News
YALDING’SVillage Tea Rooms has changed hands again. The tearooms, opened about four
years ago by Liz Hayman, were taken over last year by mum-of- four Amanda Aldridge, fromWal- nut Close. Amanda said: “It has proved a
much bigger undertaking than I had thought. My family has to come first.” The business has been bought by villager Rachel Curley, and will be run by her mother Pam. The café will be open initially
from 8.30am to 4.30pm Monday to Saturday and from 10.30am to 2.30pm on Sundays. Rachel, who also runs a web de-
sign and vinyl graphics company, willwork in the café initially before handing over the reins to her mum.
Hall upgrade
LANGLEYVillage Hall is celebrat- ing a refurbishment and the instal- lation of a new PAsystem. The hall, in Horseshoes Lane, has
been upgraded with the help of KCC Cllr Eric Hotson’s member services grant and now the hall committee is working to get im- proved changing room facilities for the local football clubs that use the playing fields. The hall has a main performance hall, committee room and bar.
downsmail.co.uk Café change Parish funding cut agreed
ACONTROVERSIAL move to cut funding to parish councils has been agreed. Members of the Kent Association
of Local Councils (KALC)were ve- hemently opposed to the parish services scheme as a replacement for the old concurrent functions grant and, at one point, threatened to call for a public referendum. Several of the 41 parishes in Maidstone borough had set funds aside for a KALC ‘fighting fund’ to
take on the might of the borough. However, a year on, all parishes
have signed up afterKALCagreed to a modified scheme, with Tovil being the last parish to concede. The concurrent functions grant
was made to villages for services they provided that were routinely delivered by the borough council in un-parished urban areas, such as street lighting and verge cutting. Bearsted was entitled to receive £14,280 in 2013/14 – only half the
amount received under the old con- current functions grant. Boxley, likewise, received just over £14,000, to be spent on grounds mainte- nance, the war memorial, notice- boards and the closed churchyard. In the much smaller village of Otham, the council received £1,821 – again, just over half what it re- ceived under concurrent functions. According to a spokesman for Maidstone Council all parishes had now signed up to the scheme.
Local plan ‘must be questioned’
Continued from page one “Afigure of 19,000 is an extraor-
dinary increase. It can’t be right or correct. “Any local plan that suggests an increase from the South East Plan of more than 15% needs to be se- riously questioned.” KCC has rejected Maidstone Council’s latest integrated trans- port strategy proposal, which in- cludes a new 1,000-car park and ride facility in Linton. It also suggests widening part
of Sutton Road, a hike in long-stay parking charges, reduction in the
number of long-stay spaces and improvements to Medway tow- paths. Cllr Carter, who did not explain
the reason for this rejection, insists KCCand Maidstone Council need to agree housing targets and loca- tions before dealing with infra- structure and transport issues. “We need to come up with a sensible figure at sensible loca- tions. I am sure we can find a so- lution.” As Downs Mail went to press, Maidstone Council was due to unveil 58 sites selected for devel-
opment, which will provide more than 8,000 new homes. Cllr Chris Garland, the borough council leader, said: “We haven’t set a housing target yet and we don’t have sites for more than 17,100 dwellings, but the council will have to prove before a gov- ernment inspector that it has done everything possible to meet the objectively-assessed housing need for the borough. “If we do not, our plan will be rejected and we will lose control over development in the bor- ough.”
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