Valley Conservation Society
Holder of the KCC Award for Volunteering Excellence
Q. What is there to do on a Saturday?
A. Go to the VCS quiz
IF YOU haven’t yet bought your tickets for this month’s VCS Quiz Night, please
do so asap - we need to be sure of numbers for the catering.
Once again the ticket price of £7.50 per head includes a sumptuous ploughman’s supper and some
excellent desserts. Teas and coffees will be available – please bring your own alcoholic refreshments and glasses.
The questions have been prepared for us by independent experts – so there will be no sneaking a
look at the answers by the committee!
There will be prizes for the winners and a consolation prize for the worst performers. Questions will
cover a range of topics and will not be limited to just sport or celebrities. We are confident that
everyone will find at least one section where they are experts. Form your own team (ideally 6
to 8 people) or come along as singletons or couples and we will place you in a team on the night.
The quiz will be at
Park Way Primary School, Park Way, ME15 7AH
It is a lovely venue, not too far away, (go down the A229 towards town and turn right at the Armstrong Road traffic lights) with plenty of parking
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Tickets are available from:
Alan Smith, Bockingford House, Cripple Street, 01622 751926
Bryn Cornwell, 4 Stockett Lane, 01622 746514
Maggie Davis, 27 Hayle Mill House, Hayle Mill, 01622 674001
Jane Holman, 3 The Manor, Hayle Place, 01622 673491
Jill Lee, 30 Gleneagles Drive, 01622 664643
Dennis Usmar, 8 The Laxey, Tovil 01622 764430
Try these
HERE are some questions to limber up with in preparation for our quiz:
1) Who played the love interest in the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie Road to Zanzibar?
2) Getting To Know You was a hit from which Rodgers and Hammerstein show?
3) Which tough LA detective (named after a painter) is the hero of a string of novels by Michael Connelly?
4) Which Apollo mission was the first to land a man on the moon?
5) Which Maidstone Mayor read out the death sentence after the trial of King Charles 1?
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The Stretto String Quartet |
Barbecue report
OUR summer barbecue (July 18) went well – except for the weather. The rain more or less held off, but it could have been a little warmer! Still most people agreed the food
was excellent and we were royally entertained by some superb musicianship from the Stretto String Quartet.
Around 100 members joined us in the grounds of The Manor at Hayle Place and quite a few children too. We were also pleased to welcome borough councillors
John and Fran Wilson, and the chairman of Tovil Parish Council, Cllr Glyn Charlton.
A great many people helped to make the evening a success, but we would particularly like to thank the chairman Bryn Cornwell and his Tuesday work party for strimming the car park, and to thank John Smith who played car park warden on the day and kept everybody parking in order.
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Our three
chefs did a marvellous job – thanks Bryn, Gary and Dennis. Our thanks also to
Jill and Phillip Lee for arranging the music and to Keith Wright, who was
not able to be with us on the night, but nevertheless lent us a large gazebo
to shelter the quartet. Denver Hope did a marvelous job with his game of
reverse bingo – and raised £92 for the Society funds. But our especial thanks go to Jane and Colin Holman, who not only permitted us to use their fantastic garden, but Jane also took charge of the catering and ensured we were stocked with all the supplementary salads, pastas and condiments. She also sole-handedly scrubbed down the barbecue equipment the next day, ready for next year. Many thanks, Jane!
A full range of photographs can be viewed on our website: www.valleyconservation.org.uk
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The three chefs
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What rain!! |
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Come and get it |
mmmm Delicious |
Newsletter milestone
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DURING the evening, our chairman Bryn Cornwell made a presentation of a mounted pair of gold pens to the Society’s secretary Alan Smith for his “magnificent achievement” in editing his 100th edition of the VCS newsletter.
The newsletter is produced irregularly but on average once a month and is the Society’s main method of keeping in touch with members.
Currently 116 households receive their copy by email, 43 of our more remote supporters (including those in Orpington, Cardiff and Brampton in Cumbria) receive a copy by post, and about 250 paper copies are distributed locally.
Naturally it is the latter section that takes the most time and the newsletter team would welcome more distributors.
If you could see your way once a month to distributing the newsletters to members in a couple of streets near you – perhaps while you walk the dog - Alan would like to hear from you. Call him on 01622 751926.
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“Keep going for another 100,” says Bryn |
VCS contacts: Our chairman Bryn Cornwell has a new email address. You can reach him on bryn@valleyconservation.co.uk
You can reach the secretary, Alan Smith, on a128smith@btinternet.com
Greetings
KENT County Council has a new idea to boost tourism to the county. It wants to establish a “greeter” scheme, whereby visitors can meet someone from the area they wish to stay in, or who shares the interests they wish to pursue, to be given a first-hand introduction to the area.
The scheme is inspired by the success of the Big Apple Greeters, who have become an essential part of a visit to New York.
Fran Warrington, head of “Visit Kent” at KCC, said: “A meeting with a greeter is the fast-track to a great holiday or short break. Just a short discussion with a local person who shares your interests – be it looking for family-friendly attractions, seeking out the sites, celebrating local historic events, planning a walk in the countryside or discovering the most scenic cycle routes and golf courses – makes all the difference."
KCC wants volunteers. Find out more by visiting www.kentgreeters.co.uk or call 0750 0080076.
Calming the valley
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AS WE go to press, the Kent Highways contractors are still at work installing traffic calming measures in the Lower Loose Valley. Some of their initial work – line-painting at the road’s edge will presumably now have to be re-done, since it was subsequently dug up in some places when new kerbs were laid. Yet to come are the two “gateway” features at either end of the road.
The whole process has reminded your newsletter editor of a saying his school Latin master “Rex” Harrison used to have whenever a boy stumbled over a particularly difficult piece of translation from Caeser’s Gallic Wars. “Jones,“ he would say, “Did you hear that whooshing sound, boy? It was a paralyzed snail whizzing past you!”
Boughton Monchelsea
A PETITION signed by 432 residents in Boughton Monchelsea demanding something be done about the poor state of their roads seems to have achieved a partial result. Villagers wanted something done about Haste Hill Road, Green Lane, Brishing Lane, Church Street, Meadow View Road and Lewis Court Drive – all suffering badly from potholes.
Kent Highways now says it has included Haste Hill Road and Green Lane in this year’s budget and that both should be resurfaced before Christmas.
“The remaining roads listed will be monitored as part of the routine safety inspection regime and any repairs deemed necessary to ensure public safety will be arranged by the Highway Inspector for the area,” said head of transport Andy Corcoran.
Pheasant Lane
PROPOSALS that Pheasant Lane should be closed to through traffic are rumbling on. Kent Highways is about to embark on a formal consultation over the closure plans – which were sparked by a petition from some local residents. The lane is used as a cut-through by some motorists trying to avoid congestion at the Wheatsheaf, even though it is only single track in places.
Residents fear the situation will get worse with the redevelopment of New Line Learning (Oldborough Manor). On the other hand, some residents are worried that a no-through-road will become a magnet for fly-tippers, joy-riders and other undesirables. Members should watch out for the official consultation notices in the Kent Messenger and make their own responses directly.
Traffic lights at Cripple Street
KENT Highways has ambitions to install traffic lights at the crossroads of Cripple Street, Boughton Lane and Loose Road. These were supposed to be paid for as part of the redevelopment of New Line Learning and with some section 106 money from the YMCA developers.
However there are clearly problems. Although it is on KCC’s list of “integrated transport improvement schemes” scheduled for the year 2009/2010, there is no date or budget given. It is marked “details awaited”. There has as yet been no public consultation on the proposals.
Coxheath
THE same list shows Kent Highways has £50,000 set aside to revamp the “traffic-calming” scheme along Heath Road in Coxheath, which has proved so very unpopular with residents, They say that motorists actually drive faster to try to beat cars coming the other way through the restricted space created by the road build-outs. Two alternative schemes have already been rejected by residents. KCC are due to present a third set of proposals to the parish council this week.
