Valley Conservation Society
Holder of the KCC Award
for Volunteering Excellence
Supported by the
Heritage Lottery Fund
______________________________________________________________________________
MEMBERS NEWSLETTER No
96 _
February 2009
Book now
for
Riddle Of
The Sands
TICKETS are on
sale now for our March show the exciting espionage drama from the Chalkfoot
Theatre Company The Riddle Of The Sands.
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Set
shortly before the First World War it tells the tale of two chums on a
boating holiday who make some disturbing discoveries about the military
ambitions of Imperial Germany.
Many
members will recall the last performance
we had by
this company Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - and will agree it
was excellent.
We have
stepped outside the normal Applause sponsorship scheme to secure this play
which means we must recruit a good-sized audience if we are to break even.
Please come along and support us and encourage your friends and
neighbours
to come too. The play is aimed at an adult audience, but children are also
welcome. |
| Stills from
1979 film version |
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Tickets are £8 and £4 for children if booked in
advance. Tickets
purchased in the last seven
days
before the show cost £10 and £5.Book now to save money.
Send your cheque made out to
Valley
Conservation Society
and SAE to
Bockingford House, Cripple Street,
MAIDSTONE. ME15 6DN
Tuesday, March 17,
at
7.30pm
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Be our
Valentine
ALL members
are welcome to our annual meeting, which will take place at the Eling Court
Community Room, off Hilden Shaw, Maidstone, on Valentines Day, Saturday,
February 14, starting at
10am. The meeting
should last no more than two hours.
AGM
Saturday, February 14,
2009,
10am
The main item
on the agenda will be the appointment of the new executive committee for
2009.Only those who have renewed their membership for 2009 can vote or stand for
office.
If there
is a membership application attached to this newsletter, it is because we
believe you have not yet renewed your membership for 2009. Please do so as soon
as you can. If you have renewed within the last two weeks, our apologies, you
can safely ignore this reminder.
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Eling Court can be approached
from either Broadoak Avenue or Mayfair Avenue.
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Membership
record
WE ARE
delighted to announce that 2008 proved a record year for the Society. We
concluded the year with a paid-up membership of 511 the highest since the
Society was formed in 2000.
So far this
year 300 people have already renewed for 2009. Thank you for your continued
support.
Wall collapse
THE Lower Loose Valley has been enjoying a period of relative peace, following
the partial collapse of a ragstone retaining wall at the side of Hayle Mill Road
on Monday, January 19, after a night of heavy rain.
VCS member Wendy Stead,
who lives nearest to the slide, described a heavy vibration at about 11.30am.
She said: I looked out and there was rubble right across the road.
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Officers from Kent Highways attended and
cleared the stones and mud to one side of
the narrow lane and installed traffic lights
as
a temporary measure. It is the job
of
the owner to repair the wall properly.
The wall at this section which is only a
few yards below the land owned by the
Society itself, belongs to Paul Aaron Stone,
the owner of the Hayle Place Stud Farm.
It
is part of a parcel of land destined to be
transferred to Maidstone council to form
a
country park for the borough under the
terms of the councils grant of planning
consent for the redevelopment of part of
the Stud Farm for housing. |
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The Fall |
The Repair |
Since then, the rubble has been cleared, the traffic lights have been removed
and the road re-opened, but up till the point of writing KCC have thoughtfully
left the road closed signs in place - to the delight of residents.
Senacre
ANYONE who feels there is not enough traffic negotiating the Wheatsheaf junction
at present, need not fear. They will soon be joined by the vehicles from 350 new
homes to be built on the site of the former Senacre school in Sutton Road. KCC
has now completed the sale of the site to developer Redrow.
Forty per cent
of the new properties are to be affordable units managed by the Orbit Housing
Group. The site already has outline planning consent and Redrow hopes to start
building this spring. Geoff Keer, development director for Redrow Homes, said:
These are challenging times for the house-building industry, but we are
delighted to have acquired this excellent site and to be able to provide
homebuyers in Kent with comfortable homes in a fabulous and sought-after
area.
Flats approved after all
THE RPM workshop in Farleigh Hill, Tovil, can be pulled down and replaced with
10 flats, a Government inspector decided at a second appeal hearing. Maidstone
council had at first refused permission and won an appeal against the decision
by the applicant. But the appeal was then successfully challenged at the High
Court and a second appeal hearing ordered. The council had in the meantime
granted permission for the neighbouring Rose pub to be converted into 14 flats
and the inspector said that the Rose decision had now set the benchmark for what
must be considered acceptable in the area. Well done MBC!
Work Party:
THERE is a work party in the Valley every Tuesday. If you want to spend a few
hours in useful exercise, call Bryn Cornwall on 01622 746514 for details.
TEAMS NEEDED FOR Hi
Kent CHARITY QUIZ
Hi Kent, the
charity for the deaf and hard of hearing, is holding its annual quiz night at
Coxheath Village Hall on Saturday, 28 February.
The
organisers promise questions across a broad range of subjects so everyone
should know some of the answers! They are looking for teams of up to six. Entry
will be £6 per head, which includes a ploughmans supper, with patrons invited
to take their own drinks.
The charity
has already taken bookings for 15 tables and is hoping for 15 more. To book a
table, contact L.Clayton@hikent.org.uk
or telephone 01622 691151.
Take a
healthy walk through Tovil
TOVIL is the venue for the
fifth walk to be added to the Maidstone Health Walks programme, run by the
British Trust for Conservation Volunteers. The inaugural Tovil walk will set off
from the Post Office in Church Street, Tovil, at 1.30pm on Thursday, February
12.
