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Big multimodai plan hit by lack of traffic data
Page 9
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PLANS FOR A huge multi modal freight depot on the edge of a pretty Kent village have stalled because developers failed to provide essential information on the likely traffic impact.
Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) planned to decide on the vast road-rail freight depot next week but the deadline has had to be extended by up to six months because the Highways Agency (HA) is unhappy with the information received.
Kent International Gateway (KIG) wants to build a 382,000m' intermodai site near Bearsted, reducing LGV movements on the M20 by making use of the Ashford to Maidstone East line to shift freight by rail. This could create up to 3,000 jobs but the application has proven controversial, with MBC receiving thousands of comments, of which "the great majority were objections".
An HA spokesman says that due to the lack of information it has been unable to provide advice to the authority: "We encourage any developer to put in place a travel plan or a traffic impact assessment. We had some meetings with the developers... why they proceeded before this was all finalised I really couldn't say."
MBC says the planning application already consists of more than 20 documents including a two-volume environmental impact assessment. A spokesman denies the application has been poorly constructed, AXA Real Estate Investment Managers, the company behind KIG, did not comment.