Will Maidstone see yet more development along the A274 corridor?

Not if Cllr Martin Round (Con) had his way.

He told Maidstone council’s planning committee last Thursday : “We need to follow ‘pride,’ not (planning) policies."

“We are building something that looks incredibly ugly along the Sutton Road at the moment. It’s a sham. It’s disgusting. It’s awful.

“It’s the most ugly, uninviting place in the world!”

Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) had similar views. He said: “Progressing up Sutton Road is so depressing. It is not this council’s finest hour.”

The committee was due to consider three applications, totalling 1321 homes on sites off the A274, but members spent so long debating the first, they didn’t have time for the other two.

All three were recommended for approval by officers and all three sites are allocated in the borough’s emerging Local Plan. That in itself proved controversial, with Cllr Paul Aplin of Otham Parish Council saying that bringing the applications to the committee “could be seen as a cynical move to have them approved before they can be examined by the Local Plan inspector.”

The only application considered was for 271 homes at Bicknor Farm.

Officers were criticised for presenting a half-baked report with insufficient conditions attached.

Cllr Harwood listed a raft of measures to control ecology, drainage, landscaping and open space that should have been included but were missing.

The committee was given contradictory advice on traffic. Maidstone had commissioned its own consultants Mott MacDonald who agreed local junctions were over-capacity but insisted that the mitigation measures proposed by the developer would help ease congestion.

That was disputed by the highways authority. KCC’s strategic transport planner Brendan Wright said: “We are not satisfied the mitigation will work. Our view is that congestion will get worse.”

Cllr Matt Boughton (Con) said there were “fundamental failings” with the application and was ready to refuse permission, but the council’s head of planning Rob Jarman, suggested a compromise. “Defer your decision until the next planning committee and officers will bring back a full list of revised conditions.”

Cllr Eddie Powell (Ukip) said he couldn’t see how any condition was going to negate the highways issues.

Pointing out that the borough was on course to deliver 765 more homes than it needed, he said: “If ever there were 765 homes that we needed to take out the Local Plan, it is those along the Sutton Road.”

Members voted to defer until Thursday, July 14.

The two applications not considered last week are due to be heard at a second planning committee meeting this Thursday night starting at 6pm in the Town Hall. They are for 800 homes on land south of Sutton Road, and for 250 homes, north of Bicknor Road.