Proposed Submission: Gravesham Local Plan Core Strategy

the day. A study carried out on behalf of the Department for Transport hasidentified three longer term options to provide additional capacity and furtherwork is being carried out on these. Kent County Council makes it clear thatthey support the option of a new Lower Thames Crossing to the East ofGravesend 27 . Gravesham Borough Council does not support a Lower ThamesCrossing in Gravesham and has resolved that such an alignment is notacceptable on environmental grounds. Until such time as there is asafeguarded route, it is not possible for the Core Strategy to take any accountof the implications of additional capacity.5.5.29 The Council recognises the constraints to the development ofGravesend Riverside East and North East Gravesend Opportunity Area andresulting impacts on air quality caused by the capacities of the junctions at theOrdnance Road/Milton Road and Dering Way/Lion Roundabout. It retains theaspiration for a road bridge to be provided over the Thames and MedwayCanal and North Kent railway line to link the areas to the north and south ofthe railway but this is unlikely to happen during the plan period.Impact of Development on the Transport Network5.5.30 A Kent Thameside multi-modal transport model has been used toassess the impact of development proposed in Dartford and Gravesham. Themodel runs have shown that, even when a number of committed and fundedtransport schemes are taken into account, and despite generally good publictransport provision, the level of development planned in the Boroughs wouldsignificantly affect the operation of the highway network. In response, apackage of strategic transport infrastructure improvements at key locationswas identified to enable the development to be realised whilst maintaining anacceptable level of performance across the transport network - the StrategicTransport Investment Programme (STIP). These are listed in the LocalTransport Plan and are subject to regular review.5.5.31 Additional technical work using the development quantities proposed inthis plan and the adopted Dartford Core Strategy to 2028 have shown that27 Local Transport Plan for Kent 2011-2016149