New Housing in Maidstone - The Coppice

This is the start of a new housing estate being built on the southern edge of Maidstone. I cannot find how many houses are being built here but it looks a significant development. A few hundred yards down the road is another sizable development.

Maidstone Council state that 19,000 new homes are needed in the borough in the next 15 years. This figure is disputed by many who see the true figure to be around 14,000. The outcome is that property developers see Maidstone as a prime location for house building and because the Council has no Local Plan it is vunerable to extensive property development.

New homes are needed, but there are many brownfield sites to use first and I'm sure if there was an audit of space in the town centre many unused upper floors could be converted to apartments. But of course, people may not want to live in these areas, perfering the new homes built on the edge of town - the easiest and most profitable choice for the property developer.

But the greatest concern with all these edge of town developments is the increasing pressure they put on the already creaking infrastructure. Sutton Road, where this development is already at capacity during rush hour and this is not going to make it any better. Developing the land also increases the speed of water run-off leading to the likelyhood of more flooding. Yet these sorts of issues don't seem to be taken into account.

Then Maidstone say they will need to create 17,000 new jobs over the same period - is this to accommodate the addtional people that are expexted to move in as a result of the new houses. Something doesn't add up here.