downsmail.co.uk Silt raisingwater level
Dear Sir – I used to live in Maidstone and recall the Medway flooding to some degree before Tovil Mill closed. While the millwas in production, the Medwaywas dredged to enable barges of raw materials to navigate to the mill. It seems tome the river is now silted up resulting in higher flood levels. I may be wrong, but it'sworth investigating. Happy new year to you all. Bill Young, 15 Kentisworth Road, Marnhull, Dorset
Nurses’home should stay
Dear Sir – I amwriting about your recent article concerning the old nurses’home in Hermitage Lane. I live overlooking it, and am aware that the building has missed being a listed building by just one year, being built in 1926. I feel quite strongly that the building should be le as it is and be converted in to apartments. It is sizeable, rectangular and I understand there is a courtyard within, so windows could look inwards and outwards. There is an old coach archway leading through to this inner sanctum. Above the arch is the most beautiful Art Deco fan-shaped window. Green copper gables sit around the top of the building, and they could look very striking indeed. There is a back garden which with minimum landscaping could be lovely for the residents. This is an iconic building which needs to be saved and not demolished to cram in a large amount of homes, with roads leading to those roads and adding to mounting congestion in Hermitage Lane. Vicky Simmons, Edmund Close, Barming
Vicky, I agree that the demolition of the old nurses’ home will be a great loss to the area. With thousands of new homes earmarked for the area, buildings with character and historical relevance become ever more vital. Maidstone and TunbridgeWells NHS Trust convinced Maidstone Council that converting the old nurses’ home into new housing would be too expensive and the council felt that without it being listed it could do lile but accept the demolition proposal. Despite expecting a defeat on appeal, this may have been a rare occasion when the council chanced its arm, turned down the application and awaited the views of a planning inspector, who may have decided that the building was a non- designated heritage asset and should have been preserved. Sadly this did not happen and a great building will be lost without the council puing up a fight. Response by Stephen
Fight for BluebellWood
Dear Sir – Together with many other residents I feel very strongly about saving the area of ancient woodland inWest Maidstone that has become known as BluebellWood. All too few of these iconic and precious habitats remain in the borough and itwould be an act of vandalism to allow development
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Maidstone Town February 2014 27
to ride roughshod over such natural heritage. It is gratifying to hear the leader of the borough council express support publicly for thewood in the local press. However, the borough council’s cabinet’s lame surrender to a request from Croudace to extend the area for development to include thewood last March has placed it in danger.Was this an oversight or an act of cynicism? Those campaigning for the wood feel badly let down by this. By their fruits ye shall know them. If Chris Garland really doeswant to save Bluebell Wood, he should go to it! As for the residents: the fight goes on! James Willis, Freshland Road, Maidstone
Traffic rise will be disaster
Dear Sir –We and many other residents object to the proposed Croudace housing development between Allington and Hermitage Lane. We have wrien to Maidstone Council to tell them of our objections, the most pressing of which is traffic in Maxwell Drive. It is no longer proposed to have a restricted access via the Howard Drive entrance, not thatwe thought that wouldwork. The consequences of this will be disastrous for Maxwell Drive and neighbouring roads. There will be increased traffic to shops and schools in the Allington and London Road area. School traffic is already excessive in Ash Grove and Conway Road. More commuter traffic will head to the A20, instead of using the already congested Hermitage Lane. The A20 is also congested. Maxwell Drivewas never designed to accept the traffic which is now envisaged, and will become a rat-run for access between it and Hermitage Lane. We are elderly and our favouritewalk is through the open land to the ancient Bluebell Woods, as shared with many other locals who appreciate our vanishing green spaces. It seems incredible that the council is considering sacrificing a major part of our amenities and our standard of living. LC and EL Allen, Maxwell Drive, Maidstone
Protest over loss ofwood
Dear Sir – Proposed developments in the Hermitage Lane areawould add up to 820 new homes, which will bring upwards of 1,900 new residents and 1,200 cars to the area. Hermitage Lane, Fountain Lane, Tonbridge Road and the M20 Junction 5 are already gridlocked for several hours each day, and parking is nigh impossible at Maidstone Hospital and local stores. The Croudace development near the hospital proposes 500 houses on green fields and will destroy part, if not all, of the BluebellWood. Despite Chris Garland’s assurances,we have just lost OakenWood and I seriously doubt that this area of ancientwoodland will be saved. If Mr Garland is serious about protecting our environment, he will reverse his decision, which overturned the original plan, restricting this development to one field
and 200 houses. If your readers care about our environment, use Maidstone Hospital or travel along the routes mentioned, I urge them to protest. Ann Jackson, Corben Close, Allington
I can certainly see why you are all so concerned. Maidstone Council claims that thousands of new homes are required to keep the Government happy, which would be more acceptable were money also being filtered down from a national level for infrastructure improvements. The Government does not want to see local authorities raise council tax yet is reluctant to finance new roads, schools and improvements to other services. Section 106 money from a developer should help to a certain extent, but the only body that could prevent a situation that may cause untold harm to the quality of life to people on the west side of town is Maidstone Council. As well as concentrating more of the additional housing on brownfield sites, the council can set a modest homes target in its core strategy that will reduce the requirement for new development and test the fear that the Government will turn it down. Response by Stephen
Get realistic about parking
Dear Sir –Am I the only one that thinks that Maidstone Council’s planning members have their heads in the sand when it comes to counting how many bedrooms are in new or proposed developments against the number of parking spaces they require? All too often, I read about new developments comprising of one, two or more bedroom dwellings yet the number of parking spaces at said development is only the same or thereabouts as the total number of dwellings. Your article in the last Downs Mail about flats replacing the hotel proposed at the bottom of Tonbridge Road reported plans for 25 two-bedroom flats and 12 one-bedroom flats, but only 38 off-street parking spaces. The possibilities of having only one car per bedroom would mean that there could be 62 cars vying for those 38 spaces, and this ignores the fact that people have lives which include friends and family who might come to visit – where are all the cars going to park? Will Maidstone Council planning members ever actually use some common sense and realise that you need to have more parking spaces in these developments, especially those so close to the town centre, or do they all need to go back to school and do some simple arithmetic? R Planck, Barming
The problem is that parking controls are guided by KCC. The only way Maidstone Council can refuse a planning application for having minimal parking is if the county council objects on this ground, which almost never happens. KCC tends only to object if the lack of parking causes a danger to highway safety. It is too late to stop this application, but focusing your lobbying on this particular angle is my suggestion the next time you are dismayed at an application that compromises space for vehicle users. Response by Stephen
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