News | Relief road


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Panel chairman GeoffMiles with (fromleft) county councillors Paul Cooper and Gary Cooke,MPs Helen Whately and Helen Grant and Cllr FranWilson


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Relief road |News Eco village plan to pay theway


TENS ofmillions of pounds could be realised towards the cost of a relief road from the development of land near Kingswood, its own- ers have claimed. Farmer Rob Schroeder and busi-


nessman Keith Cook (pictured right and left), who between them own more than 120 acres of agri- cultural land, have put forward a scheme for an “eco village” of 900


homes. Broomfield Park Eco Vil- lage would be based where the Kingswood Christmas Trees busi- ness is sited, off Gravelly Bottom Road. “When it’s finished, no one will


knowit’s even here, itwill be pretty invisible,” said Mr Cook, who owns a small portion of the land available. He spoke at the public meeting


on November 2 and claimed that there are “developers ready, will- ing and able” to finance a large pro- portion of the estimated £75m cost of a relief road. The new by-pass road would in-


volve the widening of Burberry Lane with access to the eco village from a roundabout halfway along its length on the Langley side of Park Barn Road where the road turns sharply to the right. From there the link would cross


‘Nomeans to fund a route’


CLLR Gary Cooke (pictured), who organised the meeting, said that there “has to be an equal con- sideration between the need for new housing and the interests of existing communities and resi- dents”. He added: “Moreover, the duty


to co-operate between differing local authorities that goes both sideways as well as up and down, more often than not is overlooked at the expense of existing local communities who are then left to live with the consequences of those decisions." He said KCC cannot offer any


routes for a link at this time nor any mechanism to fund the relief road. But he added: “What Kent County Council has been doing and I hopewill continue to do…is to fund the preparatory work. “These are investigative works


that need to be done to develop the potential routes that can be brought forward for consultation, together with a business case that would detail each potential route coupled with associated benefits that each routewould provide rel- ative to cost. “In short, the business casewill


need tomake the case forwhether a relief road can be justified. So this is where we are no matter how much I or you wish it wasn’t so. No matter how much I or you mightwish the adopted Local Plan had includedmitigation provision for a relief road, or even wished that we had actually acted upon this 20 years ago.We arewherewe are.”


Hundreds pack venue for relief road debate


MAIDSTONE'S MPs have vowed to force the leadership of Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council into talks to bring a “collab- orative” approach to solving the long-running issue of a Leeds-Langley relief road.


Helen Grant (Maidstone and the


Weald) and HelenWhately (Faver- sham and Mid Kent) told a packed publicmeeting onNovember 2 that a resolution can only be found if the tensions between the two authori- ties can be eased. TheMPswill personally broker a


private summit between KCC leader PaulCarter,MBCleader Fran Wilson,MBCchief executiveAlison Broome and one other to thrash out their differences for how funding might be unlocked to pay for a by- pass to ease traffic problems across south and south-eastMaidstone. MrsGrant told almost 400 people


at the gathering, at the Mer- cureMaidstoneHotel: "Wewill sit themin a roomandwewill not come out until we have made some progress – and that's a promise." Those attending themeeting,


Council work closely, cohesively and carefully together. If they can- notwork together, it’s not in the best interests of anyone.” The meeting heard contributor


after contributor from the floor about the issues facing southMaid- stone and, in particular, the rural villages. Manywere incredulous thatmore


than 17,000 homes are to be built in the borough with no serious infra- structure tomitigate against the an- ticipated increase in traffic on already clogged-up roads. There was scorn for MBC mem- bers who opted recently to spend


policed. Langley Parish Council chairman Cheryl Taylor-Maggio is worried a relief roadwill simply at- tract evenmore housing and cut off LangleyHeath. She added: “Like it or loathe it, the


Local Plan is based onmodal shift.” CllrTaylor – to jeers – saidthe bor-


ough council must champion elec- tric vehicles. Tory group leader at the borough


which had as its panel county councillors Paul Cooper and Gary Cooke, theMPs and Cllr FranWilson, were left in little doubt of the distance between Tory-run highways authority KCC and the Liberal Democ- rat-majority MBC, which is in charge of planning. The MPs' pledge was music to


Otham’s Gordon Newton: “You need to get your act to- gether...because I am fed up with it.”


their ears of Jenny Sutton, founder of the relief road pressure group WILLact, who joked afterwards: "I like the idea of those two MPs in a room with these people – if they want, I'll stand guard outside." Earlier, Mrs Grant told the hall:


“Helen (Whately) and I can support, but these are not decisions forMPs. I would urge that Maidstone Bor- ough Council and Kent County


24 Maidstone December 2017


developer contributions (section 106 money) on persuading people to walk, take buses or cycle in its “modal shift” idea rather than pour the cash into a relief road project. Leeds Parish Council chairman


