Maidstone Council adopts revised local plan

At a hurriedly called full council meeting on 20 March 2024, Maidstone Borough Council voted, by a majority of 31/21 to adopt the revised local plan.

The support for this came almost entirely from the largest group of Conservative councillors supported by a small number of "partial" independents (former Conservative / Lib Dem representatives)..

The majority of the remaining councillors (from the Liberal Democrats, the Labour group and the Green / Independent group) voted against adoption. KCC also urged MBC not to adopt the local plan as there are too many unresolved issues within it. However, the group with overall control at MBC chose to ignore all the arguments and the plan, which includes the creation of a new town at Lenham Heath, will now go ahead.

While this is disappointing, and we had hoped to persuade MBC to remove the proposal for an additional 5000 houses, we are still looking at ways to get this decision reversed or amended in some way. That may come as a result of a possible shift in control at MBC away from the Conservative group, which has ensured this particular version of the local plan gets adopted, at the local elections on 2 May.

The parish council remains firmly opposed to the potential for a new town at Lenham Heath and we will also continue to work with Save Our Heath Lands (SOHL) and others to scrutinise all the documentation related to this proposal and take action to defend the village against this proposal for what amounts to a new town.

SOHL and the parish council would like to thank those who have already supported this effort, without that help the fight against a new town would not be possible.

If you feel you could support SOHL’s efforts, please get in touch with SOHL via the Go Fund Me page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-our-heath-lands

Throughout this process the parish council has taken, and continues to take, legal and professional advice so this is very much a situation of “The fight goes on!”