where a pitch goes, how a street is laid out or what the buildings look like can.

We set out what is actually proposed, in detail, when the plans landed: Cliffe 250 homes: detailed plans in.

The dates that still matter

The neighbour consultations expired on Thursday 27 August for the hub and sports ground and Friday 28 August for the homes. That is not quite the end of it. The register shows the site notices running to Tuesday 8 September, and the press advertisements for two of the applications to Thursday 3 September. In practice the council takes comments until it makes the decision.

The statutory determination deadline on all three is 8 September 2026. The council’s own internal target is much later: 2 November for the hub and sports ground, 4 November for the housing. A fourth application, MC/26/1542, which asks the council to sign off the ground contamination conditions, is out to consultation until 16 September with a target of 8 October.

No committee date has been set for any of them.

The sports ground, and the deeds nobody can produce

The most substantial objection on the file is not from a resident. It comes from the Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Residents Development Group, which was a Rule 6 Party at the planning inquiry, meaning it had the standing of a main party rather than an ordinary objector.

The group’s case is published in full, though not by the council. Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Parish Council attached it to the minutes of its planning committee meeting on 2 July 2026, as Appendix 1. Two representatives of Esquire Developments and seven members of the public attended that meeting, and the group handed its document to the developer there.

The letter, dated 30 June 2026, asks Esquire for sight of every lease and sub-lease held between Medway Council, Trenport and previous owners of the APCM sports ground between 1975 and 2010. Its opening position is not obstructive: “We understand that houses will be built in our community. We also understand that the decision made by the planning inspector must be respected.”

Its concern is the sports ground. Its concern is safety. The group’s proof of evidence to the inquiry, CCWRDG/POE/06, argued that moving the pitches to the bottom of the village makes them harder to keep an eye on. “The current site provides clear lines of vision and a high level of safe use. The new site does not.”

Then comes the part that has gone unanswered for six years. The group says it first asked for the historical lease terms six years ago. Freedom of information requests have produced the more recent leases between Trenport and Medway Council. On the older ones, the letter says Trenport “have denied the sharing of any historical leases and Medway Council have conveniently misplaced them”.

Two conveyances that were never filed

The group’s evidence goes to the Land Registry title. The freehold was transferred to the appellant under title K823217 on 15 June 2001. Before that, according to the group, the site was owned by:

  • Alpha Cement Co Limited, 1934 to 1949
  • Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers, 1949 to 1970
  • Lafarge and Blue Circle, 1970 to 2001

Searching the Land Registry, the group found that a number of documents referred to in the title deeds are missing from the file. Two of them matter:

  • a conveyance dated 24 September 1946 between Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd and the Rural District Council of Strood
  • a conveyance dated 26 February 1954 between the same company and Strood Rural District Council

Both are named in the schedule to the title. Neither appears to have been filed. The group says it can only surmise what they contain, but that it is “quite probable” they relate to the sports ground site. That, it says, is why villagers believe protections were put in place as the cement works wound down.

Timeline of the APCM sports ground at Cliffe: sports club formed 1 April 1937, conveyance 24 September 1946, conveyance 26 February 1954, pavilion erected early 1955, cement works closed 1 April 1970, bowls club licence 6 February 1975, freehold transferred 15 June 2001, appeal allowed 28 November 2023, reserved matters consultation closed 28 August 2026
The APCM sports ground, from the record. Graphic by Medway Live, from the Cliffe and Cliffe Woods Residents Development Group's evidence published in the parish council's July 2026 planning minutes, and Medway Council's planning register.

Why a cement company built a sports ground

The history in the group’s evidence explains why the ground is felt to be the village’s rather than the landowner’s.

The group quotes an article published by Blue Circle in January 1952. It records that soon after Alpha Cement took over, “the first move was made to form a sports club, and on 1st April 1937, a general meeting was called to elect a committee. A meadow behind the works was acquired a sports field, and with financial help from the Company a pavilion was erected, and cricket, football and tennis facilities were provided. 1937 to 8 saw the first season’s football.”

A later passage in the same article describes the ground moving into the village itself, a mile and a half from the works, with a bowling green and tennis courts. A post-script put at around 1956 records that the pavilion “was erected early in 1955”.

Two dates from the record sharpen the point. The Cliffe cement works closed on 1 April 1970. The licence covering the bowls club is dated 6 February 1975, five years after the works shut. It is an agreement between Associated Portland Cement, the trustees of the Blue Circle Bowls Club and the Borough Council of Medway. The ground has been in community use in its present position for more than 70 years, and for more than 50 of those the cement works it was built for has not existed.

Medway Council leases the sports ground from the current owner, and that head lease carries a sub-lease held by Cliffe Bowls Club. The group says the bowls club has asked to see the head lease repeatedly since 2001 and has been refused every time.

What it means for you

  • If you objected, your letter is on the file and will be reported. But check what you objected to. Anything about the principle of 250 homes at Cliffe was settled by the inspector in 2023 and cannot be revisited at this stage.
  • You can still comment. The formal windows closed on 27 and 28 August, but the site notices run to 8 September and no decision has been made. Comments go through the planning register.
  • The decision is unlikely before November. The statutory deadline is 8 September, but the council’s own target dates are 2 and 4 November. Applications of this size are usually determined by the Planning Committee, and no date has been set.
  • The contamination sign-off is a separate consultation, open until 16 September, and it is the one that governs what has to be done to the ground before anything is built.
  • More on how the district’s applications work, and how to comment on any of them, is on our Medway planning applications page.

What we could not confirm

  • What any consultee actually said. The portal’s document downloads were unreachable on 31 August.
  • Whether Medway Council accepts that it cannot locate the older leases. The claim is the residents’ group’s, made in a letter to the developer, and the council has published no response to it. We could not find one on the planning file or on the council’s website.
  • The parish council’s formal position on the three applications. Its published planning committee minutes run only to 2 July 2026. The committee meets at 7.30pm on the last Thursday of the month at the Emmanuel Centre, Parkside, Cliffe Woods. A 27 August meeting would fall in that gap, and no minutes for one have been posted.
  • Who owns the land now. The July minutes record that Esquire Developments has acquired the site from Trenport. The applications name both.

Sources