The scheme
co-ordinator Paula Hubens said: This is another great opportunity to explore
the green spaces in our local community and it is completely free. A beautiful
route has been plotted out along the Medway at Tovil and if the weather lets us,
we shall also venture out to the nearby countryside.
The walk will
be repeated every Thursday at 1.30pm.
Maidstones
other health walks are:
*Mote Park, every Tuesday at
10.30am from the Cafι in the Park
*Park Wood, every Tuesday at
1pm from the Healthy Living Centre
*Cherry Orchard Walk, every
Wednesday at 12.30pm from the roundabout at Tarragon Road
*Town Centre Walk, every
Thursday at 11am from Maidstone Town Hall
Anyone, of
any age, can attend. There is no need to book. Each walk lasts about an hour.
Tree work in
the Valley
LOOSE
Amenities Association has given notice to Maidstone council of its intention to
remove or lop a large number of trees on the land it owns in the valley.
The intention
is to remove five
overhanging branches from one oak, remove low branches from one oak, remove
three cracked willow trees and one leaning willow tree, remove three elder
bushes, remove three ash trees and overhanging branch and low branches and
remove broken branches from two ash trees, remove one hawthorn and one cracked
hawthorn, and remove 11 sycamore trees and overhanging branches from one
sycamore tree; all trees being located within Loose Conservation Area.
The details can
be viewed on Maidstone councils website: www.digitalmaidstone.co.uk
under tree application number: TA/0002/09
SIMON Green, the
former owner of Hayle Mill, who still retains ownership of the land below the
mill, above and to the west of the Upper Crisbrook Pond, has also notified the
council of his intention to pollard a weeping willow tree down to a height of
just one metre. Tree application number TA/0003/09 has the details.
| LVCAP
shows the way
MEMBERS may have
noticed a number of
way-markers appearing on walks
around
the Valley. These are
being installed by the
Loose Valley
Conservation Area Partnership
as part of its
Heritage Lottery-funded project to
encourage people to
make more recreational use
of the valley.
LVCAP has also
prepared thousands of walk leaflets
for would-be ramblers
which it intends to launch at
its AGM at Loose Swiss
Scouts Headquarters in
Pickering Street at
7.30pm on Wednesday,
February 11.
Everyone is welcome to
attend the AGM.
For more details visit
www.loosevalley.org
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Roadside Marker |
Footpath Marker |
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Pheasant Lane no through road?
FOLLOWING the receipt last
August of a 120-signature petition requesting the closure of Pheasant Lane, off
Boughton Lane, to through traffic, Kent Highways Services carried out its own
consultation with residents in Loose Road, Wheatsheaf Close, Shernolds and
Boughton Lane.
They received 33 replies
of which 60 per cent wanted the road closed at the point suggested, 30 per cent
opposed closure altogether and 3.5 per cent supported closure but at a different
point.
Kent Highways is now to
proceed with a formal advertisement of the closure proposals and following
consideration of any objections it receives will take a final decision on
whether to close the road.
The
Wrong Trousers
THE construction of new
flats at the former Cartem site off Beaconsfield Road in Tovil has been no joke
for neighbours. They have had to contend with lorries squeezing past their
parked cars, noise and dust, and a struggle to find a parking place during the
day because of the number of workers cars parked outside their homes. South
Ward councillor Ian Chittenden organised a site meeting with the builders last
month (Jan 30) to sort out the problems. But we were amused to learn that one of
the complaints that Cllr Chittenden had received was that site workers returning
to their vehicles at the end of the shift were shedding their dirty overalls
before getting in their cars, including taking their trousers off in the
street.
EMAIL
THE secretary Alan Smith
is in the process of swapping email providers. The
bockingford@supanet.com address will no longer work. Until further notice,
please send any emails to the chairman, Bryn Cornwell, on
bryncornwell@yahoo.co.uk
Tony
Hart
Many members will have
noted with sadness the passing of Tony Hart, the artist and presenter of
childrens TV shows such as Vision On and Take Hart.
Not everyone realises
that he was brought up in Maidstone in Hastings Road. The editor of this
newsletter was fortunate enough to meet Mr Hart on his last visit to Maidstone a
few years ago. Having already suffered several strokes, Mr Hart struggled to
remember recent events, but he recalled strongly the fond memories he had of
walking through the Loose Valley as a boy, before his parents sent him away to
boarding school in London.
His first published
picture was of a V1 rocket over Maidstone which he drew during the war and which
was published in the Kent Messenger in July 1944.
Next
committee: All meetings of the
Society are open to all members to attend. The next meeting of the executive
committee will be on Wednesday, March 4,
at 7.30pm. The venue will be
Bockingford House, Cripple Street, Maidstone, ME15 6DN. Call 751926 for
directions.
Valley Conservation Society
doing nothing is not an option
MEMBERSHIP
APPLICATION 2009
I/We should
like to join the Society:
(Please
include your title and first name)
Name: 1)
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2)
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3)
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Signature(s)
Membership is
£2 each per year (or 50p each for young people aged 14 to 18). Please do not
register children under 14. Send your application form and your cheque made
payable to Valley Conservation Society to:
Colin Holman, Membership Secretary,
Flat 3, The Manor,
Hayle Place, Cripple Street,
MAIDSTONE, ME15 6DW
I enclose a
cheque/cash for £
.. (Donations welcome)
If you are
able to play an active role in the Society, tick the box you are interested in:
Leaflet
delivery work parties
fund-raising
________________________________________________________________________
Office use only:
Issued:
Donation: £ Membership
Nos
Printed
and published by Alan Smith, Bockingford House, Cripple Street, Maidstone, ME15
6DN.
