News | Local plan
Call to bring shopping village in to town centre
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 that the retail element of the plan, which priori- tises the town centre for retail de- velopment, would need to be re-written, as itwas 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 anticipated more
than 3,000 by the end of consultation on May 7, said MsAnderton. Graeme Wyles, TCM secretary (right), said:“We applaud the vision that envis- ages the town centre of the future being built around what it cur- rently 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 34). 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-
ing closely with Solum Regenera- tion, which anticipates the submis- sion of a planning application later in May, according to Maidstone’s economic development director John Foster. Town centre manager Bill Moss,
who is spearheading the “Say no to NewnhamCourt” 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 prosper.” Land Securities argues Maidstone
East is not a suitable site. However, itwould be large enough to accom- modate the additional retail element to what exists at Newnham Court – something TCM would encourage. Maidstone town centre already has 28 of the country’s top 31 retailers. Those missing are John Lewis, Debenhams andWaitrose. The lat- ter two would be at Newnham 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.
downsmail.co.uk Lile interest
shown in plan JUST over 2,000 people have written to Maidstone Council about its draft local plan. Despite controversy inmany rural
areas, and issues over the number of homes required before 2031, only about 0.7% of the population re- sponded to the consultation. About 1,500 peoplewent to the 14 roadshows around the borough, but by the time the consultation closed on May 7, just 2,000 letters and emails had been received. The tally shows a lack of interest
in the future of the borough by the wider population. The local plan outlines where de-
velopment will take place in the bor- ough up to 2031 and will give Maidstone Council the power to re- ject inappropriate development. But Rob Jarman, Maidstone coun-
cil’s head of planning and develop- ment, said: “It’s been a really interesting six weeks and we feel we’ve really engaged with the peo- ple of Maidstone in presenting our draft local plan.” Planning officers will now con-
sider the comments before revising the local plan for publication and further consultation later this year. Amendments will be made, be-
fore the plan is submitted to the Sec- retary of State for final approval.
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