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downsmail.co.uk


Relief road |News


Board united to take fight forward


“THIS could be the turning point.” That was the assessment of campaigner Gary Cooke as Maidstone’s joint transportation board (JTB) acknowledged the need for a relief road.


County councillor Cooke said he


had a “warm and fuzzy feeling” that progress may now be starting to be made on the long-running issue.


Reflecting in the warm July sun-


light outside the town hall, Cllr Cooke met with supporters – mainly from the WILLact pressure group from Willington Street – who were also happy with the meeting’s outcome. The JTB gathers members from


local councils to assess transport is- sues affecting the borough. Surveys, route assessments and, crucially, funding will be required to make the link from the A274 to the A20 from Langley through Leeds a reality. Cllr Cooke said: “I have been


JTB chief: “Road


has huge support” JOINT Transportation Board chair- man David Burton said that with “enough true intent” achieving a relief road for south Maidstone is possible. Borough councillor Burton said : “Building new roads are always long-term projects but this is prob- ably the most positivewe’ve been i for decades. “With enough true intent, it is possible.Myposition on housing is that if there’s no road, then there should be no housing. But, unfor- tunately, history has shown us that we’re probably going to get the housing anyway. “What we don’t want is more housing and no road. “There is now huge public sup-


port and any politician would be less than sensible not to recognise that. We have work together to make it happen.”


dealing with this issue and advo- cating a relief road for the last eight years and I have heard excuses and all sorts of reasons why it can’t be done.” The government’s recently an- nounced £1bn a year “by-pass fund” for areas blighted by exces- sive traffic has to be in everyone’s sights, he said. He added:“We have tomake the


case properly…if there’s £1bn available on a national basis we have to have accurate data to put the strongest possible case to get some of it. “The greatest shame of this


whole debate is that we did not have this debate 20 years ago be- cause ifwe had done so,we would have a relief road today.”


Bearsted borough councillor Val Springett warned that in order to meet the estimated £50-75m cost of the road, there may inevitably be development to contribute to the bill.


County cllr Eric Hotson said that


a pot of money should be building up now from developer contribu- tions and the officers from the bor- ough and county councils must work together closely. Cllr Paulina Stockell, who repre-


sents the borough in Langley and Sutton Valence, is concerned that a relief road will simply attract more traffic and “it is going to get worse and worse and worse”. But recently-elected county councillor Paul Cooper said that anything that can alleviate traffic


going through the town centre has to be welcomed. Staplehurst borough councillor


John Perry said that a “Leeds-Lan- gley relief road is now essential” as traffic in and around Maidstone “is fast becoming an impossible situa- tion”.


Shepway borough member John Barned said: “Only action and ac- tion now will solve this problem now.”


Chairman of Langley’s Parish Council Cheryl TaylorMaggio said her village was already taking the brunt of Maidstone Local Plan, with thousands of new houses. She said that she cannot support


a link road if it turns out to be a “magnet for housing in addition to the Local Plan sites.”


Officer’s road reality check


KENTCounty Council’s lead offi- cer on the relief road scheme, John Farmer, outlined the advantages and disadvantages of the pro- posed link between the A274 and the A20.


ADVANTAGES: Traffic congestion and air quality improvement in south east Maidstone, including Will- ington Street and rural villages, particularly Langley and Leeds; Environmental benefits to her- itage buildings; Opportunities for “additional enabling development within Leeds, Langley and Kingswood to support the sustainability of existing villages and offset other allocated sites that may be unde- liverable”.


DISADVANTAGES: An attractive area with varied topography with the heritage site at Leeds Castle and ancient


woodland at Langley;  The countryside around any preferred route would need “strong policy protection” by the borough council;  Local opinion is likely to be “strongly divided”;  No current government fund- ing stream to support the scheme and the borough council would have to ensure developer contributions to the cost. Although the report does not prejudge the outcome of assess- ments for a preferred route, Mr Farmer’s report does hint at what may be realistically available. A route to the east of Leeds is “undeliverable” because it would encroach onto Leeds Castle’ s cur- tilage.


A road to the east of Langley may also be unlikely as it would affect the Abbey Wood’s ancient woodland. So, according to Mr Farmer, the “only realistic


scheme” would be a western route “with or without a local bypass of the A274 to achieve a connection to an improvement to an im- proved Five Wents junction”. This route is also “the shortest and cheapest”, says Mr Farmer, but is likely to cost up to £75m “even if delivered at the earliest opportunity”.


The JTB report also noted the caution expressed by the Local Plan inspector when he stated: “The borough is generally sup- portive (of a relief road) but fund- ing would be a significant challenge unless it were to sup- port further major development.” The first review of the Local


Plan - in which a route might be included - is not scheduled for at least three years but “sufficient work would have had to be done to “establish a preferred route”, a business case prapared and poten- tial funding sources identified.


Maidstone Weald August 2017 29


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