downsmail.co.uk Fact 3: Without public transport


shouldering some of the burden and helping to reduce congestion, the town centre businesses will wither and die because of the difficulty in accessing them. Who cares, there’s always online shopping or out-of-town shopping centres! Fact 4: Without town centre businesses


where will people have to work? Who cares, at least the congestion will get be�er as it will all be through traffic and then they can build a bypass, can't they? My advice? Take photographs of


Maidstone now, so you can show your grandkids what it used to be like! Terry East, Boxley,


Park and Ride changes


WITH regard to the future of the Park and Ride service in Maidstone it saddens me as someone who worked in the transport industry for 39 years how li�le initiative is shown by both Maidstone Borough Council and Arriva to secure the future of this valuable facility. If it is losing money, why does it have to


stay as an exclusive service? With the new services now running to Bearsted and Madginford/Downswood, there is a simple solution to combine these with the Park and Ride and also to provide a be�er commuter service into town. The current No 4 service runs past the


Park and Ride site so could pick up and drop off passengers as required. The No 11 service runs along the


Ashford Road and with a slight retiming could divert via the Park and Ride site to do the same. If the Council and Arriva wanted to be really bold and the No11 frequency increased to half-hourly, with proper timetabling you could have a service every 15 minutes between the Park and Ride site and the town. If this was to be run between 0700-1900, people might be tempted out of their cars and onto public transport. A further thought for the No11 is, why


turn it round at Roundwell? Let it run through to the Ashford Road and return to Maidstone through Bearsted thus providing a service to all of Bearsted.


Doing this would also give access to visitors to the nursing homes at the end of Roundwell and be useful to the buyers of the 100 or so new homes proposed for the Barty Farm development. Making the parking free again and just


charging a bus fare would be another encouragement to passengers. For the Allington end of the service, the


buses that serve the London Road going to Larkfield/Snodland/West Malling/Kings Hill could call at that site. I believe the service pa�ern is advertised as every 8-10 minutes. It has been shown worldwide that


passengers will use public transport if the service is regular and reliable. I know the response will be that it will


be costly, but surely it is worth a one-year experiment rather than si�ing back and hoping people will walk or cycle into town. This just will not happen as no one but the most ardent cyclist would want to risk riding on any of the four main approach roads into Maidstone. Michael Jefferies, Weavering


Get the facts right


I WAS extremely disappointed to read Dennis Fowle’s Mail Marks comment which effectively undermines all that I said in an article elsewhere in the paper. Mr Fowle clearly has no understanding


of the Park and Ride network and its importance to the town and there is no cross reference to your constructive article. He says Park and Ride is “costly to run and difficult to sell to the public”. Sorry, the la�er is incorrect – look at Canterbury as just one example. I think it might be be�er in future that


Dennis sticks to his favourite subject, Brexit, and the promised land after March when Britannia will rule the waves again. David Hall, Bearsted


Woodland lost to road


ON NOVEMBER 8, Maidstone Borough Council’s planning commi�ee refused permission for a road through the ancient bluebell woodland to access a landlocked


field close to Maidstone Hospital. Developers Croudace had applied for


access to build a further 71 houses (part of their 500-home development on Hermitage Lane). Shortly after this democratic decision by councillors, Maidstone planning officers issued a “significant costs warning” and requested the application go back to the planning commi�ee for reconsideration. It went back to commi�ee on November


29 and in the meantime planning officers had taken legal advice, which was that MBC could not afford the possibility of an appeal and that it would not succeed. They refused to make public the legal advice, not even to the decision-makers on the planning commi�ee. Local councillors fought hard to save this woodland, to no avail. A case such as this has no precedence in


law and it would have been a test case if it had gone to appeal. The recent changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) state that any development which results in the loss of ancient woodland should be refused. The regulations were put in place precisely to protect ancient woodlands like this one. The majority of the planning commi�ee


were not local and did not have any knowledge of this woodland and its importance to the community, but were forced into making a decision. The chairman advised that no further


deferral could be allowed and that they had to make a decision on one of two routes for a road through the woodland. The commi�ee was split 50/50, so the chairman cast his vote, in favour of the longest and most destructive route. This unlit road will be 60 metres long


and, because it will be unadopted, will not conform to highway safety requirements and no safety audit has been requested. As one who spoke at the planning


meeting I can say this was not a democratic decision – councillors should have seen legal advice and been allowed a site visit. This is another example of planners


ge�ing what they want –more houses. Angela Pole�i, New Allington Action Group


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