Save our Historic Villages
Our Conservative - Liberal Democrat Government has a driving ambition: to put more power and opportunity into people’s hands. David Cameron wants to give citizens, local communities and local government the power and information they need to come together, solve the problems they face and build the Britain they want. He states that: “Only when people and communities are given more power and take more responsibility can we achieve fairness and opportunity for all.”

Langley’s Parish Plan published in 2008 revealed that an overwhelming majority of residents (95%) would like no further development on the surrounding agricultural land (green belt) which would have a negative effect on the rural environment of an historic village (500 households) which dates back to the Domesday Book of 1086, or which would increase the volume of traffic.

There is strong local opposition to any housing developments or roads if the surrounding fields, woods and orchards are to be sacrificed and if the rural nature of the village is to be altered. Most residents would like to see no more development allowed, even within the village.  Replies showed that the features of Langley which are most valued and which should be preserved are the rural setting, the peace and quiet, woods and orchards.

Indeed, in its Landscape Character Assessment Report published in April 2010, Maidstone Borough Council acknowledges the importance of conserving Langley’s fruit plateau, with its plethora of rare fauna and flora (skylarks, badgers, adders and barn owls) stating: “This habitat should be considered to be important to biodiversity due to its lack of urban development, large size and that it exhibits features typical of Kentish farmland.”

Langley is a rural Parish with no infrastructure to support large-scale development – neither road, rail nor sewerage, nor school, nor hospital not even a village shop.  It would be impossible to support any more new development, let alone a Strategic Development Area (SDA), which might grow from the initial 2,500 homes to 5,000 or 6,000.  The area has a low crime rate, but that would surely rise exponentially, given the scale of development. The plan is one of three proposals for housing in the borough currently being considered by Maidstone Borough Council. It is madness and the result would be disastrous.

Even many of MBC’s Councillors are against the proposal. Some have gone on record claiming their own Cabinet had not truly listened to the Local Development Advisory Group. The group has called for future housing to be dispersed to avoid swamping of communities arising from an SDA. Others have said the council needed policies that would force regeneration of old housing stock, or Maidstone would end up with blighted neighbourhoods that would continue to decline.

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