THE leader of Kent County Council has taken developers to task for complaining about paying for extra roads, schools and other community facilities.

Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockhart was responding to the news that many of the UK’s largest housing developers are lining up to try and halt a KCC policy that could see them paying upfront for community infrastructure before they are granted planning permission.

County planners have included the policy in the Kent and Medway Structure Plan, which will set out the planning policies to be followed by developers over the next decade.

Sir Sandy said developers had to be realistic. “Whenever I have spoken about the issue in Kent and say we must have larger contributions from both the Government and developers, I have never had anyone come up to me and say they disagree.”

He accepted that developers would want to contest the issue at a public inquiry into the Structure Plan which is due to be held in September.

But he added: “KCC has the largest capital programme in its history and we are doing our bit. Developers have to do theirs, too.”

The policy reflects the concern of KCC that the Government’s plan for a huge expansion of house-building, particularly in north Kent and Ashford, could leave it with a massive bill to pay for more roas, schools and other facilities.

Although the Government has pledged to meet most of the costs, KCC has put a £10billion price tag on the extra facilities that could be needed.