Chernobyl children enjoy Loose send-off


IT has been 25 years since the disastrous explosion of the Rus- sion nuclear power station in Chernobyl, yet the effects are still being felt. According to research, Chernobyl children who spend just one month in the UK will add two years to their life. These children, whose leaving party was hosted at a home in Loose, have been given a desperately needed breath of fresh air. Christina Carapiet reports.


EACH summer, the Chernobyl Children’s Life Line charity arranges for a group of Ukrainian children to visit the UK for a month, where they experience not only our culture but also the treat of fresh air, fruit and vegetables. This year, the youngsters were taken on trips to places including Canterbury and Hastings, and had their leaving party at a home in Loose.


Charity volunteer Elaine Craven opened up her home to the youngsters,where they played games, ate their new favourite food – pizza – and splashed around in the swimming pool. Host families from across Kent and London had looked after the children for a month and were there for the send-off party. This is the second time Mrs Craven, of Boughton Lane, has in-


vited the children. She said: “Their health may not be 100%, but they just look so healthy and happy right now.” Volunteer host families are alwayswelcomed to the scheme, ex- plained Gwen Wood, chairman of Maidstone Link. Ms Wood, who has been with the charity for 12 years, described how the sit- uation in Ukraine has not improved, even after a quarter of a cen- tury. She said: “This is the third generation of children to be affected


£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.


Firms set challenge PARK Wood-based Trident Trailers were among 10 compa- nies who worked with young- sters from Maplesden Noakes School, Maidstone, on newmar- keting ideas for their businesses. The sixth formers were com-


peting to become trailblazers in the school’s annual business challenge. which was due to be judged by the school governors and business concerned.


JCB recovery A JCB and trailer stolen from the top of Farleigh Hill, Tovil was recovered.


The youngsters from Chernobyl splash around in the pool at their leaving party


and it will be thousands of years until the radiation has gone. Women are starting to become infertile and five out of six children are likely to have thyroid cancer.” She added that Belarus scientists discovered that if children


spent just four weeks in the UK, it adds two years to their life. Blood tests have shown that the high levels of Casium 137 and low levels of potassium initially found are totally reversed in four weeks and these changes last for two years. Gwen encourages any family with “room in your heart and room


in your home” to be a host family for next year’s children. If you are interested, contact 01622 687578 or go online towww. ccll.org.uk.


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 policy on Planning for Traveller Sites. The response, endorsed by council leader Chris Garland, said: “It is our experience, in having one of the highest con- centrations of gypsy sites in England, that the settled com- munity 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 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


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


FOUR friends are planning to dress in Morphsuits for a tandem bike race from Maidstone to Brighton to raise money for the Kent Air Ambulance. Sales executive Richard Cook, who


works for Fourfront Telecom Ltd, based at Enterprise Road,Maidstone, and his team- mate TomHill,will bewearing Union flags on their Lycra all-in-one outfits. The other pair, soldier Matthew Mborrah


6 Town


ethnicity. The response, sent to the De- partment for Communities, con- tinued: “It is suggested that gypsy applications are accom- panied by evidence of wage bills, receipts etc to demonstrate a nomadic habit of life rather than anecdotal accounts of a visit to a horse fair, or horse trading which are often hobbies or secondary sources of income. “The council does not under-


stand how occasional trips to horse fairs can represent a no- madic habit of life. “It is difficult for the local planning authorities communi-


cating to the public how land- scape gardeners, tarmac busi- nesses and general builders are considered to have a nomadic habit of life.” The response said the reason


why parts of Maidstone bor- ough 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 per- centage of countryside and so supply matches demand in terms of market forces,” it added.


Coldharbour gypsy revamp back on A LARGE expansion of a gypsy site between Allington and Aylesford is back on the agenda after the Government agreed to provide £1m funding. In 2009, planning permission was granted to upgrade the Coldharbour Lane site off the A20, but it never got off the ground due to a lack of finance. But a KCC spokesman said: “Government made £1m avail-


able in March this year to provide up-to-date facilities and in- creased security for children, as well as an additional 18 pitches, making a total of 26 pitches. “Public consultation, where local people can put forward


their views on this revised planning application, will then take place in August or September. Planning permission for 18 pitches on the enhanced site was previously granted in No- vember 2009.”


Here come the Lycra lads


and Sam Ruddom, who is hoping to join the Royal Marines, will wear camouflage versions of the suits for the 53-mile chal- lenge on Saturday, August 20. Richard said he and his pals, who all


come from Maidstone, came up with the Morphsuit idea after a couple of beers. “It seemed a good way to stand out”, he said.


He added: “The air ambulance is amuch- needed service and contributes massively to saving lives in Kent. “Not quite so dramatically, they once air-


lifted me from a camping event. It wasn’t quite life or death, but still the charity is important to me.” Visit www.justgiving.com/4-idiots to do-


nate or for more details and to make a do- nation.


Visit Downs Mail’s website — downsmail.co.uk


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