Contact your Parish Council

Maidstone Pen Portrait

 

 

1.           Introduction

 

1.1        This report sets out information on Maidstone, it provides a written picture of the Borough and its residents. The information contained within this report was considered during the development of priorities and outcomes.

 

2.      Priorities for Maidstone – What matters to residents

 

2.1        A recent report from Mori looking at what drives people’s perceptions of their area, highlighted the importance of identifying what matters to residents to improve perception. “If local government wants to be highly rated by its citizens, they should pay close attention to what makes people happy about their areas.” ^[1]

 

2.2        The report demonstrated the following priorities as consistent of people throughout the world:

 

·                            Job prospect

·                            Clean streets

·                            Level of crime

·                            Public transport

 

3.2.      For residents in Great Britain the top three priorities were identified:

 

·      Activities for teenagers

·      Road and pavement repaira

·      Job prospects

 

 

3.3.      In terms of identifying what matters to Maidstone residents the Place Survey, carried out in 2008 identified the following factors as most important in making somewhere a good place to live for Maidstone residents:

 

·                    Health services (43%)

·                    Clean streets (38%)

·                    Public transport (29%)

·                    Affordable decent housing (28%)

·                    Access to nature (26%)

·                    Shopping facilities (26%)

·                    Education provision (26%)

·                    Parks and open spaces (25%)

 

3.4      The Council carried out extensive consultation when developing the Sustainable Community Strategy for Maidstone 2009-2020. Residents were asked to identify what was good and bad about living in the Borough as well as their dream for Maidstone. The top three positive comments relating to Maidstone included shopping, parks and the river. Other positive comments related to; cleanliness, the countryside and nightlife. The top three negative comments related to traffic congestion,  public transport and the quality of roads. The top three dreams for Maidstone residents related to resolving transport issues, improving the river and an improved theatre/concert facility.

 

 

4.           A portrait of Maidstone, in relation to the draft priorities

 

4.2.      In order to assist Cabinet with the development of outcomes for Maidstone the following information was gathered to develop a current picture for Maidstone:

 

A Growing Economy

 

4.3.      The aim is for Maidstone to become a borough which has a good state of economic growth, which attracts, encourages and maintains business and business development. This in turn will provide high levels of employment for a local skilled workforce.

 

4.4.      There are approximately 144,000 people living in Maidstone who support an economy generating £3 billion annual Gross Value Added GVA). This is 50% more than Ashford and comparable to the whole of (Medway combined. Maidstone is also the largest late night retail and leisure hub in Kent with a night time economy worth £75 million which provides approximately 1500 jobs.

 

4.5.      The 2010 Perception Study, commissioned by Locate showed that seven out of ten respondents rated Kent as a very good or good business location. Maidstone came out as the top business location in Kent with a score of 20%.

 

4.6.      Maidstone has the largest town centre shopping offer within Kent with approximately 700 shops, 75 cafes and restaurants, around 4,400 employees based within the town centre and is ranked as the 38^th most desired shopping location within the United Kingdom. Footfall on High Street is currently at 538,000 per week and the aim is to increase this to 570,280 by 2012/13.

 

4.7.      Maidstone Borough has a very mixed business sector with large numbers of small and medium size businesses with particular strengths in professional services (law and accountancy) and construction. There is a growing media industry led by Maidstone Studios and the Kent Messenger Group.  Both the County and Borough Councils have been judged ‘Excellent’ in recent assessments by the government’s Audit Commission. All nine of the Council’s Business Starter units are currently occupied.

 

4.8.      The percentage of economically active people was above both the South East and Great Britain averages in 2009/10.

 

4.9.        The average gross weekly pay for people who live in Maidstone is lower than the South East average. The wage for people working in Maidstone is substantially lower than the South East average, indicating that some people are commuting outside of the borough to work.

 

4.10.     The unemployment rate in Maidstone increased during 2009-2010 which follows the national trend. However, unemployment in Maidstone is below both the South East and national averages.

 

4.11.     Maidstone has an extensive further education campus (Mid Kent College) and a growing higher education offer with both the University for the Creative Arts and Mid Kent College seeking to increase their range of courses and facilities. However, Maidstone has the 3rd highest proportion of 16-18 year olds not in education, employment or training (NEETS) in Kent.

 

4.12.     Maidstone performs well in terms of GCSE attainment, achieving the 3^rd highest score in Kent in 2009.

 

4.13.     In recognition of several drivers which include Draft PPS4, the Sustainable Community Strategy, the Economic Development Strategy, the South East Plan, the Kent Structure Plan, and the Maidstone Borough Wide Local Plan, the Council has adopted a Regeneration Statement, with objectives to:

·         address economic, social, physical decay and decline in areas where market forces will not do this without support from the Council and its partners, including areas of deprivation and the town centre; and

 

·         ensure that the needs of local residents and businesses drive regeneration.

