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downsmail.co.uk
River festival sinks but carnival set to return
Hostel plan for
former hotel MAIDSTONE Council has bought a hotel for £600,000 to use for emer- gency accommodation. The authority has submitted a planning application to convert Aylesbury House, at 56 London Road, into a 12-bedroom hostel for people it has a duty to ac- commodate when they become homeless, such as families. A spokesman said it would
save the council money. “Often placements are made outside the borough, which impacts nega- tively on the health and well- being of those households,” said a supporting statement, which added that the hotel was no longer viable. The council was unable to re-
veal how much the building wouldcosttoconvertormain- tain as the development was going out to tender. The council’s planning committee will deter- mine the application.
Parking talks
A PROPOSAL to build five town- houses on the site of St Luke’sMed- ical Centre has been deferred due to a lack of parking. The medical centre, on the junc-
tion of Holland Road and St Luke’s Road, is being sold off for housing so it can merge with the Marsham Street Surgery at the former NFU Mutual Building in Albion Place. The application provided no off-
road parking spaces, with Maid- stone Council’s parking services manager saying it would have a bad impact on the amenity of local residents. An objector said therewas poten-
tial for up to 15 parking spaces if the applicant, Dr Peter Szwedziuk, de- cided to change the layout. The planning committee asked officers to talk to the applicant about creating more parking spaces before revisiting the proposal.
Lighting allowed
PLANNING permission was granted for external lighting on Maidstone Town Hall. The Town Team project, funded
by Maidstone Council, will light up the central bays to the Jubilee Square and High Street facades. The committee accepted the plan.
12 Maidstone East March 2014
A tanker clears water away from Hockers Lane,Weavering
THE plug has been pulled on the long-standing Maidstone River Festival – but that could mean the revival of an even older town-wide celebration. Maidstone Carnival, which in-
volved a parade with floats from community groups and businesses, was founded almost 100 years ago, but fizzled out after its heyday in the 1970s. Now, organisers behind the River
Festival say they hope it can be re- vived on a bigger and better scale, starting and ending at the town’s Mote Park, with a funfair and Mardi Gras. The River Festival peaked in
2009, when it celebrated its 30th an- niversary by expanding from a day to a full weekend festival with a firework finale. However, being entirely depen-
dant on the goodwill and support of volunteers and local sponsors, the festival has struggled during the recession. It was shelved for the Olympics
and Royal Jubilee in 2012, but re- vived on a smaller scale in 2013. Martin Cox, who chaired the
group of volunteers behind the River Festival,warned then that its future was uncertain without sup- port from business sponsors. The economic climate, together
with health and safety issues asso- ciated with the river, means costs have been rising and administra- tion has become more complex. Last year’s festival was close to
sinking, but Mr Cox managed to salvage things at the 11th hour. The River Festival was tradition-
ally held on the last Saturday in July, during the school holidays, and is thought to have pulled up to 10,000 visitors into the county town each year. The council is actively looking at
ways of promoting events in the town centre – and making greater use of the river as an amenity and attraction. Cllr John Wilson, chair of the community and leisure serv- ices committee, said: “We want to see many events in Maidstone and are looking at opportunities to bring them together in a festival.”
Coppicing blamed for lane flood
RESIDENTS at the Ware Street end of Hockers Lane inWeavering became concerned about flooding during the recentwetweather. While their homes are not par- ticularly low lying, there has been a long-standing problem with drainage from the wood on the west of the lane and during peri- ods of heavy rain a large puddle forms in the road, which can cover the entire road surface and run into properties on the west of the lane.
Downs Mail correspondent Neil
Nixon, who lives in the area said: “We’ve been here almost 16 years and February 6 was the worst floodingwe’ve seen.We ended up with two rows of sandbags on the drive and also bailing a puddle out of the front garden to stop water reaching the airbricks on the front of the house. “KCC sent a small tanker the
day before, but the flood was too large for it to clear the problem. The large tanker arrived on Feb- ruary 7 and cleared thewater, but it soon started to return. “Apparently the problem goes
back to coppicingwork in the mid 90s and heavy vehicles breaking the drainage in the wood, which means that standing water devel- ops quickly and soon finds itsway to the road. “This problem has been ongoing
for years and seems to be getting worse.” It is understood at present that
no works are scheduled to deal with the problem.
Sunshine starts garage fire
FIRE crews praised quick-thinking residents in Bearsted following a fire caused by magnified sun rays. Kent Fire and Rescue Service were called to a house in Mount Lane
when concerned neighbours saw smoke coming from a garage. Firefighters got into the garage and removed a blazing hand towel, pre-
venting the blaze spreading to the house and neighbouring properties. The garagewas being used as an improvised art studio and sun light fo- cused onto the towel from a hands-free magnifying glass caused it to catch light. Maidstone watch manager Howard Dellow said: “Although sunshine
has been in short supply this winter, the low-lying sun can be magnified on to flammable items in your home, so be careful when positioning a magnifying glass, mirror, or any other glass object capable of focusing the sun’s rays.”
Road springs leak
PLENTY of water has come down from the skies recently, but in Bearsted water even started com- ing up from the ground. A leak appeared in the main op-
posite the Bearsted and Thurn- ham Club, but workmen arrived speedily to prevent an unusual source of flooding this winter.
Polytunnels plan
A RETROSPECTIVE application has been lodged to erect an addi- tional six hectares of polytunnels for strawberry production at Arnold Farm, Back Street, Leeds. In June 2012, G Charlton and
Son was granted a certificate of lawfulness for polytunnels to be located on the site. The addi- tional polytunnels would be cov- ered between March and October.
Maidstone Council will deter- mine the application.
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