by Alan Smith

Maidstone has said no to the Kent International Gateway - again.

Despite already rejecting the proposals for a 285-acre road-rail freight depot near Bearsted, Maidstone council had to vote again on a number of late amendments to the plans.

The idea is to encourage more freight traffic to travel through the Channel Tunnel by building the depot on land near the railway line through the village, but it has met with great opposition from those who live near the site and those who say it will mainly help road hauliers.

Members of the planning committee voted unanimously to reject the KIG proposal for a second time.

The new details, submitted by KIG earlier this summer in the build-up to a public inquiry on the proposal, were not sufficient to overturn the council's previous objections, councillors ruled.

But the council is to withdraw two of its 18 grounds of objection after officers advised that KIG had now supplied information to mitigate fears over the effects on air quality and on flooding.

There was widespread condemnation of KIG for supplying revised details so late in the day, with Cllr Richard Jacques, representing the Joint Parishes Group, declaring "the delay and paucity of information is an insult to democracy".

KIG is now proposing to reduce the warehousing and office space from 373,746 sq m to 300,592 sq m, and to increase the area of landscaping. Fewer jobs would be provided and less traffic generated, the firm said.

Cllr Stephen Paine (Con) questioned the apparant arbitrary nature of some of the new figures the firm had supplied. He said: "Why should an 11 per cent reduction in warehouse size lead exactly to an 11 per cent reduction in traffic?"

The committee accepted the advice of the assistant director of development Brian Morgan that the wording of many of the objections needed to be revised to take account of changes in the planning policy structure, but the council remained convinced that the proposals would not result in a modal shift of freight from road to rail, with KIG instead acting mainly as road-based warehousing.

The council leader, Cllr Chris Garland, said: "Despite the amendments this scheme remains totally unacceptable. There is no evidence or justification to support KIG on this site or anywhere else in Maidstone."