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to think around a problem other than chucking huge sums at it? As for voting at 16, let’s be positive. Give


16-year-olds the vote and put government and politics on the school curriculum – it might improve our nation. If the younger generation vote Green, for example (as I did at 18), then it doesn't affect the status quo. A green Prince of Wales hasn't affected the nation either. Global warming is certainly here; the dumping of plastics and waste in our hedgerows, as well as our seas, is not affected by the colour of politics. What are you afraid of, a wrong decision? The rest of the electorate has made plenty of wrong decisions at every age! Richard Maryan, Coxheath


Surgery views conflicting


THE Downs Mail article about a Coxheath surgery to be built in Linton, has grabbed my a�ention in a way that few page threes ever have! It’s on a site that Firmins have frequently


tried to convert from agricultural to residential use, but have always met with MBC refusal on landscape, convergence, and other planning grounds. Next came an a�empt to turn it into a


park-and-ride site, which was similarly defeated while the Local Plan was in preparation. The idea of having a surgery there is


initially seductive. Personally, living in Linton, I would certainly find it more convenient than my current one in Yalding. But the many residents of Coxheath would either have to drive (ecologically unsound) or get one of the occasional buses because, on average, it is one mile from them. Significantly further than that planned and approved in the Local Plan at Clockhouse Farm. I am mystified as to why the Clockhouse


Farm plan is now “not of sufficient size or layout to provide the facilities identified as being required and, without a solution, offers no way to deal with the additional patients coming into the locality”. The Local Plan has only just been


completed. Brian Mortimer, though he chose to abstain from voting on it, was fully involved in the Local Plan. Coxheath was surely involved in the process.


And increased housing numbers have


been known about for years. So why (and how) can it be, that the


proposed surgery on Clockhouse Farm is inadequate? It would be hard to look a gift horse in


the mouth, and Firmins should be thanked for the generous offer. However, as Brian Mortimer concedes:


"Of course, it would be be�er for a more central site”, though quite why he continues “time is not on our side” is mystifying. Perhaps, when Sainsbury's withdrew


fromtaking over the used car site opposite the (existing) pharmacy, the protagonists should have seized the opportunity to purchase it? Ron Leagas, Linton


Solutions to congestion


THERE was much comment in May’s Downs Mail about traffic, park-and-ride and house building. Maidstone, like many towns in the South


East, has inadequate infrastructure and other facilities to cope with the housing explosions on the outskirts of the town. Not only do we suffer appalling road congestion in peak hours, including school run times, but GP facilities are being stretched to breaking point, there are not enough school places and resources such as water are under pressure. The problem is one of too many people,


as it is in other towns where successive government policy has been to impose new housing in already overcrowded towns. Given that we cannot indulge in a demolition programme, we need to be�er manage the resources we have against a background of restricted funds available. Various correspondents are bemoaning


the increased parking charges in the town, but surely this is a correct move by the council to try to discourage the use of private car use. In London, parking spaces are actually being reduced for this reason. It will not have escaped the notice of


road users and town residents, that during the school holidays, there are few traffic problems. Most schools in the town are primary schools which serve children in the local area. So why drive them to


school, probably from less than a mile away, when a walk could well be be�er for their health? I appreciate those living in rural areas


have li�le alternative than to use their cars, but I would ask all motorists for whom there is a reasonable public transport or walking alternative, to think about the foul air those living on urban, traffic clogged roads have to breath so that they can sit in their cars, probably by themselves. Unless ring roads can be afforded, I can


see no other solution than measures to restrict the use of private cars but, at the same time, substantially improve public transport to make it a viable alternative. Unless there is be�er central government


thinking (applicable to all parties), the South East will sink, Kent first, into the English Channel under the sheer weight of people living here. David Hacke, Maidstone


Relief road is ‘modal shift’


I AM amused and intrigued by the recent conversion by the Liberal Democrats at Maidstone Borough Council to the notion of the Leeds-Langley relief road. You would think that they had been the ones who were campaigning for it! There is an argument that a by-pass around the county town’s centre is a form of the ‘modal shift’ to which the Lib Dems are so wedded. But if a relief road is such a good plan, why wasn’t it in the Local Plan? Just a thought. J Robbie, via email


Profit before pupils?


WHY, oh why, are they building a mental hospital on Bearsted Road when what is so desperately needed in this area is another primary and secondary school? Was it due to the fact that there was more profit to be made from a private hospital? The authorities seem to have their


priorities completely confused. Next thing we hear will probably be that planning permission has been given for even more houses to be built locally, further pu�ing an already overloaded infrastructure at breaking point. Oops, that's already happening at Lilk Meadow! Howard Spice, via email


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