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stop the traffic. I think the time has now come to close Roseacre Lane at the Hog Hill end. There is ample room at this end to allow for a turnaround. A barrier or bollard could be installed to which emergency vehicles could have access if the need arose.


Roseacre Lane is crumbling away. It was


never designed to take the amount of traffic which is now using it. There are no pavements to ensure pedestrian safety on a route used by children and the elderly. Why should we wait for our property to be damaged, for an accident to occur or for someone to be injured before common sense prevails and the traffic is stopped? Jane Evans, via email


Action on homes a bit late


REFERENCE your front-page article in the February edition, “Battle to stop building will go to Westminster”.


I am amazed it has taken so long for Maidstone borough councillors to come to the conclusion that this action is needed. For at least a decade, anyone with common sense could see where the large housing target was likely to lead us. At least the Conservative opposition leader Cllr John Perry has set the ball rolling, although his comment that housing targets cannot be met “without adversely affecting the residents”, might have been better expressed as “without adversely affecting the environment”. The environment impinges on residents, but also affects wildlife. Even the present building level is causing serious traffic gridlock and increased air pollution. The current wheeze is the plea to plant more trees. In Kent, all we are doing is planting houses. Where the land is to come from to plant more trees eludes me, and the loss of agricultural land in the county is already dire.


In the early 1970s, Kenneth Mellanby, director of the Monk’s Wood Research Station, wrote a small book entitled “Can Britain Feed Itself?” The conclusion then was that it was unlikely without some pain, but to do so now is utterly


impossible. We are completely dependent on imports to sustain our population. The housing problem, like so many of our problems, is due to the population pressure in this country, which continues to increase inexorably. Like Chris Packham, I am not sanguine about our future prospects, but let’s hope that something positive comes about from Maidstone Borough Council’s approach to parliament.


Ray Town, via email Resources, not homes


THIS is a letter sent to Maidstone and the Weald MP Helen Grant about the joint action about the borough’s housing numbers instigated by the Conservative opposition at Maidstone Borough Council. Dear Mrs Grant, You will have read in this week’s press of voters’ loss of faith in the democratic process and, closer to home, of the public frustration that Maidstone is being destroyed by overpopulation and under-provision brought about by a failure of national Government to assist in planning for an increasing population.


I am delighted to read that you are joining with local councillors to present a case to government for a cessation of house-building in our town. You must not underestimate the strength of feeling here about the way our daily lives have been diminished by this mindless expansion.


It will not be sufficient merely to stop all building activity here. The process needs to be reversed and, in addition, we need substantial Government investment to recover the loss of resources in terms of our hospital, GP surgeries, roads, green spaces and other facilities which have been swamped by unplanned migration, both internal and international. As Dennis Fowle puts it in the Downs Mail: “Maidstone has become an awful example of a major town being destroyed by unbelievable housing targets, now very seriously impacting on quality of life in so many ways for residents. There is now an opportunity for the new


Government to set the country on a positive and creative course for the future. If the


Government wants to encourage more people to settle in the South East (which it should not), then it must fund fully-resourced new towns. You must not underestimate the popular reaction that will meet a hesitant or half- hearted attempt to correct the problems that have been created in our daily lives here in Maidstone. We need and expect radical change now.


Michael Marriott, Maidstone


Building blow to village MAIDSTONE Borough Council’s call for sites has generated 16 plots in East Farleigh with 1,399 houses proposed. Development in East Farleigh would be catastrophic. The East Farleigh Village Plan does not identify significant demand for housing in the area. Excessive targets for housing in the South East far exceed what local people need or infrastructure can sustain. There is little long-term planning regarding the town centre, transport or housing and therefore current planning developments adjacent to East Farleigh already impact the village and through traffic. Congestion does not just affect local residents but others going through the village using the main route across the river. It is estimated that if each proposed house made just four single journeys a day additional traffic volume of 39,172 a week would occur. Rural roads already struggle with significant congestion. The grade I listed bridge is narrow with no pavement. Road safety and pedestrian/cyclist safety are compromised by unsuitable of roads and lack of footpaths. There are inadequate local facilities, amenities, services and infrastructure to provide for a substantially bigger community. The National Planning Policy Framework states fundamental aims to prevent unrestricted sprawl of built-up areas and neighbouring towns merging to safeguard countryside, preserve special character and historic areas and to support sustainable development. Hilary Whibley, East Farleigh


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