Two large road junction improvement schemes may now go-ahead with the support of money contributed by developers.

Both a major upgrade to junction 7 of the M20 at the Detling Interchange and a revision of the Linton Crossroads in Maidstone have passed the first stage of approval for financial backing.

Both will now have to be agreed by Maidstone Council’s cabinet members.

The new Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) was introduced by the government in October 2018, which can be levied by local authorities on new developments in their area to raise funds to deliver the infrastructure needed.

Since its introduction Maidstone council has amassed £4.3m – collected largely from housing developers – and expects to raise a further £7.5m by March 2025.

The council’s planning infrastructure and economic development policy advisory committee met last Wednesday (June 7) to determine how the first tranche of money should be spent.

Officers ran a 10-week bidding process for potential projects that were then independently assessed by a private consultancy, Turleys.

Four projects were recommended from 22 bids received.

Some £1.9m would be allocated to the Junction 7 scheme, which will cost £6.6m in total, with the rest coming from Section 106 monies already gathered from three large housing developments along the Sutton Road in Maidstone.

The Linton Crossroads improvements are marked up for £1.232m to fill a shortfall in the £2m estimated by KCC Highways as the cost of that scheme.

The junction has been flagged for change as it experience large amounts of congestion and has been highlighted as a crash cluster site.

The change would see the widening of the north and south roads to three lanes and an additional lane in both directions along the Heath Road – it will also add a pedestrian crossing the south side of the juncction.

A public consultation for this project begins tomorrow with two drop-in event being held at Coxheath Village Hall on June 26 between 6pm and 8pm and on June 30 between 10am and 1pm.

Two community projects were also on the list: the replacement of the Heather House Community Centre is to receive £956,420, and the completion of the St Faith’s Community Centre at Ringlestone is to receive £200,000.

Both projects are being mainly funded from other sources: enabling housing development for Heather House, and funding from the Church of England for St Faiths.

But although the committee voted unanimously in favour of Jjunction 7, Heather House and St Faiths, the Linton Crossroads scheme only passed by five votes to four, after Conservative members voted en block against it.

Earlier, two visiting Conservative Councillors urged the committee to look again at different projects.

Cllr Stan Forecast (Con) said he was disappointed that there was no bid for either the Fountain Lane, A26 junction at Barming, or the Hart Street, Barker Road problems at Lockmeadow.

He said: “Both would bring immediate benefits, whereas improvements at Linton Crossroads would only bring benefits when the other schemes along the Loose Road are complete.”

Cllr Forecast added: ”There are hundreds more homes being built along Hermitage Lane, making the situation at Fountain Lane even more pressing.

“The hospital is on that road and the ambulances cannot easily make it through the traffc now and the situation is only likely to get worse.”

He suggested the council did not allocate to Linton at the moment, but instead re-open the bidding process and ask Kent County Council (KCC) to bid for Fountain Lane and Barker Road.

In agreement, Cllr Tom Cannon (Con) said: “Fountain Lane critically needs a roundabout. Hermitage Lane has had a huge amount of houses and we need to try and ease the situation.

“And at Hart Street, my inbox is full of emails from residents demanding a solution. We need to get KCC to draw up a plan. It is essential that we re-open for more bids.”

But Rob Jarman, head of the council’s planning and development, said: “We can only make recommendations on the bids that are before us.

“KCC do not have any detailed plans for improving Fountain Lane. The last time I heard of a cost there it was £3.2m and it will have gone northwards since then.”

Cllr Steve Munford (Ind) spoke strongly in favour of the Linton scheme going ahead, which he pointed out was adjacent to two schools.

He said: “Every morning cars back up on the B2163 all the way almost to Boughton Primary School. There is a definite air quality issue there.”

But he suggested that when the money was handed over to Kent Highways, a time limit for implementation should be agreed.

He bemoaned a lack of urgency from the county council and suggested the project should be completed within two years.

After approving the four recommendations, the committee also proposed the bidding process be re-opened from October to December this year, with bids for Fountain Lane and Barker Road specifically encouraged.

A public consultation on KCC’s proposals for Linton Crosroads starts this month. See here for details.

The borough council produces annually an Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP), which lists all the infrastructure improvements needed to complement the development outlined in the Local Plan.

The current IDP lists 141 schemes with a total cost of £171m.

Of those, 45 projects are ranked as “critical” with an estimated total cost of £55m.

The borough’s consultants point out that even these “critical” projects amount to three times the total amount of CIL money likely to be available.