downsmail.co.uk a


Let me loose in Maidstone! MailMarks


AFTER more than a year in strict COVID-19 lockdown, I am among many desperate for a return of family and social freedoms – and I am excited by much in the pipeline for Maidstone. The new entertainment, restaurant and club centre over ve oors of the former Pizza Express building in Earl Street is an ambitious project with an 800 capacity, and should benet as an all-ages project. It will include a restaurant, concerts and shows, plays, lms, live and recorded music, dancing, sporting events, a members-only area and whisky room. That is a variety wide enough to attract many, if the quality is high. Now Maidstone Borough Council has agreed to open a foodhall at its Lockmeadow building, with an open-air overow onto the rear parking area, together with a children’s play centre. Small restaurant businesses are already showing interest, and there could be many different styles of food on offer. Grandma may fancy sh and chips, mum Thai, dad Indian, little Johnny a burger and his sister an ice cream sundae. All could be catered for.


It is a big challenge for the council. They have to attract footfall and gear opening hours to public and restaurant demands. Solutions could include opening up and developing the attraction of our lovely river in this area and also staging family entertainment shows. I like, too, what is to happen to the former car showroom at Len House, Mill Street. Its renovation and extension with apartments and a retail area at ground- oor level are welcome, but particularly


Column ignores facts


IT IS a pity your columnist Dennis Fowle shows no sympathy for those wishing to cycle safely around town. A recent scientic study from


University College London highlights the lasting damage done to our eyesight – including glaucoma and blindness – by just a small increase in air pollution. Dirtier air speeds up the process of age- related muscular degeneration, which is irreversible.


Elsewhere, your correspondent lets the Prime Minister off lightly. The Brexit deal, already unravelling, ignores the service sector of the economy – some 80% of this country’s wealth.


Johnson’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, like some other Western governments, has been very poor. Even as early as February or March last year, it was evident that Far Eastern nations such as Taiwan and South Korea were handling the crisis far more effectively than was happening elsewhere. They have had very few deaths.


The obvious route to take, too obvious


DENNIS FOWLE President dennisfowle28@gmail.com


exciting is the café-style plan for the existing forecourt and a fenced footpath along the southern side of the building overlooking the River Len. I hope early funding will be available for the council to build the café/heritage centre in our cherished Mote Park. How about a relaxed lunch looking out to the beautiful lake and its wildlife and backdrop of magnicent trees? Then there is our town centre cinema, upgraded at a cost of millions. COVID-19 has meant many have not seen inside yet. When we are released back in to Maidstone, we will see many changes – including a new-look Maidstone East railway station. But some businesses will not have survived the nancial rigours of lockdowns – be prepared for some sad surprises.


For now, I relish the thoughts of taking children and grandchildren (some not seen for more than a year) on a day out with a restaurant meal; visiting again the many treasures of Kent; and relaxing with friends at Kent cricket or The Mote. I never thought all that could end – but it did.


a MAIDSTONE is traditionally Close call


conservative (with a small ‘c’) at borough elections – and that is the only forecast I


perhaps, was to follow their practice as far as possible. Instead we have had a catastrophe.


K G Banks, Maidstone


BBC bias a waste of money CLIMATE change, particularly at the BBC, is now a religion and the fact is that wind turbines are seen as the way forward. assisted by solar panels. What if the wind does not blow, or the panels are covered in snow? To even consider replacing gas and oil with the above means of generating electricity (four times dearer than gas) will surely lead to real problems in future. But our county will be ruined by masses of these two – particularly the windmills with their peculiar hesitant circular motion and the resulting, throbbing noise. It was funny recently to hear a climate change expert on the BBC interrupted by a news ash to say one spot in the UK was colder than it had been 30 years ago, before carrying on quite blissfully spouting away!


r Mall parking


THE winding multi-storey car park at The Mall has never been my favourite and the decision to change payment to a smartphone system will drive me elsewhere, unless I can pay and go. A reason “to avoid human contact” does not ring true. The old system seemed ne, with little or no human contact.


r


Missing posties MANY of us were without Royal Mail


letter deliveries for long periods (a week or more) last month, with no idea when they would resume or whether we should be posting letters. Downs Mail asked Royal Mail press


office three times for an explanation and received no response on the Maidstone situation. We nally found out through a source that about 70 of our local posties were in COVID-19 isolation at the same time, notably after the sad death of a popular postman in East Farleigh/Coxheath.


So three cheers for those over-75s for not paying TV licences, including my cousin who is 90. The BBC spends our money like drunken sailors on poor programmes. Alan Wallace, via email


Make litter a priority


AS USUAL, Maidstone Borough Council goes chasing easy headlines with eye- catching initiatives, like the so-called “LitterCams”.


The Liberal Democrat councillor Derek Mortimer estimates these devices will be able to capture “thousands” of culprits. There is doubtless a terrible litter problem in our borough and if it wasn’t for the army of community volunteers who do their bit – when the council does not – this place would look like a third world republic.


Cllr Mortimer, who is a good guy and


is well-meaning, is probably over-egging the pudding when he speaks of thousands of offenders. The number of offenders probably amounts to the


53


make for Thursday, May 6. The Conservatives need very small gains to win back overall control from the Lib Dems and their allies. However, the detail is complex and too hard to call after a pretty torrid time in local politics, with the Local Plan Review and its controversial new garden villages and the public campaign to keep the Hazlitt Theatre. With KCC and police commissioner elections as well, it is no time to waste your vote.


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