Agenda item

There were four questions from members of the public.

Question from Mr Stuart Jeffrey to the Chairman of the Policy and Resources Committee

‘The Council's climate budget suggests around £600k on electrifying its fleet and retrofitting its buildings. With the huge rise in cost of energy, the poor state of many homes, the significant reduction in energy (and high ROI) with insulation, and the rise in the number of people choosing between heating or eating, has the council got the right priority for this money or should it be spent making life more bearable for our most vulnerable citizens while reducing the Borough's carbon footprint significantly?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Mr Jeffrey asked the following supplementary question:

‘If, as you suggest, this is a routine replacement of vehicles, are you really investing £1 million into Climate Change or are you stealing from one budget to make the Council look better?’

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

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

‘Please can you confirm on what occasions members or officers of this Council have met with Network Rail to discuss moving Lenham railway station to Lenham Heath since their letter to Mr Cornall on 30 June 2021?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Ms Hammond asked the following supplementary question:

‘We don’t want you to make the same planning mistakes you did with church road. If Heathlands doesn’t manage to secure a new railway station in the centre of the development at the outset, will you commit to ditching this develop proposal once and for all?’

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

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

‘Earlier this week, new research published by Transport for New Homes and backed by the RAC Foundation concluded that new greenfield housing estates were adding to traffic jams, carbon emissions and trapping communities into car-dependency. Their research found that the 18 significant new developments they studied were largely planned in the wrong place, too far from town centres and the promises of new public transport and active travel infrastructure failed to materialise. Their findings have all the hallmarks of what this Council is proposing with the Heathlands 5,000-home ‘new town’. How do you envisage the Heathlands proposition meeting the aim of your Climate & Biodiversity Plan, specifically on the aim to support the shift from cars to active travel and public transport?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Mr Heeley asked the following supplementary question:

‘You only have to look at Kings Hill as a perfect example of where internalisation doesn’t work; everybody comes off of King’s Hill to go to work and everyone comes on to go to work and if this council is actually committed to ensuring Climate Change at the heart of every decision that you take, which is what you stated last year, can you not accept that building a new town in the middle of the countryside furthest away from existing town centre’s Maidstone and Ashford is a retrograde step to achieving sustainable development’.

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

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

‘Tonight’s Heathlands update report confirms that £635,000 has been spent by MBC on the Heathlands proposition to date. Tonight’s Medium Term Finance Strategy report states that the projected budget for 2021/22 for Heathlands is £1.6m. Please can you confirm what the remaining £1m will be spent on before the end of March?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Ms Duff asked the following supplementary question:

‘We believe there’s a further £1 million allocated in the Medium-Term Financial Strategy for the next five-year capital plan. Do you think that spending £2.5 million on being a property develop is a good use of the Council’s public funds when it can’t afford to support the Maidstone Park and Ride?’

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 9:06 to 20:55 of the recording.

To access the webcast, please use the link below:

Policy and Resources Committee Meeting - 9 February 2022 - YouTube