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DENTON ISOLATION HOSPITAL—KENT DEVELOPMENT PLAN.
Early in 1954 your past Medical Officer of Health submitted to your Worshipful Committee
copies of correspondence which he had had with the Kent Council Planning Officer and the
Secretary of the Dartford Hospital Management Committee regarding a proposal to allocate to
primarily industrial use, including the establishment of a gas works, the land in the vicinity of
Denton Hospital.
After due consideration of the correspondence your Worshipful Committee endorsed the
views expressed by Dr. Morgan in his letter to the Kent County Planning Officer and instructed
Mr. Town Clerk to inform the Kent County Planning Officer accordingly and to ask that your
Worshipful Committee be provided with further details of the proposal and the opportunity of
being represented at any Enquiry which might be held.
The following is the correspondence referred to:-
Administration of the County of Kent,
Planning Department,
County Hall,
Maidstone,
18th December, 1953.
Dear Sir,
Kent Development Plan (Part B) 1953.
Objections No. 69 (Item 4) and 83—Isolation Hospital,
Denton Marshes, Gravesend.
Objections have been lodged with the Minister of Housing and Local Government to
the above-mentioned Plan, seeking an amendment thereto to allocate to primarily industrial
use the land south and east of the hospital at Denton Marshes, between the River Thames
and the Canal. You will also be aware that a proposal has been made to establish a new
gas works on the marshes further east, which is to be the subject of a Conference next week.
In regard to the representations that the Development Plan should provide for industrial
development south and east of the Hospital, I should be glad to have, as soon as possible,
any observations which as the Authority responsible for the hospital, you wish to make.
Yours faithfully,
(Sgd.) JAMES W. R. ADAMS,
County Planning Officer.
The Medical Officer of Health,
Port of London Health Authority,
5, Church Passage,
Guildhall, E.C.2.
5, Church Passage,
London, E.C.2,
23rd December, 1953.
Dear Sir,
Kent Development Plan (Part B) 1953.
Objections No. 69 (Item 4) and 83—Isolation Hospital,
Denton Marshes, Gravesend.
I am in receipt of your letter of the 18th instant referring to objections to the abovementioned
Kent Development Plan (Part B).
Denton Isolation Hospital was removed from the control of the Port Health Authority,
Corporation of London, on the entry into force of the National Health Service Act, 1946.
The hospital was in the first instance handed over to the Seamen's Hospital Branch of the
South-East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board, but recently it was transferred from
that Board to the Dartford Hospitals Group, who are now in control of the hospital.
Nevertheless, the Port Health Authority are still responsible for the prevention of the
entry of infectious disease into the port and, to that end, for the prompt and appropriate
isolation of cases suffering from or suspected to be suffering from infectious disease, and
their contacts.
Denton Isolation Hospital still fulfils an appropriate role in the arrangements made to
this end and, consequently, the Port Health Authority have an interest in securing that in
the vicinity of Denton Hospital no building should be erected within a distance which might
weaken the functions of Denton Hospital as an Isolation Hospital. The depth of the area of
neutral ground encircling the hospital on which building should not be planned depends on
the nature of the building, e.g., residential or industrial, and the population to be
accommodated.
In these matters the Port Health Authority would, I feel sure, wish to be kept informed
and to take part in any discussions relating thereto, and equally, I am sure, will the Dartford
Hospital Management Committee.
Will you please regard this as an interim reply which does not commit the Port Health
Committee of the Corporation of London but does, I am sure, reflect their views. Your
letter will be placed before that Committee at their meeting early in February.
A copy of this letter has been sent to the Secretary of the Dartford Hospitals
Management Committee.
Yours faithfully,
(Sgd.) M. T. MORGAN,
Medical Officer of Health,
Port of London.
The County Planning Officer,
Planning Department,
County Hall,
Maidstone.
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