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Housing update |News Building town to a standstill


WITHonly a third of the homes inMaidstone borough’s Local Plan built, and a call for sites to ac- commodate 9,000more, pressure ismounting on roads and services, writesDawn Kingsford. Maidstone Borough Council


(MBC) has revealed just 6,437 new addresses have been “delivered” fromthe 17,660 homes allocated to it - a target that does not include the Government’s additional homes demands. Liberal Democrat-ledMBC says


some 9,277 extra properties are likely to be needed to bring the area’s Local Plan into linewith the its 2037 housing target. Across the borough an increas-


ing number are calling for amora- torium on building, until roads and improvements to infrastruc- ture, such as schools andsurgeries, catch up with the population ex- plosion. A failed taxpayer-funded High


Court action byMBCagainstTory- runKentCountyCouncil overhow developers’money is used has not helped the situation, while motor- way closures and diversions have further aggravated the growing


More homes,


no newroads CLLR GORDON Newton, at Downswood, says develop- ments at Langley Park and Bicknor Woods have arrived without improvements to the road network. Andwith plans for another


440 next toOthamchurch, he says a moratorium on green- field development is needed. “We’ve had the Langley


and BicknorWoods develop- ments in return for a 200metre stretch of road con- necting all these houses to theA274 viaGoreCourtRoad and Church Road – a road built for horses and carts,” he said. “It’s amess and everyone is


suffering for it, and this is just the beginning.” After sitting in traffic in


Maidstone en route to Ash- ford Road, he added: “People are moving out of London to Maidstone, but having to commute, which is adding to the problem. “Perhapswe should be ask-


ing who we are building these extra houses for. Is it for locals or Londoners?”


‘Aparadise no longer’


SUE Pritchardmoved to Shortlands Green in ParkWood six years ago… when fields and woods stretched out to Sutton Valence. Now, hun- dreds of homes stand in their place, withmore to come. She paints a grim picture of the


Sutton Road area, but says the whole town is destined for gridlock. The retired school teacheradded:


“When I moved here it was a little piece of paradise, now it’s a dystopia. Langley Park has shops, butweneednewroads, schools, sur- geries and community centres, to make living here pleasant. All I can see is longer waiting times for doc- tors, A&E overwhelmed, our envi- ronment fume-filled and roads at a standstill. I can’t even think about


leaving home in the car before 9.30am.” She wants to see development


halted until an acceptable time- frame has been established for in- frastructure improvements. She says: “Who is actually think-


ing about our environment? We need to be carbon-free in five years, not 2050, but electric charging points are being put in a town cen- tre that no one can reach, and new homes have no room to charge a car. It’s time someone lookedat the bigger picture and started consider- ingmoves like free public transport, and it needs to start atGovernment level, rather than leaving it to KCC and MBC, who don’t work well to- gether and have no vision.”


gresses on another 1,301 homes, with a further 6,000 ready to start. Gary Thomas, Maidstone dis-


Gary Thomas, of the CPRE


traffic problems. A report from Kent County Council confirmed last month that just 27 infrastruc- ture improvementshavebeencom- pletedinresponse totheLocalPlan, with residents accusing the bor- ough council of failing to turn cash contributions fromdevelopers into the community benefits promised. In the meantime, residents and


motorists are preparing for the sit- uation to worsen, as work pro-


trict chairman of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, says the congestion, loss of countryside, and the deterioration of quality of life for people in and around Maidstone has been all too evi- dent. He says, sadly, that the situ- ation is likely to get worse, given the scale of permitted housing de- velopment. He added: “The destruction of


so much pristine countryside is heart-breaking enough, but couple thatwith the failure to address the needs of our young people in their ambitions to find homes they can afford, and the situation is near scandalous. “Building hugely expensive


four- and five-bedroomexecutive homes in our villageswill clog up our roads even more and benefit fewlocal people at any level.”


Mark Jones, owner of Sapphire


Cars in Maidstone, says the con- gestion problem is beyond a sin- gle solution.He says a substantial ring road, from Hollingbourne roundabout to the M20 at Kings Hill is needed, bypassing Maid- stone and providing a dual car- riageway for traffic turning Leeds, Langley, Boughton Monchelsea, Coxheath, East Farleigh, Teston and West Malling into giant rat- runs. He said: “I’m struggling to get


drivers because who wants to sit in traffic all day? Everyone is look- ing for alternative routes and cre- ating new ‘rat-runs’, driving on roads notmeant for this volume of traffic.” We understand around 500 ap-


plications have been submitted as result of the MBC “call for sites” for the upcoming Local Plan review which concluded earlier this summer.


Stacey’s ‘hell’


STACEY Betteridge is one of hun- dreds of home care assistants working in the borough. She provides vital care to the


elderly, running themto the doc- tors, picking up shopping and helping around the house. The 24-year-old, who runs 121


Homecare in Coxheath, serves an area from Teston to Kingswood and says the roads are “hell, wherever you go”. She claims the roads will not


cope with more traffic and says she already has to allownearly an hour to get to Kingswood.


Roadchanges


A SPOKESMAN for KCC said the only substantial road im- provement to come this yearwill remove a bus lane on the A20 and widen junctions between New Hythe Lane and Station Road, Larkfield. The scheme will also create a


shared cycle footpath. Work to improve Coldharbour round- about at Aylesford and the A229 Loose Road corridor will not start until next year. Results of a KCC study into


the feasibility of a Leeds-Lang- ley relief road has been com- pleted.


Maidstone September 2019 19


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