by Chris Hunterchunter@thekmgroup.co.uk

Welcome to Maidstone –home of the humdrum, mecca for mediocrity, capital of the conventional, flophouse for the fair-to-middling, cul-de-sac of the congenitally... hold on, stop all that.

It might be fashionable to stick the proverbial knife into your home town but when someone else does it, the cut somehow sinks a little deeper.

The Guardian ran a feature on Maidstone in its “Lets Move To...” series, looking at the pros and cons of the town as a potential home, and the best it could conclude about us is “Maidstone should be nicer than it is.”
Ouch. That hurt.

But there was worse to come as the feature said the town’s glorious history was “overshadowed by fag-packet office blocks, retail parks and roundabouts,” adding “town suffers from ringroaditis and mediocrity.”

In fairness the feature also praises the town's schools, suburbs and transport links and summarises the County Town as a “town of two halves.” But the sting of the barbed conclusion lingered.

So we took to the streets to see if we could rally some kind of defence against these slings and arrows, or at least claim back the right to criticise Maidstone in our own words.

Joan Hunter, from Springfield, said it was overall “quite a good town” – backing the Guardian’s conclusion to a degree.

"I think they have done a lot of work and improved it,” she said. “But they still want to come round to Springfield – it’s filthy. I’ve lived there seven years and never seen a road sweeper.”

Roger Banfield, 69, from Loose, was born in Stone Street. He said: “It’s very difficult to defend Maidstone. The social atmosphere of the town has dissipated because there’s a loss of independently owned business. People were once tradesmen – now look at this High Street and Week Street. You could be anywhere.”

But Kent County Councillor for Maidstone Central Cllr Dan Daley (Lib Dem) was quick to fly the County Town flag.

The former mayor, who lives in Frinstead Walk, Allington, said: “We have a fairly low crime rate and a very vibrant retail centre even though the recession is biting hard. I think it is still a nice place to live. We have brilliant travel connections but also pretty views of the countryside.”