JohnGovett said that a contribution of £2,500 on 18,000 homes could re- alise £45m of the estimated £70m cost of a relief road. He said that articulated lorries ig-


nore his village’s lorry ban and the 20mph speed limit outside the school is broken because neither is


council, Cllr John Perry, said: “The two most dreaded words in the English language are ‘modal shift’ but I am afraid to say that it is not going to solve anything.” Otham councillor Gordon New- ton said his village is now“to- tally


wrecked”


the B2163, proceed behind Langley village and emerge near the Potting Shed on an enlarged Horseshoes Lane. Although Leeds


Castle’s manage- ment have backed a relief road, it seems unlikely a link on its side of Leeds village will be viewed as favourably as if it cut through the opposite end. Plans by Eco


road and in a safe, traffic-free envi- ronment”. The Eco Build Partnership UK


brochure for the scheme says there is existing planning permission for a biomass heat and power station on the site where chestnut chip- pings from local coppicing work can be turned into energy. Mr Schroeder said: “There is a


significant amount of coppicing work going on here all year round and you can put wood chips into that.” The businessmen said the devel-


opment aims to be a “cradle to grave” scheme.


MrCook added:


Build Partnership UKwould provide retirement homes, rural housing and about 50 busi- ness units. Broomfield Park, which would


There are “develop- ers ready, willing and able” to finance a large proportion of the estimated £75m cost of a relief road


be surrounded by agricultural land and existing ancient woodland, aims to provide its own local pri- mary school and village green. The owners also claimthat it can


provide a cycle and jogging track, walking and pet-exercising “all off-


“You could move here as a first time buyer and leave in a box because of the different types on units we will have here.” Mr Schroeder


said that the com- munities secretary Sajid Javid should “call in” the issue of a south Maid- stone relief road


for urgent review. He added: “This has been going


on for decades. Nobody will put their oar in thewater over this. The traffic around here is horrendous and it is getting worse all the time. “The MPs Helen Whately and


Helen Grant should go toMr Javid and see if the issue of a relief road can be called in.”


Farming in the blood of rural stalwart by


development and added: “Whether you are MBC or KCC, you need to get your act together...because I amfed up with it.” Cllr Wilson said she too


supported the idea of a relief road and cared passionately about the issue of traffic but said unlocking section 106 money was “a lot tighter” than it used to be.


Bearsted Conservative borough


councillor Val Springett, a relief road supporter,warned a link could be a “two-edged sword” bringing with it unwanted development. She blamed the Lib Dems at the town hall for scuppering section 106 money being directed towards a by- pass. She urged the MPs to put pres-


sure on communities secretary Sajid Javid by getting him into “a little corner and have a word” about funding.


FOR what was billed as a “non-po- litical” publicmeeting so that local people could air their feelings about the ever-worsening traffic is- sues in the southern parishes of Maidstone, it didn’t take long for the politicians to revert to type. The little love lost betweenMaid-


stone Borough Council and Kent County Councilwas nevermore ev- ident. Of course, there are always ten-


sions between county bodies and the local district authorities, even when they are controlled by the same political party. Throw in tribal rivalry, and there


is often one depressing outcome – the people lose out. For the uninitiated, Maidstone


Borough Council is the planning au- thority which is run by the Liberal Democrats. It put together the


ROB Schroeder (70) has lived in the area all his life and is the fifth gen- eration of farmers to tend the land locally. His family has run the Kingswood Christmas Trees business since 1955, after they moved away fromrearing turkeys and pigs. He ismarried to Jenny and has two children and five grandchildren.


It all hangs on ‘modal-shift’ Comment by Simon Finlay


Local Plan and its 17,000-plus homeswhichwas adopted recently – albeit grudgingly bymany of the Tories. The road-building, highways au-


thority, Kent County Council, is run by the Conservatives by a hand- some margin. Some KCC members believe the Local Plan should have had at its heart an integrated transport strategy. In plain English, that means roads. Roads to carry the 30,000 plus cars expected as a result of the Local Plan. Much of the two hours at the


hotel formerly known as The Great Danes was spent raking over the past. The Torieswere accused of re-


writing history, the LibDems of not listening.What could have been an evening of positivity and hope for the future turned into a Tory/Lib Dem ding dong. The natives be- came understandably restless and irritated, however polite they re- mained throughout proceedings. For many leaving the hall, there


was a feeling of modest uplift, if only that the MPs Helen Whately and Helen Grantmight bang some heads together in an effort to get the squabbling factions to agree on something, anything. If the Lib Dems lose control of


the council in the next year’s bor- ough elections, itwon’t be because


of the Local Plan per se – the hous- ing quotas were central govern- ment impositions, after all – but because of “modal shift”. This is MBC’s natty, local gov-


ernmentway of saying thatwe are not to worry about the extra cars because there will be public trans- port provision and encouragement to cycle or walk. On paper, modal shift can look


almost plausible. The trouble is that local people –


who see what they see on the roads every day – can’t believe it. They won’t believe it. Both MBC and KCC claim they


are now working together more closely and that there is co-opera- tion. But, as was demonstrated in sound and vision on November 2, the people have no reason to be- lieve that, either.


Maidstone December 2017 25


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