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Hope for a revision of housing formula


EARLIER this month, Maidstone Borough Council published its draft Local Plan Review. This is an important step in ensuring our Local Plan is up to date and therefore our community is protected from speculative housing applications by developers. I am grateful to councillors and officers at MBC for their hard work. Furthermore, I am delighted that the document does not include the proposed development of 2,000 new homes in Marden. The plans were totally inappropriate and threatened to ruin the unique nature of the village. Their rejection is a huge victory for local people and I pay tribute to Claudine Russell and her magnicent team for campaigning so effectively against the plans. They have proved what can be achieved when a community joins together to champion a common cause. Meanwhile, in the west of Maidstone, I continue to harbour serious concerns about the link between housing development in the area and the appearance of sink holes. The materialisation of holes at the Orchard Fields development and at the nearby South East Water reservoir, added to the major crevices on the Tonbridge Road and on Broomshaw Road, is extremely worrying. That is why, alongside my colleague and neighbour Tracey Crouch, I am calling for an immediate building moratorium to be


By Helen Grant MP for


Maidstone & the Weald


imposed in the area whilst a full geological survey is undertaken.


All of this is set to the backdrop of the


Government’s plans to increase housing targets for our part of Kent. It reaffirms how crucial it is that the Government reconsider their plans which would impose 78% more homes on Maidstone.


Late last month, I therefore led a delegation of Kent MPs to meet with the housing minister Christopher Pincher. We asked him to think again about the plans the Government are proposing and relieve the disproportionate housing burden on Kent. He conrmed the Government was actively looking at responses to its consultation and will be bringing forward revised plans soon. In recent days, I’ve heard whispers that these plans may include a fundamental revision of the housing formula. Let us hope that is the case and some common sense prevails.


Bad Local Plan sure to fail


SAVE Our Heath Lands expected November 9’s crucial decision by Maidstone Borough Council’s SPI committee to be a debate about the sites in the spatial strategy, but there was nothing. It appeared to be a whitewash. Instead of dis- cussions about soundness and deliverability, members, with the exception of Cllr Clive English, appeared only interested in the importance of pushing through the Local Plan Review, There were 11 public questions for the night


but, even with time constraints, we were sur- prised by the short answers given by the chair- man after the public took time to raise concerns. Officers’ reports to members were riddled with


mistakes. Borough members Tom and Janetta Sams highlighted a number of those related to the council-led garden proposal Heathlands. Independent consultants warned the scheme


is complicated and risky, but MBC chose to ignore its own commissioned expert advice and opted to include it in the Local Plan review. Ultimately, an independent planning inspector


will look at the scheme against national planning guidance. It won’t take long to realise it does not stack up for lack of infrastructure, inadequate em- ployment opportunities and lack of community


By Kate Hammond Save Our Heath Lands (SOHL)


engagement. Officers try to hide the issues by saying it is at an early stage. If so, it should be thrown out for something more deliverable. If the scheme fails, not only will the councillors


have egg on their faces, they will have lost the residents’ respect, be back at square one and will have lost control of the planning system. We continually hear, if Heathlands is removed,


where would the houses go? That is not for SOHL to answer. MBC received 330 “call for sites” submissions and should be evaluating what is best for the borough, not their own interests. One member said he hoped people will not


look forward to the day the Local Plan fails. It is not complicated, stop creating a bad plan and remove Heathlands. We continue to fight the Heathlands proposal


and our focus now is to make sure residents are heard in the public consultation.


Opinion


T


HE planning appeal by Bellway Homes over Maidstone Borough Council’s decision by elected members to reject houses in Otham will be heard soon. I learn the inspector, Stephen Normington, is not the rst to be assigned to the case, but spies report “awkward” questions may be asked as to why thousands of emails were exchanged between MBC’s unelected planning officers and the developer. A quick perusal of Mr Normington’s CV throws up an intriguing entry between 1980 and 1989, when he was a mineral surveyor up north with British Coal, formerly known as the National Coal Board. Historians will recall the NCB had an, er, uncomfortable relationship with Arthur Scargill’s National Union of Mineworkers between 1984-85. Perhaps no one better to preside over the battle to come?


HEAR from my favourite vicar, Canon John Corbyn of Bearsted, whose dedication to his ock is matched only by his devotion to the Lord himself. For a cleric who has forged an inuential role in the church and studied at Oxford, readers might be surprised to learn he failed his 11-plus.


I


LINT-hearted ghouls who scour the lists of forthcoming inquests have doubtless noted the sad departure of a Mr Deadman in another Kentish parish.


F


a committee meeting the other evening he delivered a cogent speech via Zoom with a strategically placed picture of his heroine Margaret Thatcher, giving a Churchillian V sign, perched on a cabinet behind his left shoulder.


T A S


nother notable highlight from the same meeting was the barking dog which drowned out Bearsted Tory, Val Springett, during her contribution. But best of all was an exasperated independent Cllr Gordon Newton saying that, in the face of huge housing numbers, he had no condence Maidstone “can survive”. Abruptly, he adds: “I am going to switch off. I have had enough.”


OCIALIST warhorse Malcolm McKay is a lifelong Crystal Palace supporter. Besides this simple joy, even his devotion to the Labour Party might dim. But I hear in his youth he was a nger-in-the-ear lover of folk music who mourned the recent demise of the great John Prine from COVID-19 complications. And why not? It was Prine who wrote: “If heartaches were commercials, we’d all be on TV.”


Chin chin! 47


ORY borough councillor Jonathan Purle knows how to make a point. At


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