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by Alan Smith

Maidstone council has rejected
plans for the Kent International Gateway freight depot at
Bearsted.

The unanimous vote by
members of the planning committee came at the end of a four and a
half hour meeting in which their officers lined up to condemn the
proposals on every possible ground, ranging from the effects on
traffic, pollution, destruction of the countryside, damage to
wildlife, and loss of archaeological heritage to the damage to the
council's own plans and ambitions for the future development of the
county town.

Officers made it quite
clear that they did not believe the proposals would result in a
modal shift of freight from road to rail, with the project instead
acting mainly as a regional distribution centre by road with an
anticipated 6,000 lorry movements a day.

The decision delighted
the 700-strong audience at the meeting held at the Maidstone TV
studios yesterday.

Speaker after speaker
slated the plans to build across 285 acres at the foot of the North
Downs. KCC leader Cllr Paul Carter (Con) said if the scheme
were ever allowed it would become known as the "demon of the
South".

Hugh Robertson
(Con), MP for Mid Kent, said the proposals would
devastate the "ancient and beautiful" villages of Thurnham,
Bearsted and Hollingbourne.

Pointing to what he
described as a "democratic deficit", he said: "Nobody who has been
elected to represent the people of this area at any level, from
parish, borough, county or in Parliament has supported KIG in any
way."

Maidstone council leader
Cllr Chris Garland (Con) said that without the justification of a
shift of freight from road to rail, there could be no strategic
reason to override the litany of local objections.

Neil Henderson,
representing Kent International Gateway at the meeting, made no
attempt to counter any of the detailed criticism of the proposals.
Instead he spoke in general terms about the need to reduce carbon
emissions.

However, he described KIG
as "ideally placed to promote a shift of freight from road to
rail."

He said: "The site has
exceptionally good geographical qualities. With only modest
adaption, the rail line could be made accessible to all kinds of
European freight. It is just beyond the Green Belt making it as
close to London as possible."

Mr Henderson spoke for
only eight minutes of his allotted half an hour and declined the
opportunity to expand on his company's proposals after the
meeting.

He said: "We have been
instructed not to speak to the press."

But Maidstone's rejection of the plan is not the end of the
issue. KIG has already been called in by the government, and will
be the subject of a public inquiry this summer.

The planning inspector will make recommendations to Hazel
Blears, the secretary of state for communities and local
government, who will make the final decision.