 

4.14.     It is proposed that the Council’s role should be to:

·         lead collaborative working with the community and key partners including providers of affordable housing, health, education and training and skills services

·         specifically seek out experience and expertise from the third sector

·         target investment to ensure that resources are not spread too thinly

·         lever in funding for example through work with the regional improvement and efficiency partnership on improving economic and neighbourhood renewal leadership capacity and with the Homes and Communities agency in identification and promotion of regeneration areas in Maidstone

·         co-ordinate local efforts to mitigate the effects of the economic downturn

·         specifically for the Council to:

·         use its land as a catalyst for regeneration

·         explore opportunities for site assembly using, if necessary, its powers of compulsory purchase

·         address housing need and achievement of the council’s housing targets

·         enable the creation of higher quality jobs and access to employment

·         improve the value of land and building assets and improve associated income streams for example at Parkwood Industrial Estate

·         ensure that design and sustainability are taken into account

 

 

4.15.     The Council’s Economic Strategy sets out 10 key objectives for Maidstone:

 

1. Strengthen the town centre – create a higher quality retail and leisure offer to attract and retain more expenditure in the Borough.

2. Attract more knowledge-intensive service sector-based companies, ensuring a steady pipeline of high quality sites for commercial development.

3. Develop a more distinctive local economy with sector specialisms – professional and business services, creative and media sector, public sector, construction, and tourism.

4. Embed a culture of lifelong learning and ensure providers respond to the needs of employers.

5. Support the expansion of the HE sector through UCCA and Mid Kent College and retain graduates in the borough to raise skills and foster innovation.

6. Develop a more entrepreneurial and innovative local economy.

7. Improve the transport network to underpin economic growth, enhancing access in and around the town centre and to local, regional and national markets.

8. Enable rural towns and villages to develop as economic service centres.

9. Embed principles of environmental sustainability in public sector actions to combat climate change and support companies in Maidstone to exploit the economic opportunities.

10. Improve business engagement by establishing an economic partnership to take forward the economic development strategy.

 

 

 

 

A Decent Place to Live

 

4.16.   Environmental prosperity means for Maidstone: A place where people want to live, a place with good quality, affordable housing, and a clean, green and pleasant borough with good waste and recycling services where people would choose to live. In terms of services this covers: transport, culture and sport, educational attainment, crime, anti-social behaviour, youth services and facilities, housing, equality of opportunity, poverty, health and the environment.

 

4.17.   Maidstone is an exceptionally green Borough with a number of parks, the largest of which is Mote Park, which is Grade II on the English Heritage Register of Historic Parks and home to thriving rugby and cricket clubs. There are numerous smaller parks and squares within the town and villages which have benefited from a major play ground and sports facility investment programme in recent years. Maidstone Leisure Centre in Mote Park is the largest in Kent with five swimming pools and other sports facilities. 

 

4.18.   Links are generally good although rail travel could still be improved with journeys to London taking approximately an hour. Some improvement works are due to take place on the line but this will not increase the speed of the trains. The Borough is well served by the motorway network with the M20 and M2 both providing links to the M25 and the Channel Ports. However, congestion is an issue, particularly when Operation Stack is in action. During the morning peak time it takes 3 minutes and 28 seconds to drive one mile.

 

4.19.   Public consultation showed that a large proportion of Maidstone’s local people view the transport system and particularly the accessibility of public transport, as inadequate. Additionally during the last three years there has been a steady increase in the number of people who are killed or seriously injured on the Borough’s roads.  According to the Health Profile for Maidstone, there is a significantly higher rate of road injuries and deaths than the national average.

 

4.20.   The 2005 Housing Needs Survey indicated that there was a need for 920 additional affordable homes a year, which is currently not met. Due to financial constraints, the housing authority Maidstone Borough Council cannot achieve these targets alone. Maidstone, as the county town, houses relatively high numbers of vulnerable people compared to other Kent districts. Housing in Maidstone town has traditionally been considered relatively affordable compared to the south east average, but this is not the case in rural Maidstone and for those on average or low incomes home repossession is likely to become more frequent as a result of the recent economic climate.

 

4.21.   Maidstone has a fairly low level of households living in temporary accommodation provided under the homelessness legislation compared to the other boroughs in Kent and a significantly lower level than the average for England according to the 2010 Health Profile. The numbers have dropped each year.

 

4.22.   Maidstone Borough Council works to ensure that all new developments of 15 homes or over contain at least 40% affordable housing, which in 2009/10 led to 399 affordable homes becoming available. Due to council intervention 83 empty private sector homes were either brought back into use or demolished.

