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News Planning messages ‘banned’


PLANNING officers have been ordered not to “correspond” with developers during virtual meetings, Downs Mail has learnt.


The rebuke comes after Maid- stone Borough Council staffer Austin Mackie mistakenly mes- saged an applicant on screen, so that everyone present could read it. During the meeting, Mr Mackie


wrote to the developer: “If you are watching, the deferral is a positive, in that they didn’t refuse on the is- sues. “So if we come back with clear de-


tails and sort the overlooking mat- ter, then they have what they asked for.”


Mr Mackie referred to the elected members, for whom he works, as “they’ and himself and the devel- oper as “we”. Now, after an inquiry, MBC claims “all planning officers


Parking ‘could


go paperless’ THOUSANDS of Maidstone resi- dents will be impacted by pro- posed changes in Maidstone Borough Council procedures to park vehicles on streets close to their homes.


They will no longer buy per-


mits, which the council says will improve enforcement (some are sold to visitors), combat climate change and save costs.


The simplified system will in-


volve verification of eligibility to activate a paperless or virtual per- mit for the vehicle (not an indi- vidual), still to be paid for by residents.


Separate applications would


have to be made for visitor park- ing.


A formal decision must still be taken by the council.


CCTV plan


BUSINESS development group One Maidstone has stepped in to ensure town centre CCTV is mon- itored properly.


The borough council, now hard pressed by the COVID-19 pan- demic, was in the process of downgrading the service. Now One Maidstone has de- cided it can do the job with its personnel on the ground and links with Kent Police.


Manager Ilsa Butler says the system can reduce and prevent crime.


have been advised that they should not correspond with any parties during committee meetings”.


A statement said: “Regarding the email that Mr Mackie was wit- nessed drafting during the planning committee meeting; this type of cor- respondence between a planning of- ficer and an


applicant is not


unusual; Mr Mackie was simply outlining the issues that were raised by the planning committee which the applicant would need to address going forward. “However, the council does recognise that a committee meeting which is still taking place is not the most appropriate time for an officer to begin drafting emails. Therefore ... all planning officers have been ad- vised that they should not corre- spond with any parties during


committee meetings.” This newspaper disclosed last


year how planning officers and builder Bellway Homes exchanged more than 2,500 messages in little over two years about housing at Otham.


Independent borough councillor Eddie Powell, pictured, said: “I’m sure Austin Mackie and the other of- ficers at Maidstone Borough Coun- cil are quaking in their shoes because, perversely, it is the officers who run the council, not the elected representatives.


“The fact that the council claims that the exchanges between devel- oper and officer are not unusual is perverse in itself.”


Homes report in road plan


A REPORT on building hun- dreds of houses in the Leeds/Langley corridor to sup- port a new strategic road to re- duce traffic problems in the two villages and east Maidstone has been commissioned by Maid- stone Borough Council. Answering a public question, which suggested there could be 1,500 houses, Cllr David Bur- ton, chairman of the Strategic Planning and Infrastructure Committee, said the council could start work early on the


next Local Plan Review to fol- low the review now in the pipeline.


The current review will not include a proposal for a style of


Council’s ‘millions in investment accounts’


MAIDSTONE Borough Council, which recently proposed the clo- sure of the Hazlitt Theatre to save money, is sitting on tens of millions of pounds in invest- ments.


But its returns on £24.1m are modest, just £21,000, because of record low interest rates on sav- ings, according to paperwork. The best rate, from Svenska Handelbanken, is 0.15% on the £3m sitting in its deposit account. Others include some £2.88m with HSBC, a total of £3m in two accounts with Lloyds and £430k with Goldman Sachs.


More than £7m is held with


Aberdeen Asset Management and £5.57m lies with Federated Investers LLP.


The council has borrowed at


low cost £9m from Bridgend Bor- ough Council, Warwick District Council and the London Bor- ough of Tower Hamlets. MBC’s leadership recently an- nounced it must find £2m in sav- ings because the COVID-19 pandemic has drastically cut rev- enues, such as parking charges. The authority wanted to find a large chunk of that deficit by “mothballing” the Hazlitt The- atre which would have given a net saving of £130,000.


a new garden village in this area, but the council could con- sider programming residential development and a new road in the next review. The highways authority, Kent County Council, has recently indicated that if Maidstone can present a business case around the need for the road in order to open up development potential along the corridor, it would as- sist with funding bids and, as appropriate, give authority for compulsory purchase powers.


Farm charity


hit by theft THIEVES stole more than £7,500 worth of equipment from a farm- ing charity in West Malling. The largest item taken from Spadework, in Teston Road, was an electric generator.


Spadework provides opportu- nities for over 116 adults with learning and other disabilities. The charity wrote on Facebook:


“Everyone at Spadework has tried to support the local commu- nity over the last 36 years, so to have someone steal from us cer- tainly does hurt.”


Anybody with information should call 01622 604100, quoting reference 46/30489 or Crimestop- pers on 0800 555111.


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