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News Villagers protest over housing
VILLAGERS from Lenham took their protest against new housing to the top when they stormed Maidstone Council. A petition with more than 1,500
names was presented to the coun- cil by resident Brian Long. He told the council: “We are pre-
pared to grow via a trickle method, but 1,500 new homes is a recipe for disaster.” About 150 residents of Lenham
and Headcorn, which had its own petition of 500 names, packed into
the council chamber after a heated protest outside the Town Hall. The council received 2,000 re- sponses to its public consultation on the draft local plan and hopes to put its final draft out in February. Cllr David Burton said the coun-
cil had not singled out Lenham as other areas, such as Langley, were facing an equal expansion. He said: “I promise we are listening. But at the moment, the developers have the upper hand.” Residents across the borough are
Park life captured on film
THIS picture won Robert Toombs £250 in shopping tokens in the annual Mote Park photographic competition. Robert topped a shortlist of 12 from 372 entries with his picture of running water over rocks. Second-placed Amanda Harrison received a £50 voucher for The Mall with her wintry scene overlooking the lake and Andrew Masters’ photograph of Mote House gave him third place and a £20 voucher for The Mall.
incensed that the council has ear- marked 18,600 new homes between 2011 and 2031 in its draft local plan to meet assessed housing need. Cllr Dan Daley said Allington
was an example of a former coun- try ward that was now an urban ward, going from 300 residents in 1900 to a potential 14,000 in 2026. He said: “We are all in this to- gether.” Cllr Christine Edwards-Daem,
who represents Park Wood on the council but lives in Headcorn, said:
SIR Hugh Robertson, MP for Faver- sham and Mid Kent, says Maid- stone Council needs to “go back to basics” to assess its housing need. The MP, who covers parts of Maidstone and Swale, said the two local authorities had approached the issue in very different ways. While communities secretary Eric Pickles has said it is up to local councils to determine their own housing numbers, based on the 2012 National Planning Policy Framework, Maidstone had gone for a “huge” number in comparison with Swale, whose target of 13,500
“We need more affordable housing. But I see profiteering and landown- ers making money.” Lib Dem leader Cllr FranWilson
said: “If we do not get off our bot- toms and move forward ...we have a developers’ free-for-all – and that is the situationwe are in at the mo- ment.” HIGH Street resident Mike Cockett has set up a campaign group called Save Lenham. For information, go to http://savelen-
ham.org/.
Target figure too high, says MP
homes between 2006-2031 he de- scribed as “tiny”. He said: “Swale has gone for a tiny number which they are confi- dent they can defend. We need to ask why there are such huge dis- crepancies and give our local coun- cillors support to help them to obtain a realistic housing number.” Given that the average house
would contain two adults and two children, 18,600 new homes would create a new settlement 80% the size of Maidstone town. He said: “These are vast numbers and the infrastructure simply cannot cope.”
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Maidstone East October 2014
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