Malcolm Robertson, KCC Liberal Democrat Opposition Spokesperson on Transport matters and Maidstone Borough Council Railways Champion is outraged by the Government's decision to axe Maidstone and West Malling's vital direct commuter rail service to London Canon Street and Charing Cross via London Bridge.

Malcolm Robertson, Lib Dem County Councillor for Maidstone Central, wishes to clarify the following points raised in this newspaper article:

• The positive proposal for establishing a Maidstone Parkway Station is contained within the recently released KCC draft consultation document, "Growth Without Gridlock, an integrated transport strategy for Kent". The KCC Conservative Cabinet Member, Mr Nick Chard, has clearly authorised the release of this document for consultation.

The Liberal Democrats have taken the second seat at the Maidstone Central County Division from the Conservatives. Lib Dem candidate Malcolm Robertson beat sitting councillor Jeff Curwood by a handsome margin of 1242 votes.

Lib Dem Councillor Dan Daley retained his seat by an even bigger margin (1958 votes) over the Conservatives. Ian Chittenden also retained his seat in the North East Division with an enhanced majority. Clearly there is dissatisfaction with the Conservatives in Maidstone after one year of their control of the Borough Council.

Southeastern trains has decided to stop the off-peak fast service between London Cannon Street and West Malling and Maidstone.

Maidstone and the Weald Liberal Democrats are stunned that this announcement comes at a time when Maidstone stands to gain nothing from the new high speed commuter trains. Unlike practically all other main towns in Kent where journey times to London are being dramatically slashed, Maidstone will be left with only slow trains to London Victoria where journey times can be as much as 1hr 20 minutes.

From the outset, the Liberal Democrats opposed the 500,000 tonne per annum incinerator that in now operating in Allington Quarry. They always thought it was too big and that there were better solutions for waste disposal. However, it is here now. The best use possible must be made of it to recover energy and to use the associated recycling facility to recover materials for re-use. Councillor Malcolm Robertson and others will keep the operation under the very tightest scrutiny to make sure that it is posing little or no risk to our community.

From February the first 20,000 properties will receive weekly rubbish collections and an improved fortnightly recycling collection.

Maidstone councillors have agreed funding to keep weekly rubbish collections for kitchen waste, disposable nappies and other things that cannot be recycled and introduce an improved fortnightly recycling collection for plastics, paper, card and cans.

In the debate on the Future of Public Health in Kent at County Hall, Dan Daley, Member for Maidstone Central called on Authorities to be tougher on those found guilty of supplying alcohol to under-age teens. He reported the recent withdrawal of an alcohol licence at his local Tesco Express.

His concern is with the damage that young people are doing to their health which will lead to serious medical conditions in later life. "It is all very well having the good intentions shown in the document we are debating here today about promoting Good Health in our population, but unless there is a much stronger approach to the control of alcohol misuse in our young people then we shall all be paying an extremely high price in years to come".

Maidstone Liberal Democrats, with strong support from a petition from local residents, has ensured that the threat by the Conservative administration running Maidstone Council to cut the CCTV budget by £80,000 has been withdrawn.

In the last few years, Maidstone's CCTV system has been hugely successful in reducing crime and anti-social behaviour in the area as well as giving peace of mind to many residents and visitors to the town.

The issue of cars parking on grass verges in the borough was addressed by Councillor Malcolm Robertson at a meeting of the Joint Transportation Board. Councillor Robertson urged the use of an existing County of Kent Act to prosecute offenders. He said, "The way to prevent this problem is by embarrassing people by publicity. We have an act in place but nobody seems to know if there have been any prosecutions. We should use the tools we have got and take action."

As highway budgets have been cut, many urgent and sometimes dangerous problems on roads and footpaths have been left for months before repairs are undertaken leaving local residents at risks. Examples include Albany Road where major trip hazards and dangerous walls have been left unrepaired since reported by us in April.