You may have seen in the news recently that the Government has scrapped its mandatory national housing target which means councils no longer need to maintain a 5-year housing land supply. Over 55 Local Authorities in England have suspended their local development plans, which specify how they will meet the demand for new homes in their area.

Maidstone Borough Council is now one of a few authorities that are pressing ahead with its Local Plan despite no longer there is a need to do so. We are calling on MBC to pause their Local Plan, re-assess the actual local need for new homes in Maidstone and re-submit a revised plan that adopts a brownfield-first approach and removes the thousands of greenfield sites currently earmarked for development. 

Our assessment of Maidstone’s draft Local Plan calculates over 2,000 acres of green space will be lost over the next 15-20 years in the borough, nearly five times the size of Mote Park and six times the size of London’s Hyde Park! 

Please support our petition today so that we can lobby MBC to pause their Local Plan.