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Coffee morning THERE will be a coffee morn- ing in aid of Macmillan Can- cer Support at ShepwayYouth and Community Centre, Cum- berland Avenue, Maidstone, ME15 7JN, from 11am to noon on September 27. The country’s biggest coffee morning will see people up and down the country hold- ing coffee mornings to sup- port this charity. For details call Julia Moore on 07841 751465.


Log cabins agreed PLANNING permission was granted for two timber log cabins to be erected for short- term lets at Lock House, Allington Lock, Castle Road, Maidstone. Maidstone Council gave


the go-ahead on condition that the accommodation is only occupied for a maxi- mum of three weeks per sin- gle letting and between March 1 and October 31.


Ram raid warning MAIDSTONE Council has is- sued a security warning to a High Street bank after giving it permission to install an ex- ternal cash machine. The council advised Chel- tenham & Gloucester to “li- aise with Kent Police to seek advice regarding ram-raiding precautions”.


Council ‘lost £1m Next boost’ Continued from page one


a priority, but my priority is to control development by getting a core strategy as soon as we can. CIL can follow quickly on.” Cllr Tony Harwood, a member


of the planning committee who was vehemently opposed to the Next scheme, said: “The obvious point is that £100,000 does not begin to cover the independently assessed 2.13% hit on town cen- tre trade that such a large out-of- town format with free parking will inflict. “The main catchment for the out-of-town mega-store will be urban Maidstone and its sub- urbs and villages, all to the south of the M20, so traffic and congestion levels on the ap- proaches to the Eclipse sitewill increase. “Further, such a large glass- fronted, brightly-lit retail unit so close to the Bearsted Road will profoundly change (for the worse) the character of leafyVin- ters Park and Penenden Heath. “Polarising light by day and artificial light by nightwill pose a particular problem for local residents at Vinters Park and local wildlife.” Cllr Denis Spooner, chair of Bearsted’s planning committee, said the controversial decision to allow the building of the huge home store on land origi- nally designated for office space


could set a dangerous prece- dent, particularly in relation to the upcoming plans for the Not- cutts site. He told the parish council:


“This is the kind of story which makes the front page of the Es- tates Gazette and gives out the signal to developers everywhere that Maidstone is a soft touch. “In so far as the Notcutts site


is concerned, I do not see how Maidstone can now resist grant- ing permission for amassive re-


tail development there as well, as it is already a retail space.” Because the granting of the permission goes against the local plan, it could yet be called in by the Secretary of State and dealt with by public enquiry. However, with both the local authority and the developer ef- fectively coming from the same side, any opposition would have to come from residents, the parish councils and the town centre management.


Protest plea to Government fails


OPPONENTS of plans to build a Next at Home store near J7 of the M20 at Bearsted have suffered another setback, with news that the Secretary of State for Communities, Eric Pickles, has decided not to “call in” the plans. Maidstone town centre management’s board of directors voted to op-


pose themulti-million pound development,whichwent on to get planning approval in June, and wrote toMr Pickles, along with severalmembers of the council, asking him to look again at the proposals. However, Mr Pickles says the key policy issues do not involve a conflict


with national policies on important matters or have long-term impact on economic growth, nor raise architectural and urban design issues. Inaletter to the council, the SecretaryofState sayshedoes not consider


there is sufficient reason to call in the application and has decided it can be determined at local level. Cllr Tony Harwood said: “This disgraceful decision comes as little sur-


prise after the decision at OakenWood. It is clear that…the environment and local communities arewell behind big business on his priority list.”


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