Bid to protect village heath gets green light
A petition group made progress in its campaign to protect an open space.
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) has agreed to apply for Weavering Heath, in Grove Green, to be classified as a Village Green.
The Friends of Weavering Heath and Woodlands (FWHW) group started an e-petition in April 2019 asking for the authority, which owns the land, to apply to Kent County Council for the rating.
The declaration would give residents the right to use the land for lawful sports and pastimes and make it an offence to build on the land or do anything that affects its use as a place of recreation.
FWHW hope it will prevent future development on the site. They fear there is currently no protection for the space in MBC’s Local Plan, which could see thousands of new homes built in the town.
The council assured them it is committed to keeping it as an open space until 2062 but they were still worried what would happen to it after that date. The petitioners presented several reasons for the application, including the use of the space for sporting and leisure activities and the protection of a protected species of lizard which reside there.
They also stated concerns about traffic chaos and over-development if it were to be built on.
More campaigner fears were sparked about the heath’s future last year after contractors, building a primary and secondary school on nearby Pope’s Field off Bearsted Road, churned up the green space with diggers to see if a sewage pipe could be laid across it.
Developers have started building Bearsted and Snowfields Academy, part of the Leigh Academies Trust.
The schools are scheduled to open in September.