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Cllr Stuart Jeffery said, “We are all really grateful for the organisers and all who took part in Maidstone’s first Pride. It was wonderful to see so many people celebrating diversity. LGBTQIA+ people still face discrimination but events such as Pride have helped to reduce this over many decades.”

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The new Cabinet will deliver a significant programme of change with a real focus on preparing for climate change, reducing pollution, making our communities healthier and stronger, and delivering affordable housing, particularly social housing.

The new Leader of the Council, Cllr Stuart Jeffery (Green and Independent Alliance) said, “It will be an honour to lead the council. There is a huge amount of work to do to reduce inequalities, ensure there is enough social housing, to reduce pollution and ensure that the Borough improves its resilience for the future.”

The new Cabinet member for Environmental Services and Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr Clive English (Liberal Democrat) said, “The challenge to overcome years of Conservative neglect of our Borough is huge, but I am confident that together we will rise to the task of making Maidstone a place to be proud of.”

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Across Maidstone as a whole the Greens claimed 22% of all votes cast in the Borough, the second highest vote share. The only negative was one loss in Headcorn and Sutton Valence, where Derek Eagle narrowly missed out, where Ward boundary changes meant he was beaten by only 2% of the vote.

Cllr. Stuart Jeffery, Leader of the Green and Independent Alliance at Maidstone Borough Council; “I’m delighted with these results, it demonstrates that the hard work we’ve been putting in across the Borough has been recognised, and that people are fed up of the status quo. To gain eight new seats is incredible, in fact it’s the third highest gain nationwide.

Now we have the difficult task of unpicking the mess of the last few years, starting with forming an administration.”

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Green Cllr Stuart Jeffery, “The change over to SUEZ has been a nightmare, with thousands of bin collections missed or late across the Borough. At one point 30% of collections were missed or late: nearly one in three.  Bins have been full to overflowing and so waste is being spread about by various animals.

“Council officers are working hard to make sure as much as collected as possible and most councillors are fielding complaint after complaint but Cllr Garten, the cabinet member responsible, seems to have gone into hiding since he told us that ‘things are in hand’ a couple of weeks ago. There has been no public statement from the Conservative leader of the Council either.

“This debacle sits with Cllr Garten and he needs to take responsibility for getting it sorted.  Yet he seems to be missing in action.”

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Green Cllr Stuart Jeffery, “We have an excellent chance of being the biggest group on the council. We are focussing our efforts on places where we came first or second in recent years, and there are a lot of those.

“Maidstone needs a change, it needs councillors with fresh ideas and an eye to the future. We are all tired of the business as usual approach here. We are tired of the failure to deliver a plan for affordable and social housing that protects farm and woodland and we are tired of the gridlock that curses the town. We need better.

“If now isn’t the right time to vote Green, I’m not sure when will be.”

Full list of Maidstone’s Green candidates is available here: https://maidstone.greenparty.org.uk/candidates-2024-2/

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Cllr Stuart Jeffery, Green Party and group leader for the Green Independent Alliance on Maidstone Borough Council, said, “Building huge numbers of large unsustainable houses on much needed farmland is fundamentally wrong. There is a paltry amount of funding for infrastructure including roads, schools and railways stations, just 3% of what is needed.

“We learnt at the last minute that the county council is also opposed to the plan.

“There are no supporting strategies, no sustainable transport plan, no town centre plan, no design and sustainability plan and no Gypsy, Roma and Traveller plan. The Conservatives’ Local Plan is a disaster and we hope to lead an urgent review of the plan after the May elections.”

How individual councillors voted:

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Cllr Derek Eagle (Green Party), “I’m furious that Kent County Council are putting the former Adult Education Centre on the open market particularly when Maidstone Borough Council is looking for a place to set up an arts hub. “KCC’s failures should not be allowed to ride roughshod over our town. This building may be just what Maidstone needs and we have the drive to bring it back into use.

“We have asked Maidstone Borough Council’s officers to look into this and to see if there is any way of ensuring that the building comes to us for the public’s benefit.”

Link: https://www.cliveemson.co.uk/properties/248/41/

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Green campaigner Keira Stuart Smith says, “This is a charter for environmental destruction. Kent County Council claim that they recognise that there is a climate and biodiversity emergency but their proposed minerals and waste plan says otherwise.

“We have to stop looking for more fossil fuel sources. There is too much carbon dioxide in our air right now and burning the current reserves will be disastrous. We mustn’t increase greenhouse gases any further.”

Green campaigner Allison Sweetman said, “The draft plan gives implicit support to damaging quarrying, in particular extending Hermitage Quarry across 50 hectares of ancient woodland in Barming. Ancient woodland must be protected and KCC are failing to do this.”

Photo of Allison and Keira leading a residents’ walk to the woods.

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Green Councillor Derek Eagle from Sutton Valence, the next village, said, “Basically the local Conservatives are blaming the failures of their own party. I would be embarrassed if that was me and I guess the people of Headcorn may think similar.

“We need a Headcorn Task Force, just as Marden have. A focused team lead by the police working with individuals and the community to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour.”

Green campaigner, Tom Dawber said, “Failure to deal with this issue is a political choice that the current Conservative leadership has made. This can be tackled, and should be tackled. We need the MBC and the police to work together in a proven strategy to deal with this blight to our village communities.”

Notes:

1. https://www.kentonline.co.uk/weald/news/our-village-is-becoming-the-wild-west-but-don-t-blame-the-302341/

2. https://news.maidstone.gov.uk/home/news/2020/october/meet-the-new-maidstone-task-force

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