downsmail.co.uk
Where now for transport plan? MailMarks
MAIDSTONE Council may now bemak-
ing steady progress allocating sites for more than 18,000 homes likely to be required by Government by 2031, but the vital linked transportation infrastructure planning looks to be in tatters. For many years the council has placed its
faith in the future of park and ride in the evolving local plan. But now it has suc- cumbed to resident pressure to abandon the Linton Crossroads proposal and, even more significantly, is losing the key Sittingbourne Road site because of heavy costs – mostly in- creased rent. This will leave us with just two park and
ride sites – instead of the expected four – with nothing in the very busy north and south of the town. The council talks of a drop-off in use of the Sittingbourne Road site, but when I drove around it a few weeks ago it was very busy, with just a few spare places around the fringes. Do not underestimate the impact of this loss.
Sittingbourne Road can be a nightmare for congestion at peak times. What now? We all know congestion to the south is very serious and getting worse. I was notified of a parcel for collection from Royal Mail at Park Wood and twice abandoned the unenviable
Statement too lile, too late
Dear Sir – It remains to be seen whether the statement from KCC about planning applications in the south of the borough, as reported in the October edition of the Downs Mail, will stand up to scrutiny. There is such a clamour for large-scale
developments and a ready supply of landowners willing to sell land in order to meet the demand for new houses. Cynics would say it is a classic case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted. Those of us who regularly use the A229 or the A274 in and out of Maidstone are all too familiar with the congestion that already exists on the approaches to the Wheatsheaf junction. The smallest of infractions can impact
on traffic flows, turning a 10-minute journey into a one-hour epic. And all this before the new developments at Langley and other locations come on stream. We see first-hand every day the consequences of already intolerable traffic conditions – lengthy queues, constant red light-jumping at the Wheatsheaf, inappropriate overtaking to get ahead by one car’s length, cutting in and cutting up and other dubious manoeuvres to gain an advantage. This is all only going to get a lot worse, and there is little prospect of any improvement. The planning process does not convince me and the notion of localism is simply a pipe dream. Provided that a planning application does not hit a
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Stephen Eighteen Editor
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34 Maidstone East December 2015 Diane Nicholls
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Jane Shotliff Journalist
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policy or technical hitch, permission will be granted. An application for 100-plus houses was recently agreed for Heath Road at Coxheath, the documents submitted to the planning committee included, amongst others, a photograph of Heath Road. I leave it to readers to decide which one
of the two above was submitted and I hope you will forgive my cynicism concerning the KCC statement. Mike Kenny, by email
Update on pumptrack bid
Dear Sir – I've just seen a letter in the Downs Mail stating concerns in response to the earlier article about the pumptrack, so I thought I would update you on how the project is going and allay any concerns people may have regarding its location. Maidstone Council doesn’t currently
have any space it can provide. Mote Park would never be chosen as a location as, with the exception of the football and rugby pitches are, most of the park is protected under a conservation order. As suggested in the leer, Cobtree is a
DENNISFOWLE President
dfowle2011@aol.com
task (why did Royal Mail move from the town centre and create problems for so many cus- tomers?). I rarely find short-term parking a problem
in Maidstone – it’s expensive but usually available and at times difficult to reach, due to congestion. It is longer-term parking for the local work
force and commuterswhich increasingly con- cerns me. Too many business car parks in the town centre now disappear as planning per- missions are granted for developments oblit- erating the parks. I see demand growing as employees seek economical parking agreements at The Mote cricket ground. The council has always seen improved in- frastructure as the key partner to increased residential and business expansion in the local plan, but now I can only see a nightmare transport scenario. There seems little hope of KCC or anyone else funding a south-east Maidstone strategic
route – the old Leeds/Langley bypass (if only former KCC leader the late Sir Sandy Bruce- Lockhart had agreed one more year in office he would have fulfilled his pledge). The changes in the town centre bridge gy-
ratory are welcome, but I have little confi- dence of improvement in traffic flows. I worry that as Maidstone grows and in- creasingly grinds to a fume-filled halt, the council will aim to bar most cars from the town centre. This will have massive detri- mental implications for residents and busi- nesses. One way or another we have cause to be very concerned.
Badger-ed MAIDSTONE’S badger population
seems to be growing and I do not welcome them hunting a home in our garden. There was a time when they charmed me
from a distance. But their closeness now far from enchants me. They have demolished shrubs to attack bird nests and their young. They have dug wide and deep holes in the lawn and garden to clean out bees nests. Now they are digging to find a home. I am
very dedicated to deterring them and even plan a courtesy light for these shy, nocturnal creatures. All tipswelcome.
good alternative location andwe have actually contacted the Cobtree Trust (as the council doesn’t own any of the land within the Cobtree Estate) about this proposal. As a secondary avenue, I amstarting to contact local developers to suggest a pumptrack as an option as part of their open space obligations or, if not, to provide the land for us to co-ordinate construction. Going back to Mote Park, I have received permission from Maidstone Council to carry out repair work on the Red Bull BMX track via a cycle club I run, which will at least restore a usable facility for local people who enjoy that style of riding. Mike Jordan, by email
Town losing identity
Dear Sir – The concern of Maidstone people over the mass housing projects now underway and the astonishing neglect of the inevitable infrastructure problems which will follow is verywell-founded. In addition, Maidstone is visibly losing
its unique identity as a real county town and the ancient capital of Kent. If it is not to become just another suburban mass of housing, cars, choked roads and mile-long traffic jams, central government pressure for yet more and more bricks and mortar must be resisted. If it is not, real places like Otham, Bearsted, Boughton Monchelsea and Loose will exist only in memory. G French, Marion Crescent, Maidstone
Comment
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