Don't let Coop off the hook in Maidstone, action required

In March Coop were granted planning permission for a new convenience store on the Loose Road opposite Tesco Express where a car showroom had previously been.

Maidstone Borough Council imposed planning conditions and one of these was that at least 'one publicly accessible electric vehicle charging point' should be provided. This has become a common condition for even small developments to help improve Maidstone's sustainable transport and air quality.

Now Coop want this condition removed and their motive seems to be that they want an extra space for cars with polluting combustion engines. They attempt to justify it by saying that because it's a convenience store the average visit time will be less than 10 minutes which won't be enough to charge a car. Ionity are installing chargers that will take as little as 8 minutes.   

Please object to this application and hopefully we can stop these Luddites in their tracks!

You can read the applicants letter here, full details here and my objection here.

To object you can either by registering with the planning portal site or emailing planningcomments@midkent.gov.uk and quote reference 19/500388/FULL.

For KCC to target 2050 to cut emissions to net zero is at best like flipping a coin for our future

Yesterday Conservative Kent Country Councillors undermined a motion which made a genuine effort to help tackle global warming when they trebled the length of time in which action is to be taken.

In a debate on a motion brought to the council by KCC's sole Green councillor, which was supported by Lib Dems and Labour, a disagreement centred on the dates 2030 or 2050. UN scientists reported last year that there was a 50:50 chance of avoiding global warming of over 1.5 degrees if global emissions are reduced to net zero by 2050. (1.5 degrees is the amount of warming scientists and politicians have agreed would avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.) The Green, Lib Dem and Labour councillors supported reducing emissions which they have direct control of to zero by 2030 but Conservatives voted to amend this to 2050 claiming that this was the approach which science dictates. (scientific bases come from the IPCC and reported here)

These Conservative showed a complete disregard for both science and the political realities of climate change. Economically developed countries like ours have been built on the back of decades of pollution which have got us where we are both in economic terms and a climate crisis. Therefore it is only right that developed countries cut their emissions at a much greater pace than other countries who have historically polluted less. Even more poignant is that scientists have said that the 2050 target gives us a 50:50 chance of avoiding the most catastrophic effects of climate change. For KCC to target 2050 to cut emissions to net zero is at best like flipping a coin for our future but seems to me that they aren't genuine about doing their bit to tackle global warming.

We need to transform local politics

KM 16.05.19

For a long time local elections have had very low turnouts, it is common for there to be two or three times the number of non voters as voters. These numbers only improve when county, national or EU elections are held on the same day.

Our First Past the Post voting system doesn't help because many people's votes won't count. We should of course campaign for the introduction of a better voting system but we still need to achieve things within FPTP because life is too short!

We clearly can't carry on with the way things are. Either many of the people don't vote because they are happy with how everything is (which I find hard to believe!) or local political parties and activists need to radically change.

My letter in the KM:

Political activists have spent the last week theorising about what the recent local election results proved but these amateur generalisations are often very biased. For obvious reasons people from all political creeds like to point out where their own did well but within this humdrum what is often missed is that local politics is broken.

The average turnout was just 32% for MBC and although this is similar to many comparable elections it is appallingly low. While just two out of eighteen parish councils had enough candidates to contest an election which led to a former BNP & NF candidate becoming a parish councillor by default while in the Borough council election he came in 8th place our of 8 candidates with just 43 of the 1631 votes cast.

Local political parties and activists need to look at themselves and ask why so few people vote. It would be easy and lazy to blame non voters but rather than apathy I think many people despair at what they see.

What is needed is a complete transformation in our local politics.