StopKIG Party

After the sucessful campaign against the Kent International Gateway, StopKIG have announced a party!

Had this from them earlier:

To all our supporters,

We are planning a celebration on Saturday 18th September between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Bearsted Green.

Please click here to view your invitation to a party we are holding on the Green to celebrate the KIG planning appeal decision.

The StopKIG Steering Group would like to encourage you and your family and friends to attend this event.

It is possible that some catering may be available, but further information will follow as soon as it becomes available.

Please note that for reasons of economy we are only able to communicate directly with our email supporters and so would appreciate it if you would pass on this information to anyone you know who would be interested in attending but may not have email facilities.

Many thanks,

STOPKIG.ORG STEERING GROUP

StopBIG - CPRE Kent's new campaign website lauched

Hard on the heels of StopKIG is StopBIG. This has been set up by Protect Kent (aka CPRE Kent). This is from their new campaign website:


"BIG (also called ‘KRAFT’) is a proposed major rail freight and aggregates interchange, proposed for a quarry site in West Kent. The 260 acre site is in the London Green Belt and threatens the tranquillity and rural landscape around Borough Green, Platt and Wrotham."

Map of the massive site is available here.

I'm more than happy with the concept of moving freight from road to rail, but just like KIG, why would you want to do it in the centre of Kent? Put the interchange near where lorries enter the country, somewhere around Dover or Folkestone.

KIG case starts to crumble

On Tuesday I spoke at the public inquiry into the Kent International Gateway (KIG). I challenged AXA / KIG over their heroic ecomonic assumptions that claim that KIG would be good for Bearsted, Maidstone and the country. Obviously, their case was complete rubbish and the one question they fired back at me seemed to justify my argument. 

I gather that the Joint Parishes Group dropped a bombshell this week at the inquiry, showing that the KIG application misquoted guidance from the Institute of Light Engineers. If correct guidance is applied the site could not operate 24/7. Well done JPG people!!!

Stop KIG are continuing with their excellent campaign and it was good to meet key people on Tuesday. It was also great to see a strong presence from CPRE / Protect Kent.

News from Stop KIG

The KIG inquiry is starting on 13th October and will be running for 8 weeks.

Stop KIG are continuing to do a great job at organising the fight to stop this development and they are encouraging as many people as possible to turn up to the inquiry, especially on the first day - so make sure you have booked it off!

StopKIG

I have put my objection in to Maidstone Borough Council on the KIG development. Below my points I added the suggested objections from the StopKIG campaign. Comments need to be in to MBC by 6th Feb and can be sent to KIGcomments@maidstone.gov.uk

KCC have also arranged a further public meeting: Invicta Grammar School, Huntsman Lane, Maidstone, on 2nd February, 6.30pm for 7pm start.


Dear Maidstone Borough Council,

I wish to object to the planning application for the Kent International Gateway (KIG) on the following grounds:

1. The development seems to want to move road freight onto rail (which I approve of), however the application seems to be focussed upon international transport, both imports and exports and fails to take adequately into account::

a. The differing transport modalities between the UK and Europe
b. The economic downturn that is likely to be sustained
c. The need to reduce international trade in favour of localism
d. That the ideal place to intercept road freight coming into the UK and to place it on the rail network is at the ports and CTRL terminal.
e. That the ideal place to put freight onto rail for transport across Europe is at the point of production, i.e. around the UK. Interchanges to allow export are best made close to the ports and CTRL terminal – not Maidstone.
f. That freight on lorries is predominantly trailer based rather than container based. Trailers are unsuitable for rail transport in the UK.

2. Maidstone needs its own rail / road interchange for goods. This would be on a far smaller scale than KIG and the KIG proposal does not provide this facility.

3. The suggestion that workers at KIG would cycle and walk to work without adequate infrastructure for these modalities in the surrounding area is bizarre. It is likely that most employees will travel to work by car. This is likely to be compounded by much of the work force being drawn from Medway and Swale areas. KIG acknowledge that cyclists are only likely to travel around 5km to work.