Dec

Regulation 18b Consultation: Respond now

After the brilliant news that the 2000 houses – known as “site 309” in the Call for Sites scheme – hasn’t been included in the council’s Local Plan Review (hooray!), there is still some work to be done to help protect Marden from future over-development.

Maidstone Borough Council’s ‘Regulation 18b’ consultation is now live. Anyone living in Maidstone borough can respond on the council’s website.

Confused…? Don’t fret: if you aren’t familiar with what ‘Regulation 18b’ means, MPOG have written this short summary here to clarify what Regulation 18 and Regulation 19 are.

How this affects Marden

We aren’t quite out of the woods yet and need your help. The two most important documents (.PDFs) for Marden are available here for download:

MPOG have highlighted the relevant parts, related to Marden, with a yellow background.

Please right-click or long-press on each linked document and choose “save link as”, to save it to your device or computer.

How do I respond?

One of the easiest ways to respond to the Regulation 18b consulatation is to go back over any previous comments that you have sent to Councillors. These can (and should!) be re-used, so please send them again as part of this consultation. Remember to emphasise why further large-scale development in Marden is rarely, if ever, going to be suitable.

You may also wish to advise Councillors that you are happy to see they have decided to leave site 309 out of the revised plans. Optionally, you may want to provide your thoughts on the proposed development locations that have made it into the Local Plan Review – in Marden, these are on Copper Lane and Albion Road respectively. Tip: When writing, it’s best to reference paragraph or page numbers directly.

Why is this important?

Because Marden isn’t completely safe just yet.

We need YOU to make your voice heard: let the Council know that Marden is an unsustainable, unwanted and untenable location for a large ‘garden community’. You may have already done this in the past but there’s no harm in emphasizing the same points again. There are better sites in the borough more suited to things like: better transport/motorway access, sustainable development, not on existing farmland, and so on.

Where do I send my response to the public consultation?

Via the Maidstone Borough Council website: https://maidstone-consult.objective.co.uk/portal/
Or you can email a copy: ldf@maidstone.gov.uk
Or post to: Strategic Planning, Maidstone Borough Council, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone, ME15 6JQ

You may also wish to forward a copy of your consultation response to MPOG, in which case please CC it to: mardenplanningopposition@gmail.com

The deadline for comments is 22nd December, please don’t wait!

Update: We’ve added a video on how to fill out the Regulation 18b consultation response here: