There were three questions from members of the public.

Question from Kate Hammond to the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee

‘Following Lenham Parish Council's invitation to all councillors to a visit of the Heathlands site earlier this month, Alison Broom wrote to councillors advising them against attending on grounds of potential bias and "to avoid a situation where they do so with only representatives of 'one side of the argument' present". Could you explain who at the Heathlands public engagement event was offering councillors an alternative view to the one-sided opinion of Homes England and MBC officers on Heathlands?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Ms Hammond asked the following supplementary question:

‘Kent County Council Cabinet Member for Communications and Engagement remarked: ‘I’ve never heard of anything more ridiculous’.  Do you agree with him that this is ridiculous?’

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

Question from Ms Gail Duff to the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee

‘Can you confirm how much has been spent by Maidstone Borough Council and Homes England on the services of PR firm "We are Fabrik" to promote the Heathlands project since July 2021?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Ms Duff asked the following supplementary question:

‘In view of the fiasco over the leafleting and the fact that nearly every resident who attended the community exhibition was highly dissatisfied at the lack of concrete information available, do you think you received value for money?’

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

Question from Mr Heeley to the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee

‘Many residents from Lenham and surrounding villages were deeply angry and upset with the poorly organised and promoted public engagement events for Heathlands. They contacted the Chief Executive to let her know of their dissatisfaction. Mrs Broom responded to residents that contacted her with an identical 1,120-word response. The word "sorry" was not mentioned once. Do you think it would have been appropriate for Mrs Broom to have offered an apology on behalf of Maidstone Borough Council in her response to aggrieved residents?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Mr Heeley asked the following supplementary question:

‘I take your point about there being some identical responses but not all of them. There’s quite a lot of residents were very angry that they actually spent quite lot of time putting together a response to the Chief Executive and just got an identical response back; a standard carbon copy. will the Chief Executive be offering a more public apology to the residents of Lenham and surrounding villages other than the one that’s hidden in tonight’s committee paper because as you know very few people read the committee papers?’

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

The full responses were recorded on the webcast and made available to view on the Maidstone Borough Council website.  The question-and-answer session took place between 7:09 and 14:37 of the recording.

To access the webcast, please use the link below:

Policy and Resources Committee Meeting - 23 March 2022 - YouTube