downsmail.co.uk IT had to come – andMaidstone is


nowreally rebelling againstmassive housing and population growth so seriously and increasingly damaging lives of residents inmanyways. It has become the biggest talking point in town, even bigger than Brexit. The Government,Members of


Housing chaos rebellion MailMarks


DENNISFOWLE President dennisfowle28@gmail.com


Parliament (including our localMPs), Kent County Council andMaidstone Borough Council are in the firing line. Many have nowreached boiling point


– and the rebellion grows for this nightmare to be takenmuchmore seriously. No one is effectively responding –


and our future looks even bleakerwith massive building proposals just announced or in the pipeline for the town centre aswell as our countryside. And there is no sign of serious new


infrastructure for our overcrowded roads systemwith the buck being passed around.Maidstone Borough Council says it raises funding from developers – but KCC is the highways authority andmakes the decisions. Surely as the planning authority Maidstonemust bemore influential, including imposing strong highways and timing conditions. What are the key issuesmaking


Maidstone so angry?  CHARACTER The character of Maidstone is rapidly changing and much-loved areas have become unrecognisablewithmassive building projects.Who sawMaidstone as a high- rise town? The population profile has certainly changed, especially in the town centrewhich nowaccommodates overflows fromLondon boroughs among our newimmigrants.  TRAFFICWe used to complain about delays reaching the town centre. Now there is somuch extra traffic, delays occur all over the borough,with small problems quickly escalating due to weight of traffic. Everyonemust accept urbanMaidstone does not easily lend itself tomajor newroads (Leeds/Langley excepted) – and this must be amajor factor in newhousing decisions.Apart fromthe town centre, the three bridges across theMedway are ancient single lanemonuments (East Farleigh, Teston and Yalding) built for horse carriages.  HEALTH/SOCIAL SERVICES Our GPs are under somuch pressure from


Blinkered viewof recycling


I FEEL it is necessary to counter some of the pointsmade by Robin Brooks in his rather blinkered viewofwaste recycling. It is true that there is a proposal for Kent


County Council to acquire by tender a newextra recycling facility in north-west


46 Maidstone November 2019


population growth they are losing the ba�le (and numbers) and patients suffer. Our hospitals feel that same pressure andmiss Government targets. The calls on social care growat a time of financial and service cuts andmany families have very sad stories to tell as care pressures increasingly fall on them  EDUCATION The rush goes on to provide newschools, not always in the most appropriate place. Parents face longer journeys and too oftenmiss the school of first choice.  LIFESTYLEAll this is impacting on our lifestyle, especially on freedomof movement.A 15-minute car journey can noweasily take twice as long, frequentlymuchmore. It is impossible to plan the time ofmanyMaidstone journeys. Our cars have opened up a muchwiderworld for us and in the countryside they are nowthe only sensible formof convenient transport. Cycling andwalkingmay be possible for the fewand formost buses are not an acceptable alternative. Formost the car is essential – not optional. Maidstone’s rebellion is not fully


organised, but it ismoving thatway. Parishes in eastMaidstone have teamed up and there are significant calls for a moratoriumuntil infrastructure catches upwith house-building. The big parishes of Bearsted and


Boxley have combined to produce a major report of the impact on their roads of 1,200 newhouses south of the M20 (J7), togetherwith newschools bringing 2,000 pupils and staff and developments on KentMedical Campus. They say improvements planned to the road serving the crematoriumareawill not copewith all the extra trafficmovements. The villages of Langley and Otham


are in despair andMaidstone borough councillor Gordon Newton says approval for themassive BicknorWood development is “wrecking the place”. The borough councillor for nearby


Leeds, Cllr Gill Fort, says: “The roads are descending into chaos.We need to stop, pause and re-think.”


Maidstone, and that the site currently occupied by the Enviro Power incinerator facility is, togetherwith others, being investigated to be considered for this. First of all, this isNOT a “tip”.Wherever


it is, the facilitywill need to be up to date, and able to sort all kinds ofmaterial and send it on for recycling to other places and


Marden is showingwhat rebellion


canmean.More than 2,000 took to the streets to protest about a proposed “garden community” of 2,000 houses (with two newschools), doubling the size of the village. They have formed theMarden Planning Opposition Group. Coxheath residents have a “Hands


Off Coxheath” campaign and have already held a demonstration outside the Town Hall. Harrietshamhas an “Against Reckless


Development” group as it fights to protect the village expanding tomerge with Lenhamand Grafty Green. The protests are not generally against


some growth, but themassive extent of it. It is a tough ba�le for the likes of Staplehurst, Headcorn,Marden, Harrietshamand Lenham, because these five villages have been designated in the currentMaidstone Local Plan for expansion. Nowthe calls locally for a


moratoriumon newbuilding comes fromall political parties. One of the most significant is fromCllr Trudy Dean (LibDem), a leadingMalling councillor. She says: “Local people are left


fighting off a feeding frenzy of landowners and house builders a�empting to bypass the democratic process of preparing the newlocal plan. MPs need to put a stop to this costly mess.” Themoratoriumdemand comes too


fromMaidstone Green Party spokesman Stuart Jeffery and Bearsted parish councillor Denis Spooner. Maidstone Council, under great


pressure fromGovernment formassive newhousing, knows theremust be different answers and has just announced a proposal for 5,000 houses in a totally newse�lement in the isolated farming area of LenhamHeath. This is bounded by theM20,A20with themain railway line running through themiddle. In the grand scheme of things itmakes sense – butwill appal the countryside lobby. Iwould like to seeMaidstone, Kent


and ourMPs supporting the local rebellion. UrbanMaidstonemust take nomore and can present a special case to the Government of the day. How muchmore of our countrysidemust be lost?


certainly not to be landfilled. Anymaterialwhich cannot be recycled


but incinerated to produce electricity,may well be dealtwith at the plant on the 20/20 site (which is in Tonbridge andMalling). I can assureMr Brooks that there is


nothing coming fromthe chimney but steam, as all othermaterials in the burning


Comment


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