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Now we rely on hung council MailMarks
IF running Maidstone Council has been
difficult for the past two years it’s about to get even harder now the May elections meanwe have a hung council. We mustwait and see if this will bring
more cohesion in agreeing the vital but very difficult local plan. Responsibility (and blame) is shared more equally. The Conservatives lost five of their 30
seats and finished three short of overall control. But Cllr Annabelle Blackmore (Marden and Yalding), has been elected council leader (with 25 votes at the council annual meeting against 22 for the Lib Dems’FranWilson) and she has appointed five Tory cabinet members (retaining only her deputy Malcolm Greer and environment stalwart Marion Ring). Much of the power is still with the Conservatives, but howwell will they do in crucial votes at full council meetings and planning commiees? No one had confidence predicting the
local council and European election results – and the picture is lile clearer for next year up to May’s general and local elections. The local UKIP votewas much stronger
than expected – broadly reflecting the national trend – and the party’s four council seatswere all at the expense of the Conservatives. UKIP’s four councillors are
Fines ‘destroying town’
Dear Sir – I noted in your latest edition the story about the number of parking tickets being distributed in Maidstone. I can’t work out how this has helped the
town. Is it to ensure traffic flows freely? Ahuge number of shops are struggling – some are closing down – because traffic wardens are puing people off coming into town, as they know Maidstone is crawling with them. So in a way, Maidstone Council is destroying its own lovely town for the profit it has been making. As a small business owner I havemy
clients worrying about this all the time, as well as my therapists and other members of staff. It is almost causing a depression. I wonder how the £255m local authorities received last year in parking fines is being spent? Nicola Ellio, owner, ProHealth Therapy Rooms, 80 King Street, Maidstone
Night out too expensive
Dear Sir – Regarding your story “Pre- loaders hiing the pub trade”, people clearly drink at home because a night in the town is so expensive. You cannot go out for a decent night and
come home with change out of £100 – it is impossible. You will have the likes of
Contact our team ...
Stephen Eighteen Editor
stephen@downsmail.co.uk 01622 734735 ext 231
26 Maidstone South July 2014 Diane Nicholls
Assistant editor
diane@downsmail.co.uk 01622 734735 ext 232
Jane Shotliff Journalist
jane@downsmail.co.uk 01622 734735 ext 233
Dawn Kingsford
Journalist
dawn@downsmail.co.uk 01622 734735 ext 233
DENNISFOWLE President
dfowle2011@aol.com
reserving their own voting position on all issues and will not form coalitions. Their votes will oen be key. If the Tories
hold the vacant Staplehurst seat and retain support of two of five Independents they can muster 27 votes (one short of control) and the Lib Dems, with the support of two Labour and perhaps three Independents, can look to 24. In the middle are four UKIPs. The result could bring greater council harmony on the local plan, if not improved public support. Both the Tories and Lib Dems say theywant towork beer together and with KCC need to form a triumvirate with commitments on improved infrastructure. All three main parties in Government demand a massive growth in house building, and locallywe must prove the case for a substantial reduction in the 19,600 new homes up to 2031 projected on current evidence. I learn there is new hope that this figure is flawed – beforewe even start the case on infrastructure problems.
MuMu, who will leave you waiting outside in a queue until just aer the 10pm inflated price you have to pay to get in. If you don't like it there, you will have to
leave and part with another sum of money to get in elsewhere. I bought a round of five drinks in MuMu about a month ago and it cost me £35 (plus £8 just to get through the door), so yes, people will drink at home. It is a no-brainer. Being out for two hours easily equals an outlay of £100. And that is all before any taxi rides. Mostly, I would say the cafe culture
works, but probably it is more beneficial for families and the slightly older generation as opposed to trying to prevent youngsters from binge drinking. What the answer is, I don't know. If they
close their doors earlier, I am sure it would help, but it might just push them to venture to a different destination, where the drinking hours are more to their liking. Miss VWalker, by email
Your first sentence hits the nail on the head, MissWalker. It appears that it is not the total number of people who go out at night in Maidstone that is reducing, but that they are out for a reduced length of time. The obvious explanation would be that the
cost of having a night out in recent years has escalated – at a time when disposable income for many has gone the other way. Once upon a time a group of young adults
So what does the election tell us about
local politics? The big winnerwas UKIP, with strong
support in both local and European elections.Were these protest votes? I believe, in the main, theywere – and UKIP will never repeat such success. But the party has shown that many voters want major changes in Europe and on immigration, and no party can ignore this and win a general election. The local Tories also suffered with big problems on the local plan. The double whammy lost them overall control. The Lib Dems fought the election largely
based on their opposition to local plan policies and once again showed how they are very resilient and can punch above theirweight. They still have 19 councillors. This is a remarkable achievement in the light of poor Lib Dem support in so much of the country. However, they could not reverse the
national slump in the European elections, with their poor showing in Maidstone severely denting the over-confidence of their parliamentary candidate Jasper Gerard. UKIP topped this poll locally as well, but the Tories and MPs Helen Grant and Hugh Robertson will be encouraged about their prospects next May.
would enter a pub at 7pm and routinely stay out, aided by a nightclub, until beyond 2am. While this has not been completely eradicated, the trend now is for people to do one or the other: go to the pub at 7pm and go home some time before midnight, or begin the evening at a nightclub or late bar from about midnight. There is now less of an overlap, which is
where the headache stems from among pub and club owners, who are in a sticky situation because happy hours and large price reductions for alcoholic drinks are looked on unfavourably by the authorities. Government taxation on alcohol also has an impact. Unless something gives somewhere, Maidstone’s night economy will continue to suffer.
Response by Stephen
Immigration farce Dear Sir – Richard Maryan raised a number of issues over immigration in the June Downs Mail, but the main issue, as people struggle to get housing, doctors appointments, school places and even get towork, must be the sheer scale. Dileante Dave’s promise to limit immigration to the “tens of thousands”, has disappeared likewater on a hotplate andwe're still looking at more than 220,000 per annum flooding into our tiny country with only 0.16% of theworld’s land mass. Despite there being plenty of room elsewhere, obviously the Government’s lax
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