Maidstone Local Plan Review Settlement Hierarchy Review

Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) is looking to commission a review through survey work and report with recommendations of its settlement hierarchy to support the Local Plan Review. Background Local Plan & Local Plan Review Maidstone Borough Council adopted a comprehensive Maidstone Borough Local Plan (MBLP) in October 2017. It covers the period 2011-31 and provides for an annual requirement of 883 homes, equating to 17,660 new dwellings over the 20-year plan period. It anticipates the creation of 14,400 jobs and provides for a total of 29,800sqm of retail floorspace (comparison and convenience), 110,031sqm B1/B2/B8 floorspace, and 100,000sqm medical use floorspace over the same time frame. The council is committed to an early review of the MBLP which is expected to be adopted by October 2022. The end date for the Local Plan Review (LPR) is not yet fixed but it will be 2037 at the earliest and the Council may decide to extend it further. To date the Council has undertaken a first stage of public consultation and developed an extensive evidence base. The evidence based developed can be viewed here: WEB LINK From this evidence the Council has calculated an OAN figure of 1,214 residential units per year a total of 18,2010 residential units over the plan period and an employment need of 101,555m2. Once the existing extant permission and allocations have been considered the additional growth over the plan period (2022-2037) is 5,790 residential units. The employment need is reset from 2022 and not additional growth. The first stage public consultation for the Local Plan Review was held between Friday 19th July and Monday 30th September 2019. This Regulation 18(a) 'Scoping, Themes & Issues' consultation document provided extensive background and invited comments on the scope of issues that the Local plan review should cover.