LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


‘Chuggers’ a menace Dear Sir – Thank you for addressing the issue of “chuggers” in Maidstone. It’s a sad but true fact that these charity collectors are indeed invasive and aggressive. The charities which they represent are all commendable ones, but people often do NOT want to be stopped in the street, or even run after, with the chuggers stepping into their path and their personal space to bully them into signing up to a direct debit scheme to bleed them every month. When people want to make efforts with a charity of choice they do so. They do not need to be herded like sheep, or be on the receiving end of bitter sarcasm if they say “no thank you” or continue on their way. If I am alone, the remarks to my back just glance off. If I am out with my children, however, then the mark is overstepped and I feel my blood begin to boil at their audac- ity. I then find it necessary to confront them and explain why I will not be stopping and whyIwillnot be signingupforadirect debit scheme to the organisation which they are representing. They are a nuisance, there are no two ways about it.


Stephanie Bray, by email


Pitch and pavilion plans Dear Sir – The Downs Mail has always been very supportive of our desire to improve The Mote sports ground. Maidstone’s premier cricket and rugby


clubs have agreed, for many years, we cannot improve facilities there without an enabling residential development, and we now have a plan winning support of many, including Maidstone Council, Kent Cricket Club and sports followers in Maidstone and Kent. We have held several pre-planning meet-


ings with Maidstone Council and hope to achieve planning permission to start build- ing work at the end of the forthcoming rugby season. Within little more than a year thereafter,


the facilities (including a new pavilion on the current footprint) will match the mag- nificence of our beautiful ground and en- able us to sustain, financially, one of Maidstone’s treasures on the border of Mote Park.We even plan to increase the number of trees and native hedgerows on site, with powerful landscaping. While house building will take place on


part of the upper rugby pitch, both clubs will retain the same number of pitches (two cricket, three rugby) by careful re-allocation and design of this 24-acre site. When all changes are in place we expect membership of both clubs to increase and help us add to recent sporting successes. Some other local sports now talk of joining in this exciting Mote experience. We expect the local community to enjoymany benefits too. We are in challenging, but very excit- ing, times. Trevor Langley, chairman Maidstone Rugby Club Development


Dennis Fowle, chairman, The Mote Cricket Club Development.


The real state of our park Dear Sir – Regarding the letter by Malcolm Luxton, his comments could not be further from reality. The letter he critically refers to in July’s Downs Mail is more in keeping with what I and many others consider a realistic state of affairs in Cobtree Manor Park. I have visited the park two to three times


a day for the past 12 years or so. Contrary to Mr Luxton’s opinion, the park is not “very


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


large” in proportion to the number of visi- tors now (Mote Park is large). Cobtree can- not accommodate the influx of people without it being detrimental to the beauty that was so appealing in this park prior to development. Far from “rundown”, it was what a coun-


try park should be; prior to being trashed by totally “out of character features” and an in- creasing number of undesirable visitors. Dog walkers are unfortunately now hav-


ing expensive vet’s bills as a result of their dogs having consumed human excrement, which is so disgusting. This has never hap- pened until this influx of visitors. We have some very large children in the


play area late evening after the gates are locked – I would say some are over 18. I would not expect an “occasional user”


of the park to appreciate the true situation. I witness daily the results of the night be- fore, when I walk early in the morning. The litter in the woods; poo bags in the


trees; polystyrene cups and fruit juice car- tons and other remnants from the café. In- cidentally the café prices have increased some 20% on certain items and much more on others so yes, they are somewhat exorbi- tant now. Further proof can be obtained from the taxi drivers and other people who used to call in for a quick cuppa. Recently, rotted old tree trunks and branches were dragged out of the wood on to the grass area and assembled in some pe- culiar form. Barbecue trays are left on the grassed area, and dog mess is not being picked up. Sadly, now the park is becoming popular,


it has attracted dog walkers who do not clear up after their dogs. The long-awaited poo bins (promised in phase 2) are not forthcoming but the new seating and litter bins are all in position – all a priority, no doubt. This is just the tip of the iceberg; the real-


ity is, given time, this park will deteriorate quicker than the time necessary for it to re- cover. The local people who once had a unique park, which was not well known and still in a natural state, are left to mourn its loss. It used to be so beautiful, but now sadly it is becoming yet another abused park like so many others, all thanks to Maidstone Council. S Thompson, Hilary Road,Maidstone


