It is not all about where we put the housing...

Councillor Clive English, Chairman of the Planning Committee reports that, while the focus has inevitably been on housing sites within the Review of the Local Plan a serious effort is underway within the Council to raise the quality of developments across the Borough. Preliminary work is being undertaken to look at standards for Electric Vehicle Points, Renewable Energy, External Space Standards, Water Efficiency, Vernacular (Local) Design, and Biodiversity amongst other issues. The Council is also looking at ways to bring forward more innovative types of development and developers such as Smaller Local Companies and Co-Housing Projects.

Clive said. "The current Local Plan had to be put in place quickly to provide

some protection from uncontrolled development, but focused unavoidably

on Housing and Employment Allocations. Now we need both through the

Local Plan Review and other Policy documents to do more to improve the

quality of the developments built in Maidstone."