LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Dangerous yellow lines Dear Sir – I was most concerned to read Ms Jung’s letter entitled “Still waiting for yellow lines” (Town, February). She asserts that residents are begging for double yellow lines to be installed in Tudor Avenue, butwearenot. Further,her statement that double yellow lines will make TudorAv- enue safer is also erroneous and the exact op- posite of their likely effect. I have lived in Tudor Avenue since early


1978. For the first few years there were nu- merous crashes and nearmisses on the bend, which is the junctionwith ParkAvenue. These varied from minor dents and scrapes to vehi- cles crashing into garden walls, street signs, and lampposts, crashing head on and, on one occasion, a car overturning. Thiswas all due to drivers travelling too fast


and losing control coming down the hill and entering this rather sharp bend. However, as the road has become more of a car park, these incidents have ceased. TudorAvenue is a steep, windy, narrow hill


and is not suitable for the high volumes of traf- fic that it suffers at peak times due to “rat run- ners” avoiding heavy traffic on the Sittingbourne Road. The parked cars act as chicanes and dramatically slow the traffic flow. The removal of these chicanes will vastly in-


crease traffic speeds and flows, making Tudor Avenue a dangerous road once again. A much better solution to the traffic prob-


lems in Tudor Avenue would be to close it at its junction with Sittingbourne Road. This woulddramatically reduce traffic inTudorAv- enue since itwould stop all of the through traf- fic. I recently conducted a survey of traffic using Tudor Avenue and it revealed that at peak times over 90% of this was through traf- fic. I also cannot understand Ms Jung’s asser-


tions that the majority of vehicles parked in Tudor Avenue belong to council employees. This is blatantly untrue. I do have the advan- tage of actually living inTudorAvenue andthe parked vehicles are a mixture of residents, commuters, prison workers and shoppers’ ve- hicles together with the occasional trade vehi- cle. I know this because I see themajority arriv-


ing between 6.30am and 7.30am, way before the council offices open and when I occasion- ally walk down to the station to travel to Lon- don I often walkwith some of these people. So please let us hear no more of this ex- tremely dangerous plan to install yellow lines in Tudor Avenue and take more sensible and safe measures to control traffic. John Critchell, TudorAvenue, Maidstone


Stumped by tree decision DearSir-Iwould like to add some comments to your story about Maidstone Borough Coun- cil’sdecision to place a treepreservation order on a tree stump in our garden (Town, Christ- mas). As a council taxpayer, Iwould have thought


that in the present economic climate, Maid- stone would have better things on which to


You can write to us at: Downs Mail, 2 Forge House, Bearsted Green Business Park, Bearsted, Maidstone, ME14 4DT or e-mail: info@downsmail.co.uk


spend our money than preserving a tree stump.


Whatever anyone’s views on whether or not


the original tree should have been preserved, the fact is that the tree did not have a protec- tion order and so we were completely within our rights to cut it down (which we did for safety issues). What is left is a stump, which at best will


grow back into a large unruly bush. Even the landscape officer acknowledges that “the stump of the tree may not be aesthetically pleasing to everyone”. At the planning meeting where this issue


was discussed, Cllr Tony Harwood stated that his telephone went insane on Saturday, Sep- tember 25, 2010 when the tree was felled and that the duty officer was called out. This was inaccurate as the tree was actually felled on Sunday, September 26. Nobody from the council bothered to make


any form of contact with us until the tempo- rary TPO was placed on the tree in July 2011. Cllr Harwood also stated that the tree was hacked down in a haphazard way. My hus- band resents this remark as he has over 40 years of experience felling trees and would do nothing to jeopardise the safety of his family. In a democratic society, I would have thought that we should have been given the opportunity to redress these inaccuracies at the planning committee meeting, but as we spoke first, that was not the case. In fact, none of the points I raised, including government TPO guidelines on the definition of a tree, were addressed in any of the ensuing com- ments from local councillors. We have been left feeling harassed and harangued by the whole experience when we have done noth- ing wrong. I would urge anyone with an interest in this


issue to watch the webcast of the committee meeting (November 3 2011) and form an in- dependent opinion of the proceedings. Is this really a democratic process and do we really want our council to waste our money protect- ing a tree stump after the tree has been cut down?


