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Kig victory is no guarantee MailMarks
I BELIEVE campaigners against devel-
opment are wrong to consider Maidstone’s great victory against the Kent International Gateway (Kig) proposal is now a defensive wig against new and very different planning proposals for parts of that land. Maidstone Council spent about £1.7m de- fending the borough from a proposal which included a strategic rail freight interchange (up to 13 freight trains a day) with massive warehousing and other commercial develop- ment running for miles close to the M20 from Hollingbourne to Bearsted. Most of the money was spent fighting the
long and vigorous appeal against its planning decision to reject the Axa application. Local parishes teamed up well and financed their own separate battle against Kig. Maidstone rejoiced five years ago when the inspector threw out the massive and un- sightly development for 290 acres, so damag- ing to this rural area and the borough as a whole.
Maidstone Council, whose vital work on evolving Maidstone’s local planwas seriously delayed, won scant praise for the way it fronted this
success.And nowadays it receives brickbats when it handles new, unrelated planning applications for parts of the land.
Town at saturation point
Dear Sir – I wonder how long it will take those who represent us in local government to recognise that Maidstone reached saturation point years ago, as far as house building is concerned? The existing infrastructure is creaking
everywhere you look. Strains exist on healthcare, education, water and public services. Unless and until housing development is halted while long overdue attention is given to the infrastructure problems, the town will surely grind to an inevitable halt. Traffic problems, particularly in the
rush hours and school leaving periods, are chronic, with traffic stuck in jams, polluting the atmosphere for those who live anywhere near main roads and rat runs. We know there are no road improvements in the pipeline apart from tinkering. as there is no money available. For as long as through traffic, particularly from the south, has no option other than to go through the town centre, we will be saddled with the problem. There are ways to alleviate matters.We
all know that during school holiday periods, many traffic problems disappear. Many schools in the town serve a catchment area which is probably within a one-mile radius of them. Is it too much to ask that children walk to and from school, rather than be taken by car? I know of several parents who live within a few
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Stephen Eighteen Editor
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26 Maidstone Town November 2015 Diane Nicholls
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Jane Shotliff Journalist
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Dawn Kingsford Journalist
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DENNISFOWLE President
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Each new application must now be consid-
ered on its individual merits and a significant factor will be the Len Valley Landscape of Local Value which runs from Bearsted, south of theM20 to Lenham, as now included in the draft local plan. But this landscape area is not a total ban on developments and cases can be made for it to be overridden. An often expressed fear is that development
in this area will see Bearsted merge with Hollingbourne and then through to Harriet- sham and Lenham. This is a nightmare sce- nario almost on a parallel with Kig. I believe this is scaremongering and there
are no intentions for this. The landscaping designation will play a major role in this. However, Maidstone Council faces massive challenges meetingGovernment demands for new housing, especially with our infrastruc- ture difficulties, and it must look at the at- tractive transport advantages of this area – the M20, A20 and the mainline rail link with sta-
hundred yards of their children’s school, who take them by car. Not only does it add to the traffic on the roads, but then they cause obstruction to traffic by inconsiderate parking as near as possible to the school.Walking would also have some health benefits. If KCC and Maidstone Council cannot
afford to spend money on the infrastructure, what else can be done to reduce traffic in the town? I would suggest two measures, used together. First would be a peak hour/school time congestion charge and the second would be an improvement in public transport. The first would not be popular, but trying to persuade people out of their cars does not seem to work. There needs to be an alternative, with the congestion charge being used to help pay for the cost of setting it up and to subsidise bus services to outlying areas. If we cannot provide more road space outside the town for through traffic, we need to reduce the level of traffic trying to use what is there now. In that respect, it is just as important to consider the health of those who live in the town, particularly towards its centre, who have to breathe in unhealthy levels of traffic fumes three times a day during the working week. David Hackett, ParkWay, Maidstone
Put us before immigrants Dear Sir – Contrary to your Mail Marks
tions every few miles. I believe too that M20 Junction 8 is the right
place for significant business development to boost Maidstone’s economy. The attraction to businesses with such easy access to the M20 for the Channel ports and linked motorway infrastructure to the rest of Britain is undeni- able. Workforces will value the M20 access. But I am not comfortable that the Woodcut
Farm site between the M20 and A20 between Bearsted and Hollingbourne is preferable to the more hiddenWaterside Park site south of the A20. That debate has not ended.
Caring for the aged I become very concerned about care for
our aged sick. Increasingly they block vital beds in our hospitals because of problems ac- commodating them. The hospital trust is highly critical of social services management and had threatened to invoice the service and KCC for costs. Now we hear of KCC making further cut-
backs and closing some of its homes. How many can afford to fund their own residential or nursing home care? A friend whomoved in to a residential home is having to find the best part of £40,000 a year. As our population ages this problem will
belief that Maidstone will welcome its share of Syrian refugees, people I have spoken to are utterly sick of hearing that these people will be allowed into Kent. We have taken in more than 700 unaccompanied youngsters, yet the Government is going to cut Kent County Council’s budget. Kent faces the biggest housing shortfall
in the South East, leaving more people homeless.We are building so many houses, yet the road structure remains the same. Maidstone at rush hour will be a nightmare. We have enough homeless, children and elderly who need care. Are you putting the lives of the immigrants before our own? Diane Collins, by email
No room for incomers
Dear Sir – At the moment we see every available space being filled with houses and new estates springing up, while roads seize up, services are stretched and our National Debt continues to rise past £1,500,000,000,000, the interest being more than we spend on defence. Strangely, some of the people who
believe we should take more than the current 640,000 immigrants a year (330,000 net) also believe in keeping this country green, reducing pollution etc. This tiny island has more people than Australia, New Zealand and Scandinavia all put together and still those not having to
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