News | Local plan
downsmail.co.uk ‘Bring Newnham Court to town’
VITAL sections of Maidstone’s draft local plan will have to be re-drawn if a planning application to develop Newnham Court as an out-of-town retail park gets the go-ahead.
Maidstone Council planning offi-
cer Sarah Anderton told Maidstone Town Centre Management’s quar- terly business forum the retail ele- ment of the plan, which currently prioritises the town centre for retail development, would need to be re- written, as it was at odds with the current draft. She said applications prior to the
plan being put in place – which would be late 2015 at the earliest – would need to be dealt with under the guidelines of the existing plan, whichwas adopted in 2000. The current draft, she said, was
“relevant, but has limitedweight”. TheNewnhamCourt application,
for a Waitrose, Debenhams and 17 retail units near M20 Junction 7, is due to go before the planning com- mittee for consideration. The council has already received more than 200 comments on the
draft local plan but, by the end of consultation on May 7, anticipated more than 3,000, said MsAnderton. Graeme Wyles, TCM secretary, pictured, said: “We applaud the vi- sion that envisages the town centre of the future being built around what it currently is. The focus is for the town centre to be an attraction for retail investment. “If that is what we believe in, the current plan that would create a quasi-town centre at Nottcutts goes totally against that.” TCM was encouraged by the progress of the proposal for a new supermarket at Maidstone East (see page 6). Network Rail has con- firmed it is in “advanced negotia- tions” with Royal Mail over the purchase of the former sorting of- fice, which abuts land at Maidstone East station. The rail company has beenwork-
Value of homes in county town lauded
MAIDSTONE’S need for new housing stems from it being such a popular place to live. That is according to borough councillor Richard Ash, member for Bearsted, who says that while property in Kent might be expen- sive, it still offers better value than places like Berkshire, Bucking- hamshire and Surrey. Discussing the need for 19,600
new homes by 2031, he told mem- bers of the parish council: “It’s still relatively cheap to live here, compared to places like London and other nearby counties. “I would not want to be young nowadays, when there is such a great gap between income and house prices. The average wage is £30,000, while the average house price is nearer £180,000. People just cannot afford to get onto the housing ladder.” Compared to many areas of the borough, Bearsted would not be greatly affected by the house- building hike, said Cllr Ash – but that was primarily because all the spare land had been built on. The east side of Maidstone had
seen the construction of Downswood, Madginford, Grove Green and Bearsted Park since 1960 and few areas of open land remained. He added: “The growth has
been dramatic – but is Bearsted any the worse for it? It is still a lovely place to live.” Members conceded that another
46 Maidstone East May 2014 Mote Park, the ‘jewel’ of Maidstone
19,600 homes were unlikely to be built – as some had already been constructed. The council is also making a case that the traffic, schools and general infrastructure cannot support such a high level of growth. But Cllr Denis Spooner pointed
out: “Those who are objecting have not thought this through. The reason there is a shortage is because we have not been build- ing enough houses in the past 30 years, and the shortage has driven house prices up.We need to think to the future. Where will our chil- dren and grandchildren live?” Cllr Pat Marshall, the first resi-
dent of Madginford, said: “I re- member looking out at strawberry fields and pear orchards, but there was no school and no community hall. I sweated blood and tears to get Madginford Hall. Now, all de- velopments like this have to have a hall.”
Newnham Court’ campaign, urged would-be developer Land Securities to relocate its proposal to Maidstone East. He said: “Maidstone needs a strong town centre and if this devel- opment is relocated to the station site our town will grow and pros- per.”
Land Securities argues Maidstone
ing closely with Solum Regenera- tion, which anticipates the submis- sion of a planning application later this month, according to Maid- stone’s economic development di- rector John Foster. Town centre manager Bill Moss, who is spearheading the ‘Say no to
East is not a suitable site. However, itwould be large enough to accom- modate the additional retail element to what already exists at Newnham Court – something TCM would en- courage. Maidstone town centre al- ready has 28 of the country’s top 31 retailers. Those missing are John Lewis, Debenhams and Waitrose. The latter two would be at Newn- ham Court. The council expects the town cen-
tre to generate £965m of sales per annum by 2031 and it hopes to at- tract investment in the meantime.
Call to cut target is dismissed by Tories
ALIB DEM claim that the housing need for Maidstone up to 2031 should be almost halved to 10,950 (Downs Mail, April) has been dis- missed by the Maidstone Council cabinet as “crazy rubbish”. “I wish we could find even a lit-
tle validity in this silly claim,” said Conservative leader Cllr Chris Gar- land. “We would welcome new le- gitimate evidence to Government to reduce housing from the evi- dence-based figure we have re- ceived of 19.600. The Lib Dem claimwas made by
group deputy leader Cllr Tony Harwood. He says the 19,600 figure is incorrectly based on a “blip” re- lating to local population statistics in the period 2001/11, when the population soared from 137,000 to 153,000 because ofMaidstone’s suc- cess in regenerating previously de- veloped land. Cllr Harwood says this spike is
used to justify high growth in the next two decades and calls on Maidstone to match growth projec- tions elsewhere in Kent. He told Downs Mail: “This was clearly a blip and must not set a precedent for the future. Our greenfield sites and villages are not up for grabs in theway that derelict urbans siteswere.” The Conservatives investigated
his claim with their advisers and now say the Lib Dems “have mis- understood how the assessment has been assembled”. Cllr Garland told the Downs
Mail: “Past delivery rates cannot be used to determine or undermine the objectively assessed housing need, which is a forward-looking calculation based on demograph- ics.
“In fact, the home building on brownfield town centre sites in the recent pastwas mainly apartments, now likely to have growing fami- lies in need of family housing.” The council says it has followed national guidelines and with the help of specialist consultant GL Hearn has had to identify the scale of housing to meet “household and population projections, taking ac- count of migration and demo- graphic change”. Cllr Garland added: “With the
Government seeking to boost sig- nificantly the supply of housing, it is hard to see how slashing the housing need below trend levels is either realistic or defendable when we go in to a Government local in- quiry. Across the country, Govern- ment inspectors are telling local authorities to increase provision above trend levels. “Trying to push through a policy proposing a far lower level of hous- ing provision will not be successful and will open the council to local plan delays and an increase in spec- ulative development proposals. This will have exactly the opposite impact to that envisaged by the Lib Dems. “Cllr Harwood’s suggestion can- not be taken seriously.”
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