Maidstone: a depressing case study of how not to produce a Local Plan

Councillors choose to significantly increase the level of housebuilding in the borough

In a decision that has left CPRE Kent deeply disheartened, Maidstone Borough Council has voted to adopt its Local Plan.

This is a Plan that significantly increases the level of housebuilding within a borough that has already expanded vastly over recent years, with existing infrastructure already falling over as a result.

This is despite us and other key stakeholders raising significant objections and concerns as to the sustainability of the Plan. Most disappointedly, it represents a missed opportunity to address critical issues and ensure genuinely sustainable development within Maidstone borough.

When CPRE Kent initially voiced objections to the proposed Local Plan back in 2020, we were concerned primarily around its unsustainable greenfield/car-dependent nature.

We were particularly concerned as to the Heathlands proposal to dump 5,000 houses on isolated countryside near Lenham, along with 2,000 houses to be built on countryside at Lidsing. Both were shoved as far away from Maidstone’s existing services as possible and conveniently not in the backyards of key Maidstone councillors who oversaw the strategy. Sound spatial planning it was not.

Among the myriad of problems, it was apparent from the start that the Plan failed to account for the necessary infrastructure required to support the envisaged housing developments, particularly at Heathlands and Lidsing. This obvious flaw remained unresolved throughout the Local Plan examination process, causing increasing exasperation from us and other key stakeholders as we sought to highlight this.

Even on the night of the critical vote by MBC to formally adopt the Local Plan, Kent County Council, responsible for much of the essential infrastructure, attempted to intervene by pleading with the council not to adopt it.

KCC’s intervention highlighted the Plan’s failure to provide adequately for crucial infrastructure elements such as roads and schools, emphasising a number of critical failings of the Plan. These pleas, however, ultimately fell upon deaf ears.

CPRE Kent firmly believes that if we are ever to address the housing needs of our communities, particularly in terms of providing social-rent housing, proper infrastructure planning is critical. Without proper infrastructure, any housing development will rightly be met with public resistance and ultimately fail to serve the needs of both existing and new residents.

In this respect, the adoption of the Maidstone Local Plan represents a significant setback for the future of Maidstone residents. By sacrificing precious green spaces for car-dependent, cookie-cutter suburban sprawl, the council is perpetuating existing issues with the already-strained local infrastructure.

The Maidstone Local Plan disregards the long-term sustainability of the borough for short-term local political convenience, further eroding the quality of life for current and future residents for years to come.

Above all, it serves as a case study of how not to produce a Local Plan, while simultaneously highlighting everything that is wrong with our spatial planning system in the process.