Free trees
KENT County Council is once again running its annual free trees offer. Anyone – an individual gardener, a landowner or a community group - can apply for a donation of 25 native species trees or hedge-mix including ash, beech, and hazel. This year the council has 40,000 trees to give away. The closing date is 30 October. Your Society always makes use of this offer. Why not try it yourself if you have the room? Call 0845 247 600 or visit:
www.kent.gov.uk/environment/naturalenvironment/kent-freetrees-scheme.htm
The scheme is sponsored by KCC, Network Rail and the borough councils.
DISGUSTED of Tovil
THERE is mounting anger among some Tovil residents and Parish Councillors over the borough council’s failure to act over alleged planning breaches at Bydews – the historic enclave hidden between Dean Street and the River Medway, just west of Burial Ground Lane.
Two households there – from related families – have both been accused of major breaches of planning legislation. One is said to have erected a three-car detached garage without planning permission and to have converted a redundant farm building to living accommodation and subsequently let it out, again without planning permission.
From January 2008, the other household allowed vast quantities of infill to be dumped in the rear garden. At first neighbours thought it was an exercise to level the ground, but such large amounts were used they began to suspect it was more of a commercial enterprise.
Amid complaints from both residents and Tovil Parish Council, the borough was eventually persuaded to investigate and it opened two case files in July of 2008.
But despite the involvement of both KCC and the Environment Agency, and the personal intervention of Borough Cllrs Alan Chell, Ian Chittenden and Clive English, the situation has still not been resolved.
In August, 2008, neighbours were told by planning officers in writing that the investigations would be completed within eight weeks.
In November, in a meeting at the Town Hall, which included Steve Goulette, who was then in charge of the borough council’s development control operation, Tovil Parish Council was told the matter would be resolved by Christmas.
The failure of the borough to determine the issue has placed the small community at Bydews – there are only seven households there – under enormous stress. There have been accusations and counter-accusations and the police have had to attend on a number of occasions.
The issue is now affecting all Tovil residents. The parish council, dismayed at the borough’s failure to act on both this and other enforcement issues in the parish – has gone to the length of engaging a planning consultant, David Hicken, to try to force the borough’s arm.
Naturally Mr Hicken will expect a fee, so now all Tovil precept payers are footing the bill for the borough’s failure to do its job.
Thanks for the trail
A RESIDENT of Buckland Lane in Maidstone has taken the time to write to the Society to “congratulate and thank all the members of the Valley Conservation Society and the other organisations in the Loose Valley Conservation Area Partnership, for the work that has gone into creating the Loose Valley Trail.”
Peter Norman said: “My wife and I recently had the opportunity to walk the trail for the first time. With guidance from your excellent leaflet, we spent a most enjoyable two hours following the 19 reference points from Heron Pond to Mount Ararat, The scenery is truly delightful, and that alone would have provided us with a most pleasurable walk. However the information in the leaflet gave us an extra dimension of interest and enjoyment.”
If you haven’t yet got a copy of the trail leaflet produced by LVCAP, they are available at Loose Post Office.
Work party
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Repairing the ragstone wall in the valley |
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WORK continues on the stone wall repair near our ponds, writes Bryn Cornwell. All the collapsed sections have now been rebuilt to capping level. Up to date it has taken 20 bags of lime and three tons of sand to restore. We would like to say a big thank you to Steve from the Cowshed for the loan of his mixer and to Denver from Crisbrook Cottages for supplying us with the power to enable us to carry out the project and of course to all the volunteers who took part in the course not forgetting the regular Tuesday work party that has carried on the restoration to get to the final stage that we are now at. A wonderful example of community spirit.
*THE work party meets every Tuesday at 11am for work usually on either the wall, the ponds or Treacle Wood. If you can lend a hand for a few hours, call Bryn on 01622 746514 to find out where to meet.
Answers to brain-teasers:
1) Dorothy Lamour
2) The King and I
3) Hieronymus Bosch
4) Apollo 11
5) Andrew Broughton
Next meeting
THE next meeting of the executive committee will be on Wednesday, August 5, at 7.30pm at Flat 3, The Manor, Hayle Place. Members are always welcome to attend.
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Printed and published by Alan Smith, Bockingford House, Cripple Street, Maidstone, ME15 6DN.
