St John’s College is seeking approval for plans to expand the size of a small coastal village in Kent by over one-third. The college is the principal landowner of Birchington-on-Sea village in the Thanet District in Kent and is listed as one of the applicants on planning permission documents for its development.

The plans include the construction of up to 1,600 homes on 194 acres of land and have faced significant backlash from the local community.

On the 1st September, Birchington Parish Council published a response to the most recently amended plans. After stating their objection to the application, they wrote: “The Parish Council believes that the proposed development is poorly designed, insufficiently defined and at high risk of non-delivery”.

The wider community has voiced opposition to the plans since the initial application, filed in December 2020. 700 objections are currently linked to the application. These list ecological and agricultural grounds for concerns, among others. 

The Birchington Action Group Against Housing Development has voiced their opposition to the proposals. One member of the Facebook group wrote: “this planning application is not for the good of Birchington and its residents, it’s to line the pockets of people who are already incredibly wealthy”.

Plans by Queen’s College to build accommodation on the Paradise Nature Reserve in Cambridge were turned down by the City Council in January earlier this year, partially on ecological grounds. The college claimed, however, that the proposed development would cause a 51% increase in biodiversity in the reserve. Queen’s College began the process of appealing this rejection in July.

An investigation by The Guardian in 2018 discovered that almost 26,000 acres of UK land is owned between Trinity and St John’s Colleges. A freedom of information request from 2021 has revealed that of this total, John owns approximately 3,885 acres of agricultural land in Kent.

The urban extension to Birchington-On-Sea is not the only application involving the college in the Thanet area, with a planning application for a 1,461-home development in the area having been made in May.

St. John's College has been contacted for comment.