County cricket Victory in battle for play area
back at Mote? KENT County Cricket Club confirmed at its annual meeting a strong desire to return first- class cricket to Maidstone. A member questioned the
club missing out on the huge population in Maidstone and Medway Towns since 2005, when the club withdrew from the county town. Chief executive Jamie Clifford
said the club now felt confident The Mote Cricket Club’swicket had much improved and this would be testedwith many 2nd X1 games there this summer. He was pleased The Mote CC
now had major improvements in mind for the ground facili- ties, including a new pavilion, and when these were achieved Kent hoped for a very early re- turn of first-class cricket. Kent 2nds’ programme at The
Mote starts with a one-day fix- ture against Somerset on Mon- day July 1 followed (July 2,3,4) by a three-day game against the same county. The 2nds play a 20/20 game against Essex on Monday, July 22, with a three-day game start- ing on July 23. The 2nds play a three-day game against Sussex starting on Tuesday July 30 fol- lowed by a one-day game on August 2.
CHILDREN in Sutton Woods, Senacre are finally to get a new play area – after a year-long fight by their ward councillor. Developers who built on the
site of the old Senacre School in Sutton Road, were supposed to provide a “village green”, with a play area, as part of an agree- ment made five years ago. Asum of £300,000 was agreed, which would be split between ParkWood, Shepway North and Shepway South – where the children had beenmost affected by the school closure. However, when Cllr Daniel Moriarty was canvassing prior to the borough elections a year ago, he realised what should have been a pretty place to play wasnomorethanadumping ground for building waste. He said: “The open space with
play equipment should have been laid after 50% of the new homes had been occupied.” After being elected, the coun-
cillor made it his business to find out why the open space and play area on the original outline planning application had seemingly disappeared. He found that the developers
were in default of a binding legal agreement. Cllr Moriarty said: “Upper-
most in my mind was the sim- ple fact that a housing
The site of the new play area in SuttonWoods
development which consisted of 360 new homes did not have a play area where children could play and parents have an area in which to relax and watch their children at play.” He said: “For 10 months I ar-
gued that the developer was in default of the legal agreement.” Cllr Moriarty challenged the council’s officers over reports that the open space element had been achieved He said several comments in officers’ reports were based on presumption rather than fact. “The oversight was that no one bothered to go and have a look.” Cllr Moriarty was also con- cerned that the wording had been “twisted” to say the sports contribution of £300,000 was to be used initially to provide a multi-use games area in Park Wood, then for sports facilities in Shepway North and Shep- way South.
He said: “I didn’t mention anything about a MUGA, be- cause Park Wood already had one! My contribution was to go towards a skatepark.”(now going through the consultation process) The developer has now agreed a location for the open space and play area, to contain the latest play equipment. Cllr Moriarty said: “This will
be the idyllic place to have an area of play for children.” He continued: “I would have expected my comments to form part of the legal agreement. In- stead, it is written in such a way that it gives officers of the coun- cil carte blanche to determine where the money is spent, and what is to be provided. “The money could have been creamed off toMote Park and not used in the wards mentioned. “My diligence in fighting for
the residents of Sutton Woods has proved to be very fruitful. I never gave up on what I be- lieved to be an injustice. “Legal agreements should be a statement of fact, words spoken within the pre-application dis- cussions, and agreed upon by all parties, not written in a way that allows the slightest room for presumption or favours offi- cers of this council to deem oth- erwise.”
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