Dangers finally averted Dear Sir – In the August edition of Downs Mail there is a letter from David Berry, from Weavering, about the Notcutts roundabout. I assume he is referring to the one at the junction of Bearsted Road and the A249, and not the one at the junction of New Cut and Bearsted Road. The former has just had the layout altered whilst the latter has been increased massively in size in order to ac- commodate the KIMS development. If he is referring to the former, I am in complete agreement with him when he mentions the dangers that were formerly there, when trying to cut across traffic in order to access theM20 London-bound slip road .


When there was a public meeting before


the KIMS development, this is the same point Imade at thatmeeting whichwas dis- missed by Kent Highways. It now seems that Kent Highways agree that access to the M20 London bound was dangerous, so have removed the filter. It just shows that the public seem to be


more in touch with reality than the so- called experts.


Ian Stuart,Weavering


Cannon back to black Dear Sir – I amglad to hear that the historic cannon captured at Sebastopol is to be re- sited in the High Street. I have one request though. Could it please


be painted black? For some strange reason it was painted battleship grey last time. I have never seen a cannon painted grey be- fore, so let's put it back to black. DaveWoodcock,Willington Street, Maidstone


Praise after hospital stay Dear Sir–Ihave just had to spend six days in Maidstone Hospital. I was treated by everyone there with the utmost courtesy and consideration. The food was appetising and the whole building gleamed with cleanliness. Some bad things have been said about our hospital, but I felt I had to write to say that my experience was as good as it could have been.


JoyceWinning, Howard Drive,Maidstone


Get in line at roundabout Dear Sir - In view of the fact that the police will soon be empowered to levy on-the-spot fines for ‘careless driving’ offences, includ- ing ‘using the wrong lane at a roundabout’, this might be a good time to paint in some lanes on the re-designed roundabout be- tween the Hilton hotel and Notcutts garden centre near J7 of the M20 (and also, the en- larged hospital one at the top of New Cut Road).


Maurice Alexander, Fitzwilliam Road, Bearsted


Kent is place for airport Dear Sir – North Kent should be the area to benefit from the new London airport. Heathrow is an environmental cancer blighting the lives of millions. If London did not have an airport, Heathrow would be the last place to plant it. The prevailingwind comes from the west blowing all the airport pollution and car- cinogenous diesel fumes over London. Tests show tens of thousands of children are ad- versely affected: 13-year-old youths in bor- oughs around Heathrow are, on average, two years behind children in other parts of the capital because of the awful noise and airport filth. A new London airport should be in the


east, where pollution would blow out across the Channel. For health reasons, Heathrow should shrink not expand – ask the doctors at Ashford Hospital,Middlesex. An airport for Londonwill continue to be


a problem that should have been resolved in the 1970s. The various solutions pro- posed have been ducked by our gutless, spineless MPs. Heath had it in his grasp to build an air-


port at or around Cliffe. The solution was foiled by the RSPB and eco-freaks. I suggest that dicky-birds should have no influence on deciding where a new London airport should be placed. Birdsmigrate, bring disease, foul the land


and cost a fortune to control, very much like our useless MPs; for both these pests, the fewer the better. We don’t need a new island, we need a decision within a year and a good plan to drain some or part of the many marshlands already available in the Thames estuary. With a will, a new airport could be oper- ational by 2020, but sadly this will never happen, notwith this load of parliamentary invertebrates. Anthony Lang, Sandling, Maidstone


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