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downsmail.co.uk Fant Farm is ‘still unsuitable’
BOROUGH councillors have reiterated their opposition to the notion of 225 new homes at Fant Farm, off Gatland Lane in Fant.
A year ago, Maidstone Council’s cabinet deleted the proposal from its draft local plan but officers have in- cluded it in a list of new housing sites to address a shortfall in the tar- get of 18,600 homes between 2011 and 2031. The officer report downgrades the previous quality of Fant Farm’s agri- cultural land from grade one to a mixture of two and three. However, it includes a 38-hectare country park on the site. The council’s planning scrutiny committee unanimously recom- mendedthat the site is once again re- moved, after councillors vigorously attacked the proposal. Cllr StephenPaine,whorepresents Fant, said: “This is a sensitive site
Neuro village ‘will aract
top doctors’ Continued from page one
offer the therapy in the near future. The MMC is set to move forward
this year. At its heart will be a neu- roscience centre, with state-of-the-art facilities and expertise from the na- tion’s top doctors who work with brain-damaged patients and those suffering from mind-altering condi- tions, such as Alzheimer’s and de- mentia. The campus involves two “neuro villages” – one in Maidstone, the other in Tunbridge Wells – and a university with research facilities. It had been planned to site the latter in Maidstone, bringing with it a fur- ther 3,000 jobs, but it was decided this now needs to be built in Tun- bridgeWells. The Maidstone and Tunbridge
Wells University will offer tuition to medical and research students and postgraduate clinicians, many of whom will go on to work with con- sultants and patients at both sites. In 2013, Maidstone Council granted outline planning permis- sion for the MMC and a full appli- cation for Kent Neurosciences Ltd is expected to be submitted by the spring. If accepted, it should create 440 jobs. Cllr Malcolm Greer said: “This
centre will offer support and more understanding for those people with long-term conditions such as Alzheimer’s, dementia, Hunting- don’s, motor neurone disease, mul- tiple sclerosis, ME and a multitude of associated conditions.”
Formore local news 12
www.downsmail.co.uk Maidstone Town February 2015
that overlooks the Medway Valley. Any development would be highly visible from the valley and also from Barming and East Farleigh. “This is an important strategic gap
that should not be breached. The land use has changed from orchards, to wheat and to barley, which shows its flexibility.” Cllr Dan Daley called the down- grading of agricultural land “cyni- cal”. He added: “Gatland Lane cannot take more traffic. There are no less than nine junctions in this area which will be affected by extra traffic from this site.” Cllr Paul Harper said the cumula-
tive impact of traffic from a new de- velopment as well as from the Jubilee School, in Gatland House,
would be unacceptable. Cllr Clive English said: “The boundary of Maidstone as an urban area since the 1950s has been this lo- cation. If itwas to be breachednowit would be very hard to stop the boundary from continuing, continu- ing and continuing. The country park would generate more traffic, if it is a success, than would housing.” The cabinet was urged to delete
the site when it discusses the draft local plan on January 28. The com- mittee also recommended that Kent Highway Services should outline improvements to a plan for 75 homes in Boughton Lane, Loose be- fore it is accepted. The 24 new sites proposed for the local plan also include:
Boughton Lane, Loose (75 homes) Wren’s Cross, Upper Stone
Street, Maidstone (60) Land at former Astor of Hever Community School, Maidstone (60) 180-188 Union Street, Maidstone
(30) Land at Tovil Working Men's
Club, Tovil Hill (20) Bridge Industrial Centre, Wharf
Road, Tovil (15) Dunning Hall, Fremlin Walk, Maidstone (14) Russell Hotel, Boxley Road, Maidstone (14) Slencrest House, Tonbridge
Road, Maidstone (10) 18-21 Foster Street, Maidstone
(five) Kims ‘miscalculated parking need’
THE Kent Institute of Medicine and Surgery (Kims) has admitted it got its sums wrong and massively un- derestimated how many parking spaces it would need. Kims currently has 143 parking
spaces on land north of the Newn- ham Court Shopping Village, Bearsted Road,Weavering for its 188 staff. But it says its initial transport as- sessment did not take full account of
shift work, so applied to increase on- site parking by 148 spaces, which has been reluctantly accepted by Maidstone Council. A delegated officer report said:
“The use of the land for car parking would detract from the character of the countryside and an increase in the number of car parking provision for use by hospital staff would dis- courage the use of the park and ride facility nearby.
Town centre manager
Bill to leave the role MAIDSTONE is to get a new town centre manager in April, after the departure of Bill Moss. Mr Moss (65) said his 13 years in the role had coincided with improvements in Maidstone and its night-time economy, with bars, restaurants and retail outlets in areas such as FremlinWalk. He now expects to spendmore time in the vol-
untary sector with the Urban Blue Bus and as a trustee and helper at the Blackthorn Trust.
“However, in this instance it is considered that the staff’s shift working patterns and the distance to the park and ride is inconveniencing the staff and potentially impacting on the operation of the hospital.” Boxley Parish Council did not for-
mally object to the proposal but raised concern about the adverse im- pact on local traffic due to the in- creased pressure on the highway infrastructure.
Truck services MAIDSTONE is to become home to
the first of a new generation of drive-through Scania dealerships. The 2.5-acre site on the A229, near junction 6 of the M20, repre- sents an investment of £6m. The site, owned by Gallagher Properties, will offer 24-hour serv- ices for truck, bus and coach opera- tors. It will initially employ 34 technicians, parts and administra- tion staff, although this is likely to rise.
MPto stand down at May election
MP SIR Hugh Robertson has an- nounced he will not stand in the upcoming General Election – cit- ing his age as one reason for leav- ing politics. He left his role as a foreign of-
fice minister in July. The Conservative has repre-
sented Faversham and Mid Kent since 2001. Hewas sports minister during the London Olympics in 2012. Sir Hugh (52), who spent more
than 10 years in the Army before entering politics, told the Downs Mail: “With five-year parliaments
and my age, this is the last realis- tic chance to have another career before I get too old.”
When pressed about what path he might take after leaving politics, he added: “I don’t know yet but I hope to continue to play
some role in broader public life, probably in sport or foreign rela- tions, and also have a bit more time in Kent, including at the St
Lawrence cricket ground in Can- terbury.” When he first stood in 2001, the
seat was a Labour target, but in 2010 his majority topped 17,000. So far, Labour’s Michael Desmond, UKIP’s Peter Edwards- Daem and the Green Party’s Tim Valentine have said they will stand for the seat in the General Election on May 7. As for the Tory candidacy, Sir
Hugh said: “Iwas selected from a field of 300 applicants and I sus- pect a similarly large field will apply this time.”
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