Residents ask Kent County Council for park sell-off reprieve
People fear land used as park could be lost
Last updated 24th Aug 2026
Residents fear an “oasis of calm” in a busy town will be lost to housing developers in a county council asset sale.
Three acres of open space in Riddles Road in Sittingbourne is under threat after being used for at least the last 75 years.
Local people use it to walk their dogs and children play sports and ride their bikes in safety on a patch of ground which was once part of a grammar school.
But landowner Kent County Council (KCC) has decided to sell the plot, with fears it will be lost to yet another yet more housing in the area.
Resident Ben Conway only discovered the KCC plan this week and has resolved to explore ways to save the land from the bulldozer, including village green status which would give it development protection.
He said: “This is the last little oasis of calm in the area, the last piece of green space. We want to keep it as it is but KCC plans to to sell it off, presumably to the highest bidder.
“The communication from the council has been totally non-existent. I knocked 150 doors the other evening and only about half a dozen knew anything about it.
“Nobody seems to know exactly when people started using the field or even if they’ve been allowed to but they always have for many decades.
“We have two big developments on the doorstep at present, so we need to protect this green space for local people and their children.”
Retired Border Force officer Tony Gray, 70, who has lived in the area for three decades, said: “I was shocked because I didn’t know anything about it.
“This field has been here probably for 70 or 80 years and is in the council’s local plan as a green space for use by the public. We have got so much house building going on that we are becoming a bit of a concrete jungle – what will happen to the wildlife if it gets pushed out?”
Guy Banister, a 38-year-old IT worker, said: “The way that this has been done shows great disdain for the residents of the area. You wouldn’t fit that many houses into this area but property developers want to make money and that’s all they care about.”
Sittingbourne Labour MP Kevin McKenna said KCC should not be selling off the town’s assets when the council is in the process of abolishing itself under local government reorganisation (LGR).
He said his team is putting together “a letter of questions” ahead of the September 24 public consultation deadline.
Mr McKenna said: “I need to know what is going. I would make the argument that KCC should not be selling Sittingbourne assets before the new councils come. KCC has no stake in the future of that site.”
The MP said that seeking village green status for the field is “definitely worth exploring”.
The site lies opposite allotments which are adjacent to the Ufton Court Farm housing development where nearly 300 homes are currently being built.
The KCC notice online states that the council “intends to make a disposal of open space land at Riddles Road, Borden…this land is referred to in this notice as the Open Space Land”.
Village green status is a legal designation in the UK protecting open land but local campaigners will have to prove the site has been for lawful sports and pastimes for at least 20 years.
The Reform UK county councillor for the area, Cllr Paul Webb, and KCC were approached for a comment but neither responded.
Cash-strapped KCC has been selling off assets, including buildings, land and art works to raise cash for the authority’s coffers.
The council along with the other 13 in Kent will cease to exist after 2028 when they effectively abolish themselves to make way for four new, large unitary bodies.
Swale council falls into the Mid-Kent area which also takes in Ashford and Folkestone and Hythe.