Labour is turning itself into the new party of the employers, with a motion to last night’s Maidstone council meeting accusing the County Town of being shut to business.

New Labour member, Cllr Paul Harper, told his colleagues that Maidstone was under-performing compared with other parts of Kent and blamed the attitude of many of his colleagues.

Cllr Harper, who represents Fant Ward, urged the council to reverse a decision made by its own planning committee less than a fortnight ago to refuse a scheme for a business and warehouse park at Waterside, near Junction 8 of the M20.

His approach angered local residents’ groups opposed to the scheme, with the Bearsted and Thurnham Society declaring: “We are totally dismayed.”

Cllr Harper described the refusal of the Waterside Park planning permission as a “shocking and damaging statement sent out to the business community.”

Two firms, ADL and Scarab, who wanted to move to Junction 8 from their current locations in Marden and have threatened to pull out of the area altogether.

Cllr Harper said: “Maidstone is in deep need of a range of sites for business and employment, including non-centre locations with good access to the rail, motorway and main road network for business zones.

“The entire town is ringed with green land, but it needs to go somewhere and this application was ascetically pleasing.”

He urged the council to help the firms relocate within Maidstone and said the council should “support any appeal of the (Waterside Park) application.”