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Maidstone development |News


Leeds-Langley ‘road on table’


A RELIEF road to ease congestion through south Maidstone could be built around the back of Leeds vil- lage, Downs Mail has learned. The Maidstone joint transporta-


tion board (JTB) is considering a route would take the large volume of vehicles off the B2163 on Penfold Hill, around thewater works, across country and emerging on the A274 near Langley. Some members of the JTB see the


option as the start of a Maidstone or- bital route which will have a capac- ity to take existing traffic demands and expected future volumes as the borough council forges ahead with its plans for 18,000 new houses. Pressures on Willington Street


could also be eased by one of three possible schemes on the table. The JTB is currently looking at op-


tions going from east-to-west,west- to-east and the Leeds-Langley relief road. The Leeds proposal would fea- ture a single lane highway in each direction. At a recent meeting of the JTB – comprising Kent County Council representatives and members of Maidstone Borough Council – KCC councillor Gary Cooke moved an


amendment aimed at securing a commitment to the building of a re- lief road. New builds at Langley Park have


seen a large number of cars and other vehicles backed up to Sutton Valence in one direction and at the Wheatsheaf junction in the other along the Sutton Road. Willington Street and the B2163 through Leeds tend to take most of this traffic at peak times, with the lat- ter experiencing an increasing num- ber of large lorries, one of which is pictured above. They arecurrently banned from the village. Cllr Cooke said: “Clearly, this


cannot continue and a solution has to be found. I moved the amend- ment so that there could be no wa- tering down of the language.” KCC and JTB colleague Jenny Whittle, of Bearsted, added: “With all the of house building going on and more in the pipeline, a relief road is absolutely essential.” Faversham and Mid Kent MP


Helen Whately said: “People need to see clear options on a map, how it will work,howmuchit will cost and how it will be be funded. Residents need to be properly consulted.”


Have your say – email editor@downsmail.co.uk


Decisions should wait for inspector’s verdict


IT IS barely 10am on a sunlit Satur- day on the busy Sutton Road, but already there is a hum of building work everywhere. Scaffolders in hard hats clank


bars and make jokes, diggers and dumpers scuttle along dusty mud tracks and sales people hover in makeshift offices ready for another potential buyer. The sites are a combination of newly-built and half-built homes, all in outwardly differing styles but all curiously similar. Parts are fenced off for safety and security, and around the half-built, un-mortgaged edges there lie great piles of mate- rial from the builders’ merchants. This is the vision of the future. The houses in Langley Park are


being snapped up, there ismuch in- terest in Imperial Park and down the road at Coxheath, Willow Grange is well on the way to com- pletion. Hundreds and hundreds of houses. And there has just been ap- proval for about 1,300 more on the Sutton Road, or just off it. There is understandable nervous-


ness about Maidstone Borough Council’s unrelenting house-con- struction march. The council must hit its govern-


ment quotas, create spaces for folk to live in and attract skill-sets of the aspirational types who will one day


Comment by Simon Finlay, Editor of the Downs Mail


occupy these units and, in turn, cre- ate prosperity for others. There are cogent arguments for


and against building on such a huge scale – 18,000 plus are in the MBC pipeline – and the pressures it cre- ates on the local communities. With MBC’s planning commit-


tee’s consent narrowly given to three new developments in the Sut- ton Road area, the local county councillor Gary Cooke did not mince his words. “They have voted to destroy what


little quality of life is left in Maid- stone south east,” he said. The roads will not be able to cope


norwill the local schools and impor- tant natural habitats will be lost for- ever, argue the critics. What will happen in October is


that the government planning in- spector will scrutinise Maidstone’s local plan in its entirety. The inspector’s deliberations will


be lengthy and considered, non-po- litical and based on knowledge and experience. We might do well to wait and hear what he has to say.


Maidstone South August 2016 19


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