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Maidstone & Malling’s No 1 - 88,000 copies - 4 editions Maidstone South Edition June 2011 No.170 Monarchs crowned UK champions


A LOCAL boys football team has won a UK tournament held at a Premiership stadium - and a second member of the side has just signed for a top-flight club. Staplehurst Monarchs U13s, representing England, won the Tesco Cup at Birmingham City’s St Andrews ground. They lifted the trophy after beating aWelsh


team on penalties in the final. Two-goal hero Theo Duckworth was the


toast of his team-mates after he was named player of the tournament by former Arsenal and England defenderMartin Keown. Staplehurst manager Andy Thomas said: “We’re just so proud of the boys. It is fantastic for a team that last year was playing under age andwere get- ting beaten pretty heavily. Lit- tle did we know less than 12 months on we’d be playing at such a fantastic venue and being crowned the champions of the UK. It’s just amazing.” In a closely fought semi-final earlier in the day, Staplehurst defeated Scotland’s Fauldhouse Foxes 1-0. The final was even tighter, Staplehurst taking the lead through another Duckworth strike only forWales’s Ysciefiog Wolves to equalise in the final minute. A goalless extra time followed but Staplehurst won the penalty shootout 5-4. Martin Keown said, “To


play at St Andrews is a once in a lifetime chance . The standard of football played today has been excellent. Staplehurst were particularly impressive and worthy UK champions.”


Pub cyclists’ boost for cancer fund


Meet Kent’s youngest parish councillor


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TWOof the triumphant Monarchs team are getting a taste of life at Premiership clubs. Alex Mulrooney-Skinner, 13, was re-


cently signed by Fulham and Thomas Mackelden has been at Tottenham for two years after being signed from Crystal Palace when he was 11. Thomas’s dad, Lee, said: “He will be at- tending the Spurs academy one school day a week from September. Both boys have a chance of playing football as a career but at what level remains to be seen.”


The triumphant team celebrates the penalty shoot-out win.


Calls for new tip as traffic grows


THE change to fortnightly rubbish collections has been blamed for causing severe road congestion outside Tovil tip – and there is a groundswell of support to establish another facility to ease the bur- den.


The site in Burial Ground Lane is Maidstone’s only recycling cen-


tre and, according to Tovil Parish Council, long-standing traffic concerns have intensified sinceMaidstone Council introduced fort- nightly collections in February. In recent weeks, vehicles have been queuing up from the tip onto Farleigh Hill, causing gridlock to local roads and villages – such as Coxheath and East Farleigh – south of town. Queues on the main road have formed as early as 7.15am on some weekdays. Parish and borough Cllr Derek Mortimer said: “Be- cause of fortnightly collections, rubbish has got so bad that people are having to dump it at the tip.” The new system sees recyclable food waste taken away every


week, with regular domestic rubbish rotating with cardboard recy- cling collections every other week. Borough Cllr and KCC


P22 Royal Mail sorry for postal woe


ROYAL Mail has apologised to Maidstone residents for a poor service thathas left some without any letters for days. Several members of the public


have told Downs Mail that they are not receiving their mail six days a week – in breach of Royal Mail’s terms of licence. The or- ganisation is undergoing a re- structure of its service to cope with the trend away from letters and towards packages, starting firstly in the ME15 area. The changes were due to cover


ME14 and ME16 but have been delayed, it is thought, because of difficulties adapting to the new system. Tovil Parish Council is pursu-


Borough Update RESIDENTS will have a once- in-a-lifetime opportunity to view the Olympic Flame when it passes through the borough and stops off at Leeds Castle on Thursday, July 19 next year. For more details, see Maid-


stoneCouncil’s latest twelve-page newsletter in the centre of this edition of Downs Mail.


ing the matter after one member– a former employee at Royal Mail – called on the matter to be re-


Karma’s royal


kaleidoscope KARMA Chipchase brought a distinctly patriotic burst of colour to Sutton Valence's royal street party – with Bertie joining in! More pictures P18


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ferred to a regulator if the situa- tion does not improve. A Royal Mail spokesman said:


“We are undertaking a major change to the way in which we handle mail in parts of Maid- stone.We accept thatwehave not got everything right. We are working to resolve the issues.We apologise to customers for any in- convenience caused.” The spokesman added that it


has had to undergo a modernisa- tion programme to deal with the 16 million fewer letters posted every day compared with five years ago: “The changes will also result in a number of other bene- fits – as we deliver fewer letters but more packets and parcels thanwe did in the past. He said that: “The switch to vans and trolleyswill


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