KENT County Showground at Detling aims to take on the might of London's exhibition centres in a new marketing drive. The initiative was announced as the
Revamped county showground squares up to London centres Power Float floor for maximum weight
But the Kent centre spokeswoman said:
Kent County Agricultural Society unveiled its new executive manager, Roger Moore, as well as plans for a £1m refurbishment of its Cornwallis building. The new marketing slogan will be:
“However big or small your event, the Kent Event Centre can accommodate it”. The centre, offering a total of 6,500sqm
of space, will be competing with a £60m development at Bluewater, due for com- pletion in 12 months.
Continued from page one serve. There are businesses who can’t pay in their money and elderly people who can’t travel elsewhere to pick up their pen- sions.
“What has happened is dis-
gusting. The business was run- ning perfectly fine and it could have been done in a way to let us continue it. We will work as hard as we can to get the prob- lem sorted out and to open up again.” The closures come at a time
that the Post Office has been consulting users of the three sub-post offices on a plan to re- duce their operating hours. Cllr Tom Sams, borough coun-
"We are by far the largest conference and event centre in the county.We are compet- itively priced and the refurbishment will put us in an even stronger position." The revamp of the Cornwallis building
will convert a 34-year-old, earth-floored barn into a modern, 1,700sqm conference, entertainment and exhibition centre. Fa- cilities will include: a viewing gallery commercial kitchen catering for up to
1,000 WiFi internet access cargo door to admit HGVs
load 125sqm exhibition hall with attached
meeting room two 60sqm conference rooms. There are 62 venues in Kent with confer-
ence, exhibition and meeting facilities. Dover Cruise Terminals has 1,992sqm; University of Kent in Canterbury 1,295 sqm; and Margate's Winter Gardens 1,050 sqm. The O2 Arena at Greenwich has 20,000
seats but is geared to music and entertain- ment and now has very little capacity for trade and visitor shows.
Sudden closure of four post offices
cillor for Harrietsham and Lenham, said: “I was driving back home from Lenham and met a gentleman who was walk- ing back to Harrietsham along the main road. It was dark and raining, but the only way this poor soul could get to the post office was by making the five- mile round journey by foot. This is just one example of how the closure has been affecting people. “We want it up-and-running
as soon as possible.” This sentimentwas echoed by
Cllr Stephen Morris, chairman of Harrietsham Parish Council: “There was no warning – the shop was closed straight away,
Continued from page one He accused the Independents of being "fool- hardy" for trying to pre-empt the budget strategy, and said they had failed to acknowledge Mon- day's planned meeting. An MBC team of Cllr Garland, cabinet member
Cllr John Wilson, chief executive Alison Broom and assistant director Zena Cooke were to meet the Maidstone branch of the Kent Association of Local Councils (ie, parishes). Cllr Garland said they would approach the talks
Continued from page one £23m budget by £6m. Council leader Chris Garland said Mr Osborne's comprehensive spending review was broadly in line with what the council had assumed in its budget calcula- tions. But the fine detail will not emerge until next month. Lib Dem leader Fran Wilson
told the Downs Mail: "It will be grim. Maidstone is to a great ex- tent based around public serv- ices. A third of our workforce is in the public sector. That is our biggest industry. If we are all taking a serious hit – and 25% is the average – that will impact on our second biggest industry, retail and leisure. "We have a problem in the
short term. I can't see where we can pick up those lost jobs. We know employers want to come here but the problem is finding the right locations for them." That issue - creating the cru-
cial Local Development Frame- work - was put on hold for two years while planning policy of- ficers prepared for last year's
people realising they could not get into the post office. People were irate that they were not able to use the service and were being forced to travel to Lenham or central Maidstone. It’s out of our control at present. We have contacted Post Office Counters to get the service back in Harri- etsham.” The post office in Holling-
Harrietsham Post Office
though if bailiffs were involved it was out of the postmaster’s control. “Our phones started ringing within 10 minutes of the first
Showdown talks to be held on parish grants
"with an open mind". But he said concurrent function grants "cannot continue as they are, given our funding at the moment”. Cllr Garland called for fairness and equality in
the levels of service provided across the borough’s rural and urban areas. He also compared Maid- stone’s £424,000 spend to Tunbridge Wells's £177,000 and Canterbury's £260,000. MBC's budget strategy will be decided by cabi-
net on December 22, with a final rubber-stamp by full council at the end of February.
Town economy looking grim...
complex KIG inquiry. The LDF is not expected to be in place till 2012. Meanwhile, the coun- cil's chief officers and members are working towards setting next March's budget and, in particular, which services they should provide and the ones they cannot afford. Town Centre Manager Bill
Moss said: “With so many pub- lic sector workers living in Maidstone, it would seem that the town will probably be hit harder by job cuts than others in the county.” But he added: “Fortunately, Maidstone is Kent’s biggest shopping town, and the mix of specialist independent shops and leading high street names means that customers come from far and wide to shop here. “Maidstone entered the reces-
sion from a position of strength and has perhaps not suffered as much as many other town cen- tres, so I’m pretty confident the town will weather whatever storm the Government throws at us.” Mail Marks: page 30.
MID Kent College is planning a £23m refurbishment of its Maidstone campus at Oakwood Park. And a £1m vocational skills studio at Senacre will be opening soon to offer training for 14 to 19-year-olds as well as adult learning opportunities. These "good news" stories are
part of an £88m spend on edu- cation and training which proves it is not all doom and gloom in the current economic climate. That's the view of John Foster, Maidstone Council's re- generation and economic devel- opment manager. He said the Mid Kent College
revamp would coincide with a curriculum designed to support local business needs, within the setting of a new, high quality student environment. It starts next year and will be completed by 2013.
Meanwhile, a £64m invest-
ment by the town's two-site New Line Learning Academy represents a big boost for sec- ondary schooling. A major re- development costing £26m
Visit Downs Mail’s website—
downsmail.co.uk
bourne is operated out of village shop Christopher’s. Owner Christopher Rudgard said: “Most of our customers will get in their car and go to Bearsted. One or two without cars will be inconvenienced and we will try to help them.” A Post Office Counters spokesman said: “Staplehurst Post Office has closed tem- porarily for reasons beyond our control. This has also affected our outreach services at Hollingbourne, Harrietsham and Chart Sutton. We are look- ing for a temporary sub-post- master and hope to resume services as soon as possible. We apologise to any of our cus- tomers who may have been af- fected.”
... but education has £88m boost
opened at NLL Academy in Boughton Lane, Loose, in Sep- tember, and next June, Corn- wallis Academy moves into £38m state-of-the-art facilities in Hubbards Lane. Mr Foster said: "A skilled and educated workforce is a critical driver in creating a prosperous local economy and Maidstone is well placed to deliver this. "Higher education provision
has never been better, with the University for the Creative Arts staying at Oakwood and also delivering courses at Maidstone Studios. “Together with other univer-
sities in neighbouring areas, Maidstone can offer a high- quality education provision for all ages." In a recent BBC report, Maid-
stone was ranked in the top 40% of English local authorities for its anticipated overall re- silience to forthcoming public spending cuts. Maidstone was also placed
25th out of 324 English council areas for GCSE results.
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