I’m bitterly disappointed that Maidstone Borough Council has decided to go ahead with the Heathlands and Lidsing Garden Villages.
These rural locations are not the right places to support thousands of new homes – the road network can’t support them for a start. I made these points to the Council many times including in my submission last Christmas.
Decisions about what is built where are made by locally elected Borough councillors. The Local Plan is their document to develop and approve. That said, as your MP I can influence national planning policy and I have had many conversations with the Secretary of State for Housing, as well as with number 10 officials, about the level of development in our community.
Following lobbying by Kent MPs, the Government is now looking again at planning policy. I am in the process of scheduling a meeting with Michael Gove, the new Secretary of State Levelling Up, Housing & Communities to discuss this further.
In the meantime, Maidstone’s Local Plan will be going out for its final consultation ending on 12 December. I encourage you to make your objections clear as the Planning Inspector will take them into account.
I will continue to do everything I can to give local residents a voice in opposing these plans.
