Town Centre Management update: Maidstone Business Forum Drivers urged to find new routes
MOTORISTS are being asked to use alternative routes into Maidstone during repairs to a gas main to prevent further clogging up of the county town. As Downs Mail went to press, roadworks had been causing de- lays through the closure of Knightrider Street. John Adsley, of Southern Gas Networks, told the business forum it would be necessary to reduce traffic by 10% to prevent complete gridlock in the town centre. Ideally, traffic would dip by 15%, he added. Signs on the M20 were to ad-
vise through traffic to exit via J7 and bypass the town via New Cut Road and Willington Street. The knock-on effects of the road- works were expected to increase traffic in Shepway, Tovil, Leeds, Yalding and the Farleighs. Mr Adsley said: “We are very
keen to avoid telling people to stay out of Maidstone, but the design of the road network means through traffic has nowhere else to go.We can’t di- vert through traffic, but we can divert local traffic.” Mr Adsley said an option would be to close Campbell Road if its popularity as a cut- through led to further conges- tion. He predicted that within a few days of the roadworks, driv-
Kick off night
ers would find other routes. Town Centre manager Bill
Moss said retailers would be af- fected as customers and staff struggled to get to and from work, aswell as deliveries being held up. “Clearly if deliveries can be
made earlier or later in the day, so much the better,” he added. He said problems were being mitigated in the following ways: There were no other road- works in the town centre apart from the High Street works. Maidstone Council’s mobile enforcement team would clamp illegal parkers. KCCwould have a dedicated highways officermonitoring the site for progress, safety and working conditions. Mr Moss said he would also
lobby KCC to extend the com- puterised urban traffic manage- ment system to cover Sundays during the work. In normal cir- cumstances, it operates Mon- days to Saturdays. Road works will take place
from 7am-7pm Monday to Fri- day, 8am-4pm on Saturday and 9am-2pm on Sunday. Mr Adsley said the threat of causing damage to infrastruc- ture meant itwas not possible to undertake work during dark- ness hours.
TOWNCentre Management has been behind a scheme inviting revellers to be breathalysed be- fore they go out for a night on the town. TCM has worked with Urban
Blue Bus volunteers. They have recently started carrying hand- held machines which measure the amount of alcohol in some- one’s system, and have been stopping people as they get off buses or coaches en route to a town centre nightspot. The readings are being meas-
ured against the legal drink- drive limit. “It is a very interesting piece
of research,” said Town Centre manager Bill Moss, who added that the findings could be used to campaign for stricter laws re- garding the sale of alcohol at supermarkets and off-licences.
Museum boost
COUNCILLOR Malcolm Greer said there had been a 12% in- crease in visitors to Maidstone Museum since it re-opened. He said the improved cater-
ing facilities will offer more opportunities for corporate use and that there was now space to offer entertainment. Japanese ambassador Keiichi Hayashi was due to visit the museum’s Japanese collection.
24 South
with breath test TOWN Centre manager Bill Moss said he had been en- couraged by the feedback he had received after Maidstone’s CCTV control room operations moved to the Medway Council centre at Strood. He said: “We promised Maidsafe members that it would be a seamless change and it has been. “I have been really encour- aged by the fact that ourmem-
Traffic is nose to tail in Palace Avenue during roadworks ‘Natural break’
as flame arrives THE first phase of the project is predicted to last three months, so should be complete by early July, enabling a “nat- ural break” to coincide with the Olympic torch arrival in the county town on July 20. The second phase, which
will see the closure of sections of Lower and Upper Stone Street, will take place later in the summer.
CCTV move ‘is a success’
bers have not noticed any change in service.” All the cameras have been retained and transferred to the new centre, where they con- tinue to be monitored in real time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The operators, who trans-
ferred from the Maidstone control room, continue to have direct links to Maidstone po- lice, shops and nightclubs.
Another bite at Portas £1 million
ANOTHER opportunity may arise to give Maidstone town centre a £100,000 Mary Portas revamp. The borough council has ap-
plied for the town to run a pilot scheme based on her findings. The 12 winning towns will share a £1 million fund de- signed to breathe new life into their town centres. Because of the popularity of
the initiative – about 300 appli- cations were made – a second raft of identical funding is to be introduced. If Maidstone is unsuccessful
in the first round, it will be able to reapply in the second round. The 12 different categories in-
clude depressed towns, market towns and coastal towns. Maidstone has applied under the successful town section.
Stores to open early to greet torch WHSMITH is one of the retailers planning to open earlier to take advantage of theOlympic Relay which arrives in Maidstone on Fri- day, July 20. The torch will arrive in the town centre at about 6.40am, having
spent the previous evening in Leeds Castle. Other shops, particularly cafes and restaurants, are expected to
open early to cater for the large numbers of people expected to flock to the town centre for the event.
Mr Adsley warned this would cause more disruption than the closure of Knightrider Street.
Businesses offered
compensation BUSINESSES may have the opportunity to get compensa- tion if their trade is affected by the roadworks. Companies whose annual turnover is less than £1.439m may be entitled to a payout. In- formation:
www.sgl.co.uk
it is the Fifties A 1950s-themed party will mark the official opening of Ju- bilee Square on the High Street. Vintage cars, jazz music from
the era and a tea party catering for 160 people will take place on Friday, June 1, to kick off the celebrations for the Queen’s Di- amond Jubilee weekend. Pensioners who can remem-
ber the coronation will be in- terviewed by school children as part of a journalism project. A plaque marking the occasion will also be unveiled. Councillor Malcolm Greer, Maidstone Council’s cabinet member for regeneration, said the Jubilee Square could in- cludeuptofourstaticorelec- tronic signs that could be rotated to advertise events and initiatives in the town. An electronic sign would cost
about £15,000 that could be paid for through sponsorship.
Signs are removed COUNCILLOR Malcolm Greer said around 1,100 items of clut- ter and redundant signs had been removed from the town in the last few years.
Town visitors down TOWN centre footfall had dipped by 1.1% compared to the same period the previous year.
You can e-mail the Downs Mail —
info@downsmail.co.uk Celebrate like
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