Smaller town could be a better one
Villages editor
Photographer
Sports editor Last week you reported that a computer forecast shows that traffic in the Maidstone area will shortly be chaotic and that a survey has shown Maidstone is one of the worst places to live and work in the country.
If our elected representatives on Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council cannot work together to solve the traffic and other infrastructure problems then it is possible it will be become the worst place to live and work in the UK.
Maidstone council should reconsider the proposals for thousands of new homes when the existing roads cannot handle the present level of traffic. Government cuts mean there is little or no hope of the necessary schools, roads, sewers, and other public services for all these new houses. Perhaps the council should work on the principle that a smaller Maidstone might be a better one. John Cobbett Eyhorne Street, Hollingbourne
Political editor
Business editor problem by lowering speed limits or using cameras.
The majority of the serious accidents involve HGVs and in particular left-hand drive lorries. For a start average speed cameras would have to be set at 60mph not 70mph as HGVs are limited to 60mph by law on our roads.
Speed cameras also don’t resolve the problem of lorries sending cars into the barriers by pulling out in front of them. At least two of the recent issues have involved pedestrians, so again cameras wouldn’t stop that either.
The real issue is the length of time the police close the motorway.
Over the years I have attended dozens of accidents, including more fatalities than I want to remember, and in every case I have known the cause within 15 minutes of arrival. It’s time the police took a realistic and sensible view over road closures especially when the cause is quickly identified. Cllr Jim Wedgbury Ashford
What’s On reporter
kentonline editor here’s no right answer. Is it OK to carry on as normal – and what is normal? A show of fraternité and defiance? Let’s just say that after the flag-or-not-to-flag conundrum on Facebook I was relieved not to have to decide whether or not England and France should play football this week.
Normal, for me, on Facebook, is scrupulous avoidance of politics and religion – and no photographs of my dinner – with most of my posts relating to family banter or jokey holiday photographs.
So the sudden eruption of profile pictures blended with Le Tricolore over the weekend offered so many opportunities to cause unintended offence.
My first reaction was simple solidarity for the Tricolorists, ‘liking’ their efforts without following suit (helped by having not a clue how they were doing it).
Then, like a wallflower, you begin to feel left out, so I posted a still from my favourite French TV serial, The Returned – one of the characters staring mournfully through a rainstreaked window (which, to be fair, is pretty much every scene in The Returned).
By now, however, Tricolores were lighting up Sydney Opera House, Christ The Redeemer in Rio and Tower Bridge, so I broke my golden rule and found the Facebook link to superimpose the flag over my Returned photograph.
At which point, inevitably, the backlash started, with waves of complaints that Mark Zuckerberg hadn’t arranged similar tributes to the lost of Palestine, Syria, Iraq … and a Jewish friend merging her profile with the Israeli flag, inviting us all to follow suit.
None of which helps or really matters, of course. It was just football, it’s just Facebook. But my Tricolore has gone, and my golden rule has returned – with some more silly holiday photos, just to get things back to normal. Well, as near normal as possible.
Harold Hoad, Lympne considerable efforts into making herself known – even venturing into Ashford where one of her rivals Richard Bunting lives.
It seems there has been a lull in the number of young unaccompanied asylum seekers arriving in Kent, meaning numbers have stabilised. This is a small piece of good news for social services chiefs who had been anticipating breaching the symbolic 1,000 mark.
Follow Paul on Twitter @PaulOnPolitics
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