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£2.5m price on road plan land


A BUSINESSMAN has valued a key land holding needed to ease traffic congestion in Hermitage Lane at four times the price the county council believes it is worth. The road is due to have 4,000


homes built on it by 2027, and high- ways officers need the land on which the Taj Barming sits for a pair of roundabouts. Taj owner Kiron Haque has owned the property on the A26 for a decade, but setbacks including a flood, sink hole and then Covid-19 has meant the business has traded for around just three of the 10 years. Mr Haque described the sum of £615,000 set aside by Kent County Council (KCC) highways bosses as “laughable”, claiming it is worth £2.5m. He has appointed negotia- tors to act for him.


Mr Haque said: “No one has


made me any offer, but how can you say that £615,000 is a fair price? “You would find it hard to buy a four-bedroom, detached house for


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that sort of money, so how could you buy a business? It’s laughable. “I lost £200,000 alone when I shut the restaurant while the sink hole was being dealt with. How can a building of that magnitude only be worth £615,000 – I would put a value of £2.5m as more realistic.” The Maidstone Joint Transporta- tion Board believes the property could be secured by compulsory purchase. The main roundabout would be at the Tonbridge Road/Fountain Lane junction, with a smaller one at the top of Farleigh Lane. The scheme includes signalised pedes- trian crossings at all four arms of the junction.


KCC estimates the total project would cost £3m-plus and wants to see more developer contributions from new housing in Hermitage Lane and nearby areas, with some Government funding. The JTB agreed to progress fur- ther investigation.


A new brand for Geo


A MAIDSTONE design house has undergone a major rebranding and appointed a company chairman. GeoBrand, formerly GeoMedia, have launched a new website as well


as a new brand identity. Terry Hewett takes the chair after previously working as the managing director of an advertising agency. Mr Hewett, who has three decades of experience and worked on cam-


paigns for several large companies, said: “When I first met the GeoBrand team, I was massively impressed with the levels of experience and their ability to produce some outstanding work." GeoBrand have been delivering design services to national and inter- national companies for over 10 years from their base in Royal Star Arcade in Maidstone. Director Andrew Dicker said: “Everything we do, whether that be de-


sign, illustration, digital or print, sits beneath the banner of ‘Brand’. As an agency we will always be Geo, but going forward there will be no mistaking that we are, and always will be, brand specialists.” Mr Hewett will advise and consult on developing the business and se- curing new opportunities.


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