‘Too much traffic’ for school bid
Don’t build your new school here – that was the message from Boxley Parish Council to the Valley Invicta Academies Trust.
The trust, which already runs Valley Park Community School and the Invicta Grammar School in Maidstone, has submitted a planning application to Maidstone council to build a threestorey 1,200-student secondary at Vinters Park.
But the parish council said although it would welcome another STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) school in Maidstone, Vinters Park was the wrong place for it because of traffic problems.
The parish believes a STEM venue would probably take chil- dren from wider afield than a comprehensive, so traffic movements would be greater.
It also criticised a traffic assess- ment, saying it exaggerated the number of students who walked to school. Parking provision was inadequate, it said. The trust planned 104 spaces, yet said it would engage 100 full-time staff.
Any open day or parents evening would inevitably lead to significant parking on neighbouring roads and Boxley council said any extra parking must impede Grove Green residents.
There are two secondaries near the proposed site with a primary site a few hundred yards away, catering for 3,044 pupils in total.
The parish council said the addition of yet another 1,200 students would “have an unacceptable impact.”
The trust was unable to comment before we went to press.
For more on the application see maidstone.gov.uk and search planning application number 17/501471.