Leeds Langley Bypass (Southern Relief Road)

This proposal is once again causing considerable comment.

Proposals to safeguard land for a new Leeds-Langley Road were included in Maidstone Council’s draft Local Plan Review document. However, this proposal was rejected by the Governments Local Plan Inspector following an Examination in Public, and the proposal did not therefore feature in the 2024 Adopted Local Plan Review voted through by Conservative councillors in spring 2024. 

Further, Maidstone Borough Council is not the Highway Authority and Kent County Council has made it clear that after the latest two year review and attempts to find a suitable route, that the Leeds-Langley Road does not meet current criteria for progressing and funding new roads. This means that if such a road were ever to be seriously considered it would need to be funded entirely by developer contributions. 

It is all too clear that the scale of new residential development required to fund a new road would generate so much additional traffic that any perceived local benefit from a new Leeds-Langley Road would be wiped out. When the loss of countryside and additional strain on overstretched local services are factored in the viability of such a scheme is further undermined.