Town July 2014

downsmail.co.uk

News Road rage over developer input

KENT County Council’s transport assessments for house building in Maidstone are based on statistics provided by … the developers themselves. This startling factwas unearthed

by the borough’s LibDems, while fighting proposals for a further 19,600 homes in Maidstone bor- ough between 2011 and 2031. In the past, KCC carried out ve-

hicle counts on roads across the county – the Kent Traffic Counts programme – but this was scrapped in 2011. Since then, the county has relied

on figures commissioned by house builders themselves – in the same way that Land Securities commis- sioned its own transport survey in support of its unsuccessful plan to redevelop Newnham Court. Cllr Ian Chittenden said: “These companies would save on the cost of road improvements – such as wider roads and roundabouts – by supplying lower vehicle numbers, which clearly makes this a conflict of interest. “If, after the building takes place,

the numbers turn out to be too low, there will be increased congestion – creating a cost which will have to be met by the taxpayer.”

In March, KCC’s cabinet member

for transport and highways Cllr David Brazier told Cllr Chittenden that KCC was able to commission its own independent transport con- sultants to check information pro- vided, but this was increasingly limited due to cash cutbacks. Cllr Chittenden said: “We have

raised serious questions about traf- fic figures reported by developers for a 220-home scheme in Boughton Lane. While KCC ques- tioned the validity of the develop-

Steve beats Ironbutt ride

A SCOOTER fan fromMaidstone has proved the old adage: If at first you don’t succeed, try again. After turning back from a 1,000-

mile, 24-hour ride in treacherous driving conditions, he got back on his bike three weeks later to do it all over again. Steve Cooper (49), from Mayfair

Avenue, has now put his scooter on the list of motorcycles to have achieved the 24-hour Ironbutt Chal- lenge.

Steve clocked up a qualifying

1,010 miles in 19 hours, 55 minutes. He told the DownsMail: “I wanted

to put a 300cc scooter on top of the list of Ironbutt recipients, a register littered with large capacity motorcy- cles, and I’ve done it.” Steve’s first attempt, on May 10, with two other riders, was aban-

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15

ers’ report, it does not have the re- sources to make a proper judg- ment.” Cllr Chittenden said he would

like to see the Kent Traffic Counts programme reinstated. “We are now facing the possibil-

ity of having to provide 19,600 new homes in Maidstone – with little money for road improvements to relieve congestion and pollution.” Cllr Brazier said: “KCC can ask

our independent traffic consultants to check developers’ datasets. This

requires financial resources from KCC, so this practice is not fol- lowed for all situations. “Otherwise, KCC has the expert-

ise and local traffic knowledge to sense check the datasets and as- sumptions “The data collection report should show whether the data has been collected by a competent sur- vey company, when the data was collected, what were the weather and traffic (incidents) conditions at that time.”

doned due to high winds and tor- rential rain. He said: “We were gutted to have

got so far (830 miles) but we knew we’d done the sensible thing.” His second attempt presented it-

self two days before Steve flew out to New Orleans, when the challenge- hungry delivery driver had a free Sat- urday. He took just 15-minute stops and

no breaks for hot food and flew out to the States the next day, as planned. Steve is already working on his

next Ironbutt Challenge. Read his personal account of the roadtrip at www.downsmail.co.uk.

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