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Why I won’t support increase in housing


HOUSE-building always features very heavily in my post bag, and it’s not difficult to understand why; the building of new homes impacts upon so many aspects of our everyday life, changing our environment and revising familiar localities permanently. Of course, we must build the houses that our children and grandchildren need, and this should include an appropriate numbers of affordable homes, but not at the expense of our existing communities.


That is why I am so concerned about the


Government’s proposals to increase the number of houses Kent councils must build. These changes, which are under consultation until the end of this month, will mean Kent has to build 2,835 more homes per year. For us in Maidstone, the changes are 78% over and above the numbers in the existing Local Plan approved in 2017. That’s an increase from 883 houses per annum to 1,568 every year until 2037.


Housing numbers in our part of the Garden of England are already too high, and Maidstone has already facilitated substantial growth in recent years. The lack of appropriate infrastructure to accompany much of that development means our roads are creaking under the weight of traffic, school places are under pressure and access to a GP is more difficult. To add more homes into the mix without improving the existing infrastructure is almost unthinkable. I also believe the government’s current


By Helen Grant MP for


Maidstone & the Weald


proposals are unreasonable; particularly to our local authorities. Whilst I often disagree with our councils about planning proposals, such as the option to build 2,000 homes in Marden, I recognise that local planners do a good job under difficult circumstances. To continuously ratchet up their housing targets with limited consultation and little notice is therefore deeply unfair and demotivating. Given my concern about the proposed changes to housing targets, I recently gained the support of 10 Kent MPs to write to the Secretary of State for Housing, Robert Jenrick. We have asked him to look again at the Government’s proposals and to relieve the burden they place upon our communities. We have also asked to meet with him as soon as possible to discuss our concerns.


These changes will only succeed in arresting


well-considered town and country planning and undermining community trust and consent. I will be doing everything I can to persuade the Government to think again.


Opinion


HE cheerless menu from Kent Police’s press office usually consists of murder updates, assaults, burglaries, stabbings and drug-dealing in the county town. How agreeable to see what reporters receive in a more genteel and cultured part of the world: “An image has been issued of a bronze gurine reportedly stolen from an art gallery in Tunbridge Wells.” Then, a few days later, a manhunt for a asher in a deerstalker with the earaps down skulking in the shadows of its verdant, open spaces.


T L


ABOUR leader on the borough council Malcolm McKay harbours a shameful sporting secret. It is not that he supports Crystal Palace FC through thin and thin, but that he once parked his devotion to the Eagles in favour of Manchester Utd.


R


EBECCA Darling, PR spinner for Maidstone’s new Leigh Academies’ Trust schools, has an intriguing past – having served in various capacities for none other than former Liberal Democrat leaders Paddy Ashdown and Nick Clegg.


Faith in democracy restored M


MOST of the time as an elected councillor, I feel that the bulk of decisions are made by the (un- elected) officers of Maidstone Borough Council but sometimes something happens, and I am delighted, and my faith in democracy is restored. Recently, Maidstone changed its policy re-


garding housing pets, making it more likely that those who were homeless and are now living in council emergency accommodation would be able to keep their companion pets when they moved to permanent social housing. This was after a lot of work by Dee Bonnet,


who attended and spoke at three committee meetings, emailing officers and the chair. I was happy to support Dee after she con-


tacted me last year, in spite of not being a keen pet lover (I am more a hedgehog, frog man). But the policy had been that people made homeless were allowed to keep a reasonable pet in emer- gency accommodation but if they declined per- manent accommodation because it would not allow pets, they could have been evicted and deemed to have made themselves homeless. The communities, housing and environment committee voted unanimously on August 25 to


By Malcolm McKay Labour group leader,


Maidstone Borough Council


change the policy. Maidstone, now thanks to this committee, has a progressive and fair policy . I was also surprised and relieved that the plan-


ning committee showed it would stand up to in- tense pressure from planning officers and reject a proposal by Bellway Homes on highway and safety grounds for 440 houses off Church Road, Otham. I spoke at all these meetings. Twice the planning committee had to meet to


be told time and again by officers that members should accept this application. Other than two councillors, all agreed (including chairman Clive English) this was not a suitable location, the pro- posal was dismissed. This decision has now been appealed by the


developer and will be decided by an inspector after hearing evidence from barristers, briefed by Bellway, and the same MBC planning officers.


HE welcome news that former home secretary Jacqui Smith will be taking part in “Strictly Come Dancing” this year reminds me that her sister, Sarah, is a regular visitor to the crown court in Maidstone as a BBC journalist. In 2010, Jacqui lost her Redditch seat after the MPs’ expenses scandal. It emerged she used her sister’s spare room as her “main residence” allowing her to claim second home expenses on the family pile. And the fact that her (now former) husband claimed porn on her expenses, too.


T Chin chin! 47


CANNOT and I will not disclose the identity of a senior Kent County Council official who, in another life, was known to colleagues as Queen B***h.


A I


ID Kent MP Helen Whately is locked in a dispute with neighbours over trees in her garden near Faversham. Leaves “cause havoc”, they say, with descriptions including “dreadful” and “nightmare” littering one newspaper report. Mrs Whately and husband Marcus have chopped some back and offered to work with neighbours to resolve the issue. The residents’ case butters no parsnips with other neighbours, who observe the trees stood there for several decades before the Whatelys moved in last year.


SECONDARY school teacher recently described Verona in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet as a “city of love” and invited students to offer modern-day equivalents. One reply? “Nandos”.


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