Kim Frazer, Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone


Thanks for friendly care Dear Sir -OnFriday, January 13, I was taken ill in Wilkinsons, Maidstone. I would like to thank a lady ina white and black checked coat whofirst came tomyhelp, also threemembers of staff, one of whom had medical knowledge and suspected I had a heart attack and called for an ambulance. The ambulance crewwere very friendly and professional, as was the paramedic. I was taken to Maidstone A&E and immediately given all tests in a very efficient, professional and caring friendly way with checks well into the night. I was allowed home during Saturday after-


noon, with more checks scheduled as an out- patient for possible angina. I would like to say thank you to all the peo-


ple who attended to me and for the few tasty meals I had. I am very grateful for being taken to Maid-


stone Hospital, which is within easy walking distance from home, rather than Pembury, which is not. Many thanks from a 79-year-oldmale. Name and address supplied


Sad for children Dear Sir –As two ex staffmembers of the for- mer children’s (Monckton)Ward at Maidstone Hospital, we are shocked by the sterile and clinical atmosphere for children at the new Pembury Hospital. Onour visit therewere 23 child patients but


we neither heard nor saw any as they were in virtual isolation behind closed doors. There was little to illustrate that the Hedge-


hogWardwas for children – no pictures, mo- biles, sound of children’s chatter and laughter. Monckton Ward was bright, colourful and


lively to help children and parents copewith a hospital environment. Children need the company of other children even when sick – not shut away by themselves. Parents also need to meet and share thoughts and emotions with other parents and to help each other. This is difficult if it means leaving your child alone in a room. I amvery sad paediatrics has come to this. Name and address supplied, Maidstone


Trolleyed off by Sainsbury’s Dear Sir - Are all those without cars now to be treated as ‘chavs’? Our local Sainsbury’s supermarket, close to Maidstone’s poor excuse for a bus station, is gradually adding to the difficulties for car-less shoppers. The rot set in a few years agowhen the store


closed the entrance/exit door nearest the bus station, yet left all the shopping trolleys at the farthest point away, at the car park end. This door closure, an official claimed, was for se- curity purposes. We the elderly, and the disabled, accepted


this explanation and proceeded to help each other with many a smile and “thank you” by wheeling our shopping-laden trolleys along to near the steep and narrow iron steps leading down to the buses. This enabled those carry- ing other goods to use these trolleys on their way to the far entrance, near the car park. Granted, the odd trolley would need to be collected, but with young men employed in trolley collection from car park locations dur- ing opening hours, this would surely cause lit- tle problem. The predominance of middle-aged and eld-


erly customers at this grocery store, would seem to merit extra care for such loyal cus- tomers. Not a bit of it. After introducing self-service check-out tills – little-used and causing longer queues (and longer dole queues?) – the store hasnowintroduced, as elsewhere, a £1 trolley fee while keeping the trolley point farthest from the bus station. We now have to return the trolleys to this


point, or forego the £1 return if we need the little help we formerly enjoyed. A sign of worse to come?


AudreyDGardner, Willington Street, Maidstone


DownsMail In touch with your parish Contractors were due to com-


Loose Council New PCSO


NEW PCSO Matt Williams was introduced.He is one of a team of eight covering an area as far as Staplehurst and including Cox- heath and Loose.


A £150 donation was made to


plete work on the Brooks Field project by January 20. The clerk would write to “Bob


the cap” (Robert Hall), expressing thanks for his help over the years and for taking several full van loads from Brooks Field while clearing work was being done.


the parochial church council. It was agreed that the parish precept for 2012/13 would in- crease by £1.30 a year for a band D property. Amanda Gould of Maidstone Council would be meeting with pavilion and playing field com-


mittee members to discuss the process for the award of £102,375 of Section 106 money from the Leonard Gould development. The committee had agreed to


do the white lining in the car park and reinstate double yellow lines to the end of Walnut Tree Lane.


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