Old Drive sell-out
MAIDSTONE Borough Council HAS GRANTED planning permission for a change of use on the agricultural land belonging to Hillreed Homes at the end of Old Drive, to permit its permanent use as a cricket field and to allow the construction of a pavilion.
The planning committee took advantage of an almost empty council chamber (Thursday, 19 July) to bring forward the application from its deferred list.
Residents may recall how on 7 June – in front of a large number of objectors - the planning committee had voiced serious concerns about the proposal, after two of the three local South Ward councillors, Cllr Ian Chittenden (Lib Dem) and Cllr Bruce Pollington (Con), spoke against the application.
There were also public objections made by North Loose Residents Association and by Valley Conservation Society committee member Jim Williams, speaking on behalf of Tovil Parish Council.
There had been 63 individual letters of objection as well as objections from Valley Conservation Society, NLRA, Loose Amenities Association and Loose Parish Council.
At the time, the committee deferred making a decision in order to
1) ask the applicant to drop the pavilion aspect of the application, and
2) to seek legal opinion on whether granting the application would re-classify the land as brownfield – thus opening it up to future housing use.
Not surprisingly, Tony Hillier refused to drop the pavilion from the scheme, and the council’s legal opinion came back as saying that the change of use would not weaken the land’s current protection – while at the same time warning that the land could be developed for housing at some time in the future.
Objectors were not told that the application would be brought back to the committee on July 19, and the chairman kept it back to the last item of the evening.
The motion to grant permission was made by Cllr Clive English (Lib Dem) and seconded by Cllr Pat Marshall (Ind).
Cllr English said: “It’s a shame that the applicant has chosen to persist with the pavilion, however (in view of the legal advice) I don’t think there is a great deal we can do about it.”
The committee thereby ignored that fact that they were under no compulsion to grant a change of use resulting in a loss of agricultural land, that there would be considerable loss of amenity for residents both in terms of noise from the matches, from the possible use of the pavilion at other times, and from the additional traffic, and that the access to the site is inadequate.
The voting was nine in favour, none against, with two abstentions: Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) and Cllr Paulina Stockell (Con).
Neither the Loose borough councillor Ben Sherreard nor any of the three South Ward councillors – Cllrs Wilson, Pollington or Chittenden – were in the chamber to hear the decision.
Complain now
Members who will be affected by the Old Drive decision and who feel aggrieved that they were not informed by the council of its impending conclusion should write a letter of FORMAL COMPLAINT to The Chief Executive, David Petford, Maidstone Borough Council, London House, 5-11 London Road, Maidstone, ME16 8HR, copying it to their local ward councillor.
*The full text of the borough council’s legal advice can be viewed on this website.