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downsmail.co.uk Planners facing new blow


PLANNING officers at the borough council face having their powers severely restricted if a new challenge is passed.


The unelected civil servants at


Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) could be stripped of the means to bypass or "frustrate" elected members in important de- cisions, particularly on housing. The Tory plan by Bridge ward


councillor Jonathan Purle (pic- tured) cleared the first hurdle when it was passed by the democ- racy and general purposes com- mittee earlier this month with a Liberal Democrat seconder, Cllr Michelle Hastie. Cllr Purle has called for a major


scaling back of senior officers' powers at the Liberal Democrat- led authority. In a letter to the council, Cllr


Purle claims officials have more capacity to "frustrate elected members wishing to refuse a planning application" than seven other local authorities in the


AN INVESTIGATION into county lines drug dealing has re- sulted in the arrest of a Maidstone man.


county. Some elected councillors claim the Lib Dem political lead- ership has allowed the authority to become "officer-led", a damn- ing accusation in local govern- ment. There has a been a furious back- lash against the officers over their


conduct in handling the Bellway Homes development in Otham and MBC's own massive 5,000 home scheme in Lenham. It took three committees to fi-


nally thwart the officers’ recom- mendation to approve and the refusal is almost certainly going to be appealed by the applicant. Cllr Purle wants to review the planning officers' ability to defer decisions, move to closed session or bounce matters to another body. His letter states: "The role of un-


elected planning officers should be to support elected members, including where elected members wish to refuse applications that planning officers had otherwise recommended for approval." It is unlikely a result of the pro-


cess will be known until early 2021.


Legal demand TWO prominent local councillors opposed to a housing develop- ment surrounding the ancient church at Otham have been hit with a legal demand to disclose details of emails and phone calls related to the case. County councillor Gary Cooke


and Downswood parish and bor- ough member Gordon Newton have been asked by lawyers to sur- render all correspondence from August 2019 to June 2020. Bellway Homes wants to build


421 houses on the site and the scheme has been included in the Local Plan of 2017, but elected members threw it out on July 13 on highways safety grounds. Information gleaned from the councillors could form part of the appeal. A county council officer and a local parish councillor have also received requests.


Drugs charge Lenham houses plan progresses Calvin Smith (36), of Wrangle-


den Road, is accused of being in- volved in the supply of heroin across Medway and Maidstone. He was arrested on July 1 and


was later charged with one count of being concerned in the supply of heroin. Mr Smith appeared before Med-


way Magistrates’ Court by video link on July 2. He was remanded in custody to appear at Maidstone Crown Court on July 30.


COUNCILLORS have sent the controversial Lenham Heath pro- ject for 5,000 houses onto the next stage. The Maidstone Borough Coun-


cil backed ‘garden community’ scheme was progressed by nine votes to six by the policy and re- sources committee on Tuesday night (July 21). A motion by Tory Cllr Jonathan


Purle to have the plan deferred for a period of reflection was narrowly defeated by eight votes to seven. Conservative Cllr Annabelle Blackmore sided with Liberal


Democrats and Labour members. Protest group Save Our Heath-


lands (SOHL) told the meeting that large scale garden connunities “up and down the country are fail- ing, with the recurring theme being that the schemes contain too many significant uncertainties, un- defined parameters and open- ended time scales”. MBC has now teamed up with


government-backed Homes Eng- land as joint “master developers” in the Lenham project. But in the current phase, gone are plans for a new M20 junction, a


new secondary school and high- speed railway station. SOHL says this would mean the


A20 would have to be dualled, an “impossibility” at locations such as Harrietsham. Lib Dem Cllr Clive English said


the committee’s decison to send the matter on was correct. He added: “If we don’t send it


through for proper examination, we’d end up having to re-do the Local Plan and goodness knows how many more houses we’d end up with. It was the sensible thing to do.”


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