downsmail.co.uk


Councils’ legal row goes to High Court


PAPERWORK for the next round of taxpayer-funded legal action by Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) against Kent County Council (KCC) has been lodged with theHigh Court in London. MBCis seeking a judicial review


to examine how (S106) cash re- leased by house-builders for road improvements is spent by KCC. The borough council’s chief ex-


ecutiveAlisonBroomandLibDem leader Martin Cox say the costly action is for the sake of “clarity”. The case centres onMBC house-


building programme, which will see 17,600 new homes and an ex- pected massive increase in traffic. Another 8,000 units could be in- cluded in the Local Plan review. According to the courtpapers, in


dispute is MBC’s demand to con- vert theA274 (Sutton Road) into a six-lane highwaywith bus routes. KCCbelieves thiswould“disad-


vantage” other road users. But it wants to use £200,000 of the £2.7m


in S106 monies from three A274 developments to carry out studies into a Leeds-Langley relief road. MBC is committed to its policy


of “modal shift” which will en- courage residents to travel by bus, bicycle orwalk rather than drive. A well-placed KCC source said:


“MBC is trying to supersede the authority of KCC as the statutory body responsible for building roads. We have to go to court to fight that and one would expect thatMBCwill fail in that quest. “But it seems MBC will not


back down until KCC delivers six lanes on theA274 and we are not


going to do that.” Attempts to broker “peace sum-


mits” between MBC and KCC by MPs Helen Whately and Helen Grant ultimately crashed. AnMBC source told us: “This is


all heading towards a torturous score draw with absolutely noth- ing actually being achieved, except taxpayers picking up the bill.” We asked MBC for a total of


money spent on theHighCourt ac- tion but the council refused to con- firm it. The High Court hearing takes place next year. In November, a judge granted


MBC permission to submit three amended legal grounds to pursue a judicial review. The MBC paperwork claims


that KCC diverted “funds paid pursuant to S106 planning obliga- tions accompanying three hous- ing developments for highway mitigationworks to, alternatively, fund exploratory for a potential future relief road.”


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News Woman dies


in flat blaze AWOMAN believed to be in her 60s died in a flat fire inMaidstone. Fire crewswere calledjust before


10.30pm on December 18 after re- ports of smoke from a flat in Quarry Square,Maidstone. The apartment is managed,


owned and run by social housing providerGoldingHomes. The woman, who had lived in


the two-bed ground floor home in Walshaw House for 20 years, was pronounced dead at the scene. Six other people living nearby


were treated for smoke inhalation. According to reports, one resi-


dent heard a bang and sawflames pouring from the building. A neighbour triedto helpthewoman butwas beaten back by fire.At the time of going to press, the identity of the victimhadnot beenreleased. A Golding Homes statement on


the day of the fatality read: “Inves- tigations are ongoing and until these have concluded the cause of this incident is not known. “Our teams have contacted


households who may need alter- native accommodation until it is safe to return to their homes.”


www.gboxkent.com 01233 660 099


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