£9m payout for
disabled girl A SIX-year-old girl has won a £9m payout after being left dis- abled at birth by hospital staff’s gaffes. Born in January 2005 atMaid-
stone Hospital, the young girl, referred to only as “K”, was left suffering from an intense form of cerebral palsy after being suf- focated in the womb. Maidstone and Tunbridge
Wells NHS Trust admitted lia- bility for her injuries and agreed a financial package of £9m that will help pay towards the considerable care and sup- port she needs.
Maidstone Mensa MENSA is offering the people of Maidstone a chance to find out their IQ score and to see if they can join 23,000 other members of the High IQ Soci- ety. A supervised IQ test session
has been organised on Satur- day, August 1, 2pm, at the Ha- zlitt Arts Centre, costing £17.50. Mensa currently has 2,625 members in the South East re- gion and 70 members in Maid- stone. To reserve a place on the test contact Helen Oliver on 01902 772 771 or email bookat-
est@mensa.org.uk for more in- formation.
Boost for women
abuse victims THEWomen’s Support Service, which covers the Maidstone area, has received £27,752 from the Government’s Big Society Transition Fund. WSS chairman Suzanne Hol-
loway said: “Raising funds for services for victims of domestic abuse is challenging in this dif- ficult economy. This grant will enable us to work better to de- velop support for victims of do- mestic abuse in Kent.” WSS’s helpline, 01622 761146, is available Monday to Friday, 9am - 5pm, or email
dutydesk@wsskent.org.uk. An out-of-office-hours service operates from Maidstone police station on Saturdays and Sun- days, 9am to 3pm, on 07961 021929.
Pay a visit to town’s very own ‘Time Team’!
LIKE a lot of people, Albert Daniels takes his work home with him. But most people’s is on a laptop nowadays. Not Albert, though, whose workload is a bit heavier – like the large Roman quern, or stone handmill, which lies broken in three pieces at his house in Boxley Road. Albert is chairman of the 118-member Maid-
stone Area Archaeological Group (MAAG), which has been working on an excavation of Roman buildings at East Farleigh for the past five years.
Not that motorists or other passers-by on nearby Lower Road would be aware. The dig is out of sight, about 50m towards the River Med- way, behind a tree plantation. But Albert and his team hope the site – and
what they have unearthed there – will attract a lot of visitors to MAAG’s open day on Sunday, July 31.
They will be able to see some of the 500 objects, including 200 coins, found at the various build- ings.
Among some of the more interesting are: a bronze strigil, used by the Romans
to scrape dirt from their skin during bathing remains of a mortarium, the “Roman version of a Kenwood mixer”, says Albert part of a cheese press antler-bone knife handles dozens of bone pins metal decorations for furniture and
belts and, of course, Albert’s quern will be back on site. The finds will be handed over to Maid-
MAAG members – and canine companion – excavate in front of the ragstone wall of a large Roman barn
stone Museum once the dig and the doc- umentation are completed. The East Farleigh excavation ends this summer as landowner Bryan Baughan is selling up. The open day is part of the annual Festival of British Archaeology.
Let’s see your wage slips, travellers told
GYPSIES seeking planning per- mission for sites should be made to produce evidence such as wage bills and receipts to prove they are leading a no- madic lifestyle. That is the view of Maidstone Council in its response to a Gov- ernment consultation document about the pol- icy on Planning for Trav- eller Sites. The response, en- dorsed by council leader Chris Garland, said: “It is our experi- ence, in having one of the highest concentra- tions of gypsy sites in England, that the settled community does not consider many gypsies in this borough to be of a nomadic habit. “This is because many are landscape gardeners/business- menwho do not regularly travel
KCC has responded positively to a call for concessionary bus travel for post-16 stu- dents. Two senior members, Cllr Sarah Hohler
and Cllr Mike Whiting, have met Kent Youth County Council to discuss options. At themoment, pupils aged 11-16 can buy
a Freedom Pass to use at any time on most buses routes in the county. But in April, Maidstone student Jamie Potten, (17), launched an online petition to persuade KCC to extend the age limit to 16 to 20-year- olds. In the past threemonths it attracted more
than 12,000 signatures, enough to trigger a full council debate. Cllr Hohler, further education cabinet member, had already signalled KCC's sym-
14 East
over a wide area looking for work. Rather, they have fixed contracts in the same way as many builders, engineers or supply teachers have, which means they only travel for spe- cific contracted work. “We cannot understand why
The response said the reason why parts of Maidstone borough continue to be popular with gypsies is down to many male gypsies having their own businesses and finding the price of agricultural land to be afford- able.
“Maidstone has a high percentage of countryside and so supply matches de- mand in terms of market forces,” it added.
this is a nomadic habit of life and neither can many resi- dents.” For planning purposes, the definition of “gypsy and trav- eller” is based on lifestyle, not
Optimism in teenage bus pass campaign
pathy with their cause. “They are really pas- sionate that something is needed after changes were made to the Education Main- tenance Allowance. “The young people appreciate that we are
on their side and welcomed our plans for a bus travel concession.” Cllr Hohler recently said she did not want the cost of transport to be a barrier to students pursuing their studies after they had finished GCSEs. Her cabinet deputy Cllr Whiting recently
met youth county councillors again to talk through ideas in more detail. “I am confidentwewill be able to develop
ethnicity. The response, sent to the De- partment for Communities, continued: “It is suggested that gypsy applications are accom- panied by evidence of wage bills, receipts etc to demon- strate a nomadic habit of life rather than anecdotal ac- counts of a visit to a horse fair, or horse trad- ing which are often hob- bies or secondary sources of income. “The council does not understand how occa- sional trips to horse fairs can represent a nomadic habit of life. “It is difficult for the
local planning authorities com- municating to the public how landscape gardeners, tarmac businesses and general builders are considered to have a no- madic habit of life.”
a proposal which can go for public consul- tation in late summer or early autumn and that a scheme which will be welcomed by learners in post-16 education or training in Kent can be introduced in September 2012.” Youth Cllr Samuel Watkins felt encour-
aged, and added: "While this scheme still hasmanymore hurdles to leap before young people can start to benefit from it, I believe this is a real step forward on the road to bet- ter public transport for post-16 students." Meanwhile, KCC has already decided to
issue the Freedom Pass to nearly 300 young carers in the Maidstone borough, free of charge. From September, the cost of the pass for most 11 to 16-year-olds doubles to £100.
You can e-mail the Downs Mail —
info@downsmail.co.uk
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