Shopping schemes queue on M20

News

08 March 1986

The site, which takes in the former Allington Quarry abuts junction 5 of the M20. ARC already have permission for 750,000 sq ft of warehouse and light industrial at 20/20 Maidstone, and say this first phase is nearing completion.

However, ARC’s proposals are likely to get a stiff scrutiny from the local authority, Tonbridge and Malling council. Not only does the scheme run counter to the shopping policies of both the local and county councils but ARC’s permission for industrial development at 20/20 Maidstone was linked to a section 52 agreement that the rest of the site would be restored to agriculture.

Moreover, another bid for a large-scale shopping and village development, just a few miles further down the M20 at junction 4 with the A228, has been lodged by Trafalgar House’s subsidiary Ideal Homes.

Their scheme takes in 450 acres of land at Leybourne, much of it Grade 1 agricultural and within the green belt. Plans include about 2,000 new homes, an industrial development and a major retail centre of up to 500,000 sq ft.

Following their letting of Cliveden, the former Astor family home, for conversion into an exclusive country house hotel by Blakeney Hotels, the National Trust is now devoting its energies towards finding a new use for the former Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital site on the eastern edge of the estate, some 2 miles north of Maidenhead.

The hospital, which was constructed during the last war, has some 200,000 sq ft gross of buildings in a 16 1/2-acre parkland setting and is the second to be built on the site, the first being built during the Great War on land provided by the Astors. The hospital eventually passed to the National Trust.

The present lessee, the National Health Service, has now vacated the premises and the National Trust has instructed its agents, Debenham Tewson & Chinnocks, to advise upon the future use of the complex.

Debenham Tewson & Chinnock say the site is “bound to attract much interest in view of its superb location, being midway between the M4 and M40”.

ARC Properties, part of the Consolidated Gold Fields Group, have put in an application to develop 90 acres of their 20/20 Maidstone site in Kent as a 500,000-sq ft high-quality shopping and leisure complex. The site, which takes in the former Allington Quarry abuts junction 5 of the M20. ARC already have permission for 750,000 sq ft of warehouse and light industrial at 20/20 Maidstone, and say this first phase is nearing completion. However, ARC’s proposals are likely to get a stiff scrutiny from the local authority, Tonbridge and Malling council. Not only does the scheme run counter to the shopping policies of both the local and county councils but ARC’s permission for industrial development at 20/20 Maidstone was linked to a section 52 agreement that the rest of the site would be restored to agriculture. Moreover, another bid for a large-scale shopping and village development, just a few miles further down the M20 at junction 4 with the A228, has been lodged by Trafalgar House’s subsidiary Ideal Homes. Their scheme takes in 450 acres of land at Leybourne, much of it Grade 1 agricultural and within the green belt. Plans include about 2,000 new homes, an industrial development and a major retail centre of up to 500,000 sq ft. Following their letting of Cliveden, the former Astor family home, for conversion into an exclusive country house hotel by Blakeney Hotels, the National Trust is now devoting its energies towards finding a new use for the former Canadian Red Cross Memorial Hospital site on the eastern edge of the estate, some 2 miles north of Maidenhead. The hospital, which was constructed during the last war, has some 200,000 sq ft gross of buildings in a 16 1/2-acre parkland setting and is the second to be built on the site, the first being built during the Great War on land provided by the Astors. The hospital eventually passed to the National Trust. The present lessee, the National Health Service, has now vacated the premises and the National Trust has instructed its agents, Debenham Tewson & Chinnocks, to advise upon the future use of the complex. Debenham Tewson & Chinnock say the site is “bound to attract much interest in view of its superb location, being midway between the M4 and M40”.