Plans for thousands of new homes approved
LDRS/Daniel EssonA council has approved controversial plans for thousands of homes over the coming years, despite fears of the borough becoming “another Milton Keynes".
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) has approved its plan for local housebuilding up until 2038 – with more than17,000 new homes included across the borough.
At a special meeting of MBC’s full council on 20 March, protesters gathered outside Maidstone Town Hall to oppose the plans.
David Burton, leader of the council, said "there are some people that really just don’t want this plan".
Resident Liz Meek, of Sandway near Lenham, attended to oppose the plans for a 5,000 home “garden settlement” called Heathlands.
“Basically it’s going to be a housing estate in the middle of nowhere, with all the traffic of 5,000 houses, 10,000 cars going to go on the M20,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
She said she feared the new homes would turn Maidstone into "another Milton Keynes".
Locals have been campaigning against the plans under the banner Save Our Heath Lands (SOHL) for several years.
'Take it or leave it'
At the full council meeting there were two attempts to amend the proposals.
Councillor Stuart Jeffrey proposed an amendment to delay the vote until after the full local council election on May 2, but it was defeated.
He said: “It does seem that there’s no strategy other than to build large unsustainable and unconnected houses on farmland."
Councillor Tony Harwood then proposed to defer it until no later than April 18 to allow MBC to respond to the county council’s concerns, but this was also defeated.
Mr Burton added: “You cannot change it now – it’s locked by the Inspector, it’s take it or leave it.
“I guarantee if you have no plan you will absolutely definitely have [building on] the sites you don’t want, the ones in the plan and any other scrap of land.
“We really really need to adopt this plan – take it or leave it.”
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