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who are taken everywhere now with parents, who are mostly engaged on mobile phones. Is it time for restaurant reviewers to start


including noise levels in their critiques? Val Williams, Hollingbourne


Shipping in city problems


I READ with interest your item in the Downs Mail regarding the building of yet more flats in the county town. Thousands of houses and flats have been


built in and around Maidstone in the last few years. There have been more changes since 2010 than there were in the previous 40 years, and the only new road is the M20. Given the number of dwellings that have


been built, you would have thought that the homeless would have ceased to exist in Maidstone. I understand through a Freedom of Information request, that there are over 600 people locally awaiting accommodation. Why? I also understand that some of the recently


completed accommodation is being bought by London Boroughs like Newham and Tower Hamlets to house their homeless. After a recent television programme highlighting the drug and knife problems in those areas, I fear that those problems will become our problems. What kind of people are being sent to live


in Maidstone? Are we sleepwalking into a situation that is not of our making? Unfortunately for us, Maidstone, is just


close enough to London to be useful and far enough away that they can dump their homeless on us. Do these people have jobs or will they take the jobs of existing residents? The schools, doctors and dentists surgeries,


the hospitals, homecare for the aged, are all areas where there are waiting lists with no foreseeable improvements. You can build a school but you have to


staff it. Likewise hospitals, doctors and dentists. Roads need to improve, sewage disposal


needs to be adequate, water supplies and electricity need to be considered. I feel the residents of Maidstone are being


ignored and will be subsumed by the influx of outsiders, changing the character of the town forever. Ann Bates, Allington


BBC ‘balance’ made me laugh


I LAUGHED out loud when I read Roy Datsan’s claim (le�ers) that we should consider BBC news, the Guardian/Observer and Private Eye for more factually balanced reporting of EU ma�ers. So many of my friends have abandoned


BBC news because of its slanted anti-Brexit bias and now watch ITV news for balance. Dennis Fowle, President, Downs Mail


Muntjacs are moving in


I HAVE just read your article on the Maidstone muntjac population and I was wondering if many more people had emailed you regarding sightings? I farm around that area just below Linton


Hill and find it interesting that they are starting to move into the area. No doubt they will be regulars in the years to come. Patrick Wood, via email


Cycle paths need investment


MODAL shift is a good idea in theory. However, in practice it needs both investment and education. I’m a fairly keen cyclist. I’ve been cycling


regularly for fitness and health for the past three years. I cycle from my home in Grove Green into town along the Ashford Road and then pick up the river’s new cycle/walking path to either Allington or East Farleigh lock. The cycle path into town is badly marked


and maintained. When I’m on the path, I come across pedestrians walking in the cycle lane. I’m not sure if it’s a lack of knowledge or safety, a lot of the people walk close to the grass bank and having walked into town I can understand why. I felt vulnerable with the traffic whizzing past just inches away and found myself moving ever closer to the cycle lane. However, on seeing me approach, pedestrians seem unsure what to do and often either stop where they are or move closer to the grass bank often forcing me into the pedestrian lane. The signs along the route are barely visible


and there are bushes and brambles growing across the cycle lane. The worst times are school times and evenings, when the runners are out. School


kids are always walking in the cycle lane and the runners often run four abreast. If modal shift is to work, the council needs


to invest in well thought-out routes that are marked and signed properly. They need to be properly maintained. Above all, people need to be educated about the lanes. Neil Cole, Grove Green


Footbridge delay explained


RE YOUR article on the M20 bridge work, September edition. The footbridge was destroyed two years


ago in August 2016. The old bridge was not up to the current design standards and had to be redesigned. This involves Highways England needing to buy a small additional parcel of common land from the Addington Parish Council to accommodate the design. Representatives of the parish council first


met with Aone+, Highways England appointed project team, in November 2016 and again in July 2017, and we made it very clear to Aone+ that we wanted to work with them and fully supported the rebuilding of the footbridge. We made them aware that because the


land they require is common land they would need a Section 38 Consent. Minutes of both meetings were taken. We later received a series of emails and


transfer documents from Highways England stating that the land was not common land and asking that we sign the transfer. A further legal search established that the Section 38 consent would be required. We have now incurred a legal bill of over


£3,500, and no progress has been made because Highways England has still not applied for the essential Section 38 consent. Fortunately, we have an undertaking that Highways England will pay our legal fees. The people of Addington want the bridge


back, as it cuts their village in two and it stops the villagers having easy foot access to their new village green. But the question members and residents


have is why Highways England did not follow the correct procedure and obtain the Section 38 Consent two years ago? If this had been done, the project could have been merged with the Smart motorway works. Stephen MacDonald-Gay, chairman of Addington Parish Council


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