 

4.23.   In the Place survey 38% respondents said that clean streets were one of the top things that made a place nice to live in. Maidstone has a target to miss less than 20 rubbish collections per 100,000 and is currently exceeding that target at 11.83. In 2009/10, street and environmental cleanliness improved by 3% for detritus, 1% for graffiti and remained the same for litter and fly posting.

 

4.24.   The borough still has the second highest rate of emissions in Kent although they lessened between 2005-2007.

 

4.25.   The  Cabinet have just agreed a waste and recycling strategy for Maidstone the objectives should be considered when reviewing the outcomes and measures for the strategic plan to ensure continuity:

 

Objectives to 2015

·         To increase the amount of household waste sent for recycling, reuse or composting to 50% by 2015 (above the national target of 45%)

·         To reduce total household waste arisings by 10% by 2015 compared with 2005 - 2010 average

·         To meet any additional costs of operating the service through the support of the Kent Waste Partnership and efficiency improvements in the rest of the waste collection service.

·         To improve value for money of the waste collection service

·         To improve residents’ satisfaction with Maidstone Borough Council’s waste and recycling services

·         To increase glass recycling collections by up to 600 tonnes during the period of the plan

·         To work with KCC to minimise the amount of recyclables sent to incineration and maximise the benefits of the value of those materials for both the Council and KCC

·         To support the Council’s objective of 3% annual carbon reduction through the optimum utilisation of resources, increased consideration of energy efficiency and higher priority given to service improvements which offer energy reduction

 

 

 

Customer and Corporate Excellence

 

4.26.             This is about producing the right outcomes for customers whilst providing value for money services. Linked into corporate and customer excellence is reducing inequalities and tackling disadvantage for our vulnerable residents.

 

·         In the Place survey 44% of respondents said they were very or fairly satisfied with the way the Council runs things.

·         32% strongly or tended to agree that the Council provides value for money

·         The percentage of complaints resolved within target are consistently above 90%

·         Satisfaction with the way that complaints are handled is currently low

·         The time customers contacting the call centre wait for their calls to be answered consistently misses the 50 second target. There is no data to suggest whether the amount of time a customer waits is important to them or whether they are more concerned with their enquiry being answered correctly at the first point of contact. It should be noted that this target is far higher than the 15 seconds promised in Maidstone’s customer care standards

·         Over the last 12 months the target to see all visitors to the Gateway within 20 minutes has only been missed once

 

Deprivation and Vulnerable People

4.27.      The borough has high rates of employment, low levels of adults claiming incapacity benefit and a higher proportion of residents who have a degree than the South East average.  The health of adults and children in Maidstone is generally better than the national average.  However, more than 4,000 children live in poverty and the proportion of children who are physically active is below the national average.

 

4.28.      Nationally, deprivation is measured for small areas of around 1500 households using a range of criteria e.g. owning a car. These small areas are called Lower Layer Super Output Areas (LLSOAs) and have been ranked from the most deprived to the least deprived in Kent. Overall, when grouped into blocks of 20% (quintiles) from least to highest deprivation, people in Maidstone are less deprived than the national and regional average, see figure 1 below. 

 

 

Figure 1.  The proportion of individuals in the local authority, the region and England who are living in neighbourhoods belonging to each of the five national deprivation quintiles.

 

 

Flagship Projects

 

4.29.     The projects below are the Council’s flagship projects and were committed to by Cabinet as part of the last strategic planning process as such they represent a significant cost to the council and will have an impact on our priorities and need to be considered as part of the Strategic Plan.

 

·      Mote Park

The purpose of the project is to improve the range of activities available at the park, making it more sustainable and increasing the visitor numbers and the number and type of events held there. This in turn will provide extra income to support future events and provide additional maintenance to the park. The overall cost of the project is expected to be around £2.5 million

·       High Street Improvement Project

 

The purpose of the project is to make the High Street more people friendly, giving more space to pedestrians including wider pavements, new spaces for sitting and relaxing and new crossing points.  To provide a safe and attractive environment during both the day and night, attracting shoppers, visitors and tourists to the town. The project is expected to stimulate approximately £4.5 million spending per year and about 100 jobs. The projected cost of this project is £4 million in total

 

·       Museum East Wing Project

The purpose of the project is to significantly enhance the Museum’s public and educational facilities and create more access to its collections. In addition it will allow the Council’s Visitor Information Centre to be relocated to the Museum, offering a better service in a more visible location. The redevelopment will promote tourism and economic growth and assist the Council in meeting its life-long learning agenda. The project is expected to cost £3.7 million, £2 million of which has been provided by a grant from the Heritage lottery Fund