LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Dear Sir - The articles that appeared in the June edition about Music on the Green and other events will have misled your readers. The fundamental reason why Music on the


Green was cancelled was because Bearsted Parish Council could not prepare an event plan that met the requirements of Maidstone Borough Council’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG) in time for the event to be held on July 8.


The Bearsted


& Thurnham So- ciety has never, and will never, oppose Music on the Green. We, like many, many others in Bearsted hope that it will be possible for the event to take place in 2012. It was not the Society who referred the


You can write to us at: Downs Mail, 2 Forge House, Bearsted Green Business Park, Bearsted, Maidstone, ME14 4DT or e-mail: info@downsmail.co.uk


We are not anti Music on the Green It appears that the decision to cancel the


event has subsequently been taken under the umbrella of health and safety. This again appears tomelike a case ofmore


political correctness and health and safety madness which has ruined a successful com- munity event due to the complaints of a few overriding a whole community. Brian Costello, Bearsted


Last year’s Music on the Green was a popular event


event to theSAGbut the police (on March 16) because of concerns they had about thenum- bers attending last year compared with an es- timated attendance of 500 suggested by the parish council. Had the council kept abreast of the meas-


ures needed, and started planning months earlier on the basis of accurate predictions, it might well have been in a position to run Music on the Green this year. Since early this year the Society has been offering the council helpful advice about the measures that needed to be taken to meet the requirements set out in the so-called Purple Guide – the industry standard for best prac- tice at music events, a document the council did not have. No aspect of that advice has ever been queried by the parish council and much of it has been implemented or taken on board by them. Once the decision was taken to cancel the


event the council implied the Society and a number of local residents were to blame. It is now being suggested that a letter I wrote to the SAG on May 12 caused the referral and unduly influenced the discussion with the SAGon May 20. Both suggestions are untrue. The letter simply reiterated points put to


the council earlier in 2011. The SAG discus- sion focused on the parish council’s event plan and the practical steps it needed to take to comply with best practice, drawing on the SAG’s experience of other events. To suggest members of the SAG were influenced by other factors is nonsense. Health and safety measures surrounding


such events are essential to protect the pub- lic and to ensure the council’s insurance cover remains intact. It is no surprise that these have to change as audience numbers rise – that is simply a fact of lifewhich has to be faced and dealt with. Here again the coun- cil has never questioned the advice provided by the SAG, which they described as “ex- tremely helpful”. If they now disagree with that advice they should say so. Finally, the decision to cancel carries no


threat to other events. The fact that the fayre was to go ahead demonstrates that fact. Roger Vidler, Chairman,


Bearsted & Thurnham Society


Dear Sir - It is my understanding that there were two minor complaints about last year’s Music on the Green event and as far as I can make out it was mainly due to the vociferous complaint of the current chairman of the Bearsted & Thurnham Society that this year’s event has been cancelled.


30 East


Dear Sir - I can- not believe what I am reading re- garding Music on the Green being cancelled.Yes, of course it was noisy, it is a mu- sical event, but only for one night of the year.


We have been every year and consider it a


fantastic family event for all ages - and a lot of fun. We are privileged to be able to hold an event like this - and all the others - on The Green for the community to enjoy. What is the problem? Has anyone been


killed or arrested? It all seems to run like clockwork to me and I think the organisers should be praised, not lambasted. Okay, you get a few rowdy youngsters, but we were all young once and I’ve never seen themcausing that much trouble to cause the event to be cancelled. So everything else on The Green is going to


be cancelled as well, is it? Just ridiculous!. Or are we talking about the Nimby killjoys wanting to dictate what goes on? Bearsted Green is there for everyone to


enjoy and Music on the Green is a successful event that should continue without being wiped out by unnecessary red tape and a few old moaning miseries full of their own self- importance. Long may Music on the Green continue. I personally think we should all turn up any- way – Anyone up for that? Denise Broadbent, by email


Dear Sir - Iamsomewhat concerned that your recent front page report on safety on The Green at Bearsted, could be interpreted as giving a biased if not jaundised view of the principle characters involved in bringing to public attention the now obvious health and safety issues raised by the staging of events there.


These people actually deserve a vote of thanks from not just the residents of Bearsted but the surounding areas for their tireless ef- forts to keep us safe in our beds. Of course, anyone leaving their bed would


need to be advised that they do so at their own risk.


Jim Davis, Curzon Road, Maidstone


Regeneration working well Dear Sir - Following improvements carried out in the last two years to the part of Maid- stone upstream of the gyratory, past Arch- bishops Palace and All Saints Church towards MillenniumBridge, a group from the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) went on a walkabout with Councillor Mal- colm Greer, Maidstone Council’s cabinet member for regeneration. We were very impressed by the work that


had been done to enhance the green spaces and the heritage walls, including: The sluice on the River Len - a fascinating


and rather hidden part of the town; The small park behind the Carriage House Museum - now a very attractive and


tranquil area yet so close to the heavily traf- ficked road system; The opened vista between the Arch- bishops Palace and All Saints, so that the grandeur of the church can be better appre- ciated; The riverside walk area along the River Medway.


Maidstone needs no “funny photogra-


phy” to extol the attractiveness of this sig- nificant heritage area, which can be enjoyed by those who live, work and visit the town. CPRE Protect Kent, Maidstone, would


like to acknowledge the significance of the programme of improvements that the bor- ough council has instigated for the benefit of the people of Maidstone. It would seem to be money well in- vested for the future and incorporates modern elements, in the form of the Mil- lennium Bridge.


Felicity Simpson, Chairman, CPRE Protect Kent, Maidstone Committee


Maidstone Hospital concern Dear Sir - I would like to know on what basis Health Secreatry Andrew Lansley has gone against the advice and wishes of hos- pital staff, consultants, obstetricians, local MPs, GPs, and many of the general public. How will he feel when the first mother


facing a dangerous traumatic confinement dies in the ambulance on route from Maid- stone to Pembury? Or will the mother just be kept in Maidstone and be allowed to die there? I am 82 and cynical. Is there any connec-


tion between Rose Gibb, the failed chief ex- ecutive, pushing for the new hospital in Pembury, the transfer of specialist services from Maidstone, and the new private hos- pital to be sited in Grove Green? I have not included Andrew Lansley in that group. John Ireland, High Street, Lenham


Dear Sir - It is reassuring that Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospital Trust con- firms a secure future for Maidstone A&E (board's latest minutes). The trust has authorised the transfer of so


many core services from Maidstone (con- sultant-led maternities, children's ward, special care baby unit, chronic pain unit, emergency and orthopaedic surgery, gynae- cology etc) to support its distant Tunbridge Wells end, which the 250,000 population of Maidstone area will never see as 'local'. This population has been robbed and is rightly furious. Hopefully the grand larceny has come to an end. We have been promised our A&E is safe


and the return of our chronic pain unit this autumn.MASHwatches the trust very care- fully.


Dennis Fowle, Chairman, Maidstone Action for Services in Hospital


It is not all Labour’s fault Dear Sir - I had started to hope and believe that as a newspaper you were even-handed in your reporting of the political scene but two recent articles give me cause for con- cern. The first was in an article in Mail Marks


(East, June) in which you followed a fair minded paragraph that accurately reflected the position of Labour locally with an out- rageous one that propagated the Torymyth that the economic mess is confined to the UK and is all down to Gordon Brown. It is clear to the rest of the world that this


was a global problem caused by bankers’ greed, and would have been much worse were it not for the leadership shown by Gor- don Brown on the world stage.


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