Unfair burden on our resources
I read with interest Eileen Riden’s letter in this week’s KM and it sparked several thoughts. First, I heartily endorse the praise for Faversham and Mid Kent MP Helen Whately.
Her predecessor Hugh Robertson was a hard act to follow but she has exceeded expectations as an excellent constituency MP who is prepared to get out to meet and to listen to her constituents.
It will be a real shame if we lose her with the proposed constituency boundary changes. Mrs Whately was in Maidstone to represent her constituents in the context of the Local Plan where 18,560 houses were mentioned for the area.
Presumably this represents around this number of wage earners – where are all these local jobs coming from? It is an assumption, but this number of houses could mean an extra 50,000 more people in the Local Plan area or an increase of around 30% on current figures. How will the already creaking infrastructure – schools, doctors, hospitals, roads – cope?
I question too where all these people are coming from – Kent, London, abroad? If it is possible, it would be very interesting to determine this distribution when all these houses are completed.
There may be a clue in that I know one Maidstone primary school in the recent past had children from 19 different countries and last year 40% of the intake was born outside the UK. I know too London house prices are forcing families to move out. It is unfair to burden our thin local resources with extra population because this is to the detriment of both existing residents and the newer arrivals, wherever they come from. The planners and (some) politicians have got it all wrong (again). Jon Bacon, Church Road, Harrietsham. my pledge. Where to find a team? That’s what husbands and sons are for. Three-line-whip issued, press gang employed, no escape.
To be fair they all said ‘yes’ at the first time of asking, bless them.
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