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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Mick Summersgill, Marden & Yalding Campaigner says, “This is a complete failure by the Conservative-run council. Other councils are busy prosecuting fly-tippers yet Maidstone Borough does nothing even though we have the highest fly tipping levels in Kent. It is outrageous!”

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Green Cllr Stuart Jeffery said, “Known funding sources such as the Community Infrastructure Levy and Section 106 from developers will provide a paltry £26m towards the schools, roads, bus services, community centres and other infrastructure that must be provided. 

“With only half of the infrastructure needs costed, there is already a bill of £400m. That bill could head towards a billion once full costs are known yet developers a providing around 3% of the funds needed. This plan does not work.”

Cllr Stephen Thompson said, “Not only is the Maidstone’s Local Plan completely economically unviable, it will leave people without much needed services and living in places and homes that are not fit for the future. It’s not a plan, it’s a scam!”

Notes:

·      New document released as part of latest consultation on Maidstone’s Local Plan Review. See page 11. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wMJ-Nf4FqEhZbk6Y-6Vg0qcLU1w1hrD_/view

The post It’s not a plan, it’s a scam! Paltry developer funding will leave Maidstone with huge gap in infrastructure appeared first on Maidstone.

The Rivers Task Force had support from the Greens and the Lib Dems.

Green Councillor Stuart Jeffery said “I am disappointed. Our rivers are in an appalling state and despite claims from the cabinet that there is work going on, they remain badly polluted and in need of help.

“We need leadership and Maidstone Borough Council could provide that; sadly it has chosen not to.

“If there is a change of political control after the local elections in May then we will try again.”

Note:

Cabinet Committee papers here

Greens took the plan as a member item request to a Policy Advisory Committee in September where it was agreed to recommend it to the Cabinet.

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Cllr Mick Summersgill, Green Party campaigner for Marden and Yalding: “We saved Tovil Tip and fought the closure of Marden’s Children’s Centre and now the Conservatives are coming for our libraries. We will fight this hard.”

Cllr Derek Eagle, Green councillor for Sutton Valence and campaigner in Headcorn: “Libraries should be at the heart of communities. They are not just a place for borrowing books, they provide valuable services such as meeting rooms for community groups. KCC are intent on ripping the heart out of our villages.”

Cllr Stuart Jeffery, Green councillor for Bridge ward, “While the Conservatives on KCC moan about government cuts, they continue to stand by their party. If they cared they would take a stand with us. We must not let these close as they are at the heart of our communities.”

Notes

·      The petition here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/kcc-must-not-close-our-libraries/   

·      There will be a protest outside County Hall on 19th Feb – details here: https://www.facebook.com/events/883192323502282/

·      See Item 9 here https://kent.public-i.tv/core/portal/webcast_interactive/838906 (Harry Rayner and then Peter Oakford) and page 9 of this report https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgConvert2PDF.aspx?ID=122809

·      Alongside the main library in Maidstone, there are branch libraries in:

o   Allington

o   Bearsted

o   Headcorn

o   Lenham

o   Marden

o   Shepway

o   Yalding

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