Cabinet split £13,017,345 of developer levy across eight projects on 22 July. The hospice takes £3.53m, a new town park £3.9m, and a village cricket pavilion nothing.
Maidstone Borough Council has handed out £13,017,345 of developer money to eight projects, including £3.53m towards moving the Heart of Kent Hospice and £900,000 to refurbish a 1960s village hall in Bredhurst.
The Cabinet made the decision on 22 July and the call-in window closed on 31 July without challenge. The money comes from the Community Infrastructure Levy, a charge on qualifying new development that has been running in the borough since 1 October 2018. Fourteen bids were received between 1 September and 30 November 2025. Officers scored them, then referred them to Rumfitt Associates for independent moderation.
The eight projects that got money
| Project | Allocation | What it pays for |
|---|---|---|
| Maidstone East public park | £3,897,345 | A new public park at the Maidstone East development |
| Heart of Kent Hospice | £3,530,000 | Relocation of the hospice |
| Maidstone Girls’ Grammar School | £2,490,000 | School expansion, already under construction |
| One Maidstone Health Hub | £1,000,000 | GP, community and mental health accommodation at Maidstone East |
| Bredhurst Village Hall | £900,000 | Full refurbishment: insulation, solar panels, air source heating |
| Staplehurst Community Centre | £550,000 | Phase of a £2.06m redevelopment of the historic village hall |
| Lenham Nursery School | £450,000 | Nursery provision supporting planned housing growth in Lenham |
| Nettlestead Puffin Crossing | £200,000 | Replacing the zebra crossing on Maidstone Road |
The council had £7.69 million of strategic levy receipts banked as at 17 June 2026, and forecasts a further £6.2 million by 31 March 2030. It has allocated against both, so several of these projects are drawing on money that has not been collected yet. Officers argued that committing now gives successful bidders the confidence to press ahead. If drawdowns ever outran the balance, the council has a £5m revolving pot in its capital programme.
What missed out
Three schemes that scored well got nothing.
- Leeds and Broomfield Cricket Pavilion, £800,000. It ranked fourth of the fourteen bids, above the hospice and the new park. The council’s Planning and Healthier Stronger Communities Policy Advisory Committee recommended funding it on 7 July. Cabinet did not, “to allow a margin for fluctuations in finance and housing in the next five years”, and instead said it could be considered if reserve funds remain.
- M20 Junction 7 improvements, £714,369. This was the top-ranked bid, and officers recommended the allocation. Cabinet removed it because Kent County Council has not yet drawn down the £1,836,729 it was given in the first bidding round, and because of uncertainty over whether the highway authority can deliver.
- A229 Blue Bell Hill upgrade, £3.5m. Ranked second, but the moderator advised deferring it given the scheme’s £238 million funding package is not settled and completion is not expected until 2031.
The grammar school figures
The largest disagreement between Cabinet and its own advisory committee was over Maidstone Girls’ Grammar School, whose expansion bid was submitted by Kent County Council.
On 7 July the advisory committee recommended £1,390,000, and asked officers to check how much the school actually needed. The answer came back in an urgent update to Cabinet:
- total scheme cost: £9,969,679.74
- funding available from other sources: £8,630,143.34
- funding gap: £1,339,536.40
- levy money sought: £2,492,419.94
The request was therefore about £1.15m larger than the stated gap. Officers wrote that the figures “do not present a clear picture regarding purpose of the CIL bid”.
They recommended paying it anyway, and Cabinet agreed the full £2,490,000. The reasoning is that Kent County Council forward funds school expansions to get places built on time, then has a statutory duty to recover the cost where the demand came from housing growth. The project is already built. In its submission KCC warned that failing to recoup the money would “create significant financial strain on its capital programme” and could delay or scale back future school expansions across the county.
A note on the biggest allocation
The single largest sum, £3,897,345, goes to a public park at Maidstone East. The bid was for £4.78m.
The independent moderator ranked it sixth and flagged a concern worth recording. Its report says the request “represents significant CIL concentration risk and does not unlock any match funding and, in other circumstances, would normally be funded or part funded by the developer”.
By contrast the hospice bid, ranked fifth, arrived with £5.15m of secured or pledged funding behind it and 24 formal letters of support.
What it means for you
If you live in Bredhurst, Staplehurst, Lenham or Nettlestead, a specific local building or crossing now has money attached to it, drawn from development elsewhere in the borough. Bredhurst’s hall is expected to take 41 to 45 weeks to refurbish once planning permission is secured, with delivery late in 2027. The Lenham nursery is programmed for September 2027, the Nettlestead crossing for November 2027 and the Staplehurst work for 2028.
If you live anywhere in the borough, this is what the levy on new housing near you buys. Strategic levy money makes up between 70% and 80% of everything the council collects under the charge, and is the portion handed out through this competitive bidding process.
The allocations are commitments, not cheques. Money is drawn down as each project reaches the point of spending it, and the council publishes an annual Infrastructure Funding Statement showing what has actually been collected and spent.
You can see what is being applied for near you on our Maidstone planning applications page, and how the borough’s own charges compare on our council tax bands page.
Have your say
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