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Wednesday September 25 | 2019
Carvery
Now Open in Paddock Wood Adults £12.00 Kids: £8.50 ON THE MARCH: School students took to the streets of Tonbridge on Friday as part of the climate change worldwide protest.
Green light for homes at West Kent - with Travel Plan to tackle parking By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk
Mob: 07554 580723 57 Maidstone Road,Paddock Wood,Tonbridge, Kent, TN12 6DJ
THE planning application to build 51 homes on car parks at West Kent College has been approved - with a radical ‘Travel Plan’ to deal with the loss of parking spaces. There will now be 170 fewer spaces for students and staff, and the college will also have to provide someone to monitor the impact of this on the surrounding streets. The application was rejected in May after a direct intervention by the Leader of Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, Nicolas Heslop. It was turned down on the grounds that the impact of the homes on the neighbouring Spinney would be ‘intrusive and dominant’. After the issues of scale, massing and height were addressed, the Area One Plan-
ning Committee rubber-stamped the development by Ashill on September 12 with two fewer homes than the original 53. The Travel Plan was not discussed at the May meeting because once the proposal was rejected by Cllr Heslop on
‘Approval of planning will not impact on any of our current students’ Hadlow Group grounds of ‘impact’, the rest of the application became redundant. Currently there are 520 spaces available, but that will now be reduced to 350. Students will be encouraged to use public transport in order to tackle the shortfall. Residents have already requested a Preferred Parking Scheme in adjoining
Hundreds of pupils ‘go on strike’ over climate change and shut off High Street
streets, and the subject is due to be discussed at a Joint Transportation Board meeting this week. According to the Travel Plan, a traffic co-ordinator will be appointed to patrol the adjoining streets, and there will be a new minibus service. Both of these schemes must be funded by West Kent itself, which is run by the Hadlow Group - and is soon to be taken over by North Kent College. Hadlow Group has been beset by financial difficulties and the college has been placed in educational administration to ensure courses can continue. The sale of the two car parks and ground occupied by the Oaks Building, scheduled for demolition, will bring in around £1million for Hadlow Group.
MORE than 300 schoolchildren marched up the High Street last Friday [September 20] to raise awareness about climate change. The pupils ‘went on strike’ as part of a worldwide campaign of direct action by young people, which was also staged in Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks. Students from many different schools across town converged on the railway station at 3.15pm, waving imaginative banners and chanting slogans. They walked up the northbound carriageway of the High Street, high-fiving passing motorists, and then convened at the Big Bridge for speeches.
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