Fury over council’s ‘search’ for jobs land at Junction 8
Maidstone council is now looking to find employment land at Junction 8 of the M20 causing a furore among campaigners.
The details are contained in a revised economic development strategy which now calls on sites to provide jobs.
But the decision by the policy and resources committee on Wednesday comes just weeks after the close of a public inquiry where the authority fought to defend its refusal to permit just such a scheme at the site called Waterside Park.
It also follows its well-publicised refusal to support the KIG scheme (a road and rail freight depot) in the same area in 2010.
The decision has caused a furore among residents and parish councils near Junction 8, but council officers said a phone survey of 1,518 residents had shown across the wider borough there was support for development there.
Economic development manager John Foster stressed the policy was setting out an overarching strategy and did not indicate approval for any specific planning application.
Details of what was and was not acceptable would still be decided in the Local Plan process which the council uses to govern future development.
Mr Foster said development at Junction 8, along with other policies to strengthen the town centre and expand the Kent Medical Campus, were needed if Maidstone was to provide the 14,400 extra jobs it needed by 2031.
The committee ignored advice from Kent County Council saying it did not support economic development at Junction 8 and that the policy “would be detrimental to the sustainable development of Maidstone.”
Cllr Martin Round (Con) observed the phone survey had polled 50 people in his Headcorn ward but in the last 48 hours since the news had broken of the proposal to include Junction 8, he had received “148 emails, 20 phone calls and 10 knocks on the door” from people passionately opposed.
Cllr Dave Sargeant (Ukip) said the alleged need for 14,400 new jobs was based on some “pretty speculative assumptions” about population growth, adding: “In a couple of years we may have left the EU and the population pressures will ease.”
Cllr Paulina Stockell (Con) added: “This is the last green junction of the borough and we are about to sweep it away.”
She moved to remove it from the strategy, but was supported only by Cllr Round, Cllr Sargeant and Cllr Louise Brice (Con), and her amendment was defeated.