LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Sadness of culled trees Dear Sir - Please take a look at the trees in the High Street before they are felled in the re- vamp which starts this month, particularly the ones outside the Town Hall and Muggle- tons. These two are splendid, admired by many, giving shade and character. The borough economic development offi-


cer, John Foster, managing the scheme on be- half of Maidstone Council and the ruling political administration, state that these two trees are too large, obscure views of fine ar- chitecture and are a heath and safety risk. Most would argue conversely. These ma-


ture trees are not too large, they enhance sur- roundings and are nomore a trip hazard than many pavements and streets in and around the Maidstone area. These are derisive state- ments by an administration and council, that has been determined to push through this scheme despite clear opposition, only to re- sort to the hackneyed excuse of health and safety. The scorched earth policy being demon- strated, as shown in building sites of old, em- anates from the architect’s drawing. What possible confidence can residents have in a regime that will not listen to the public at large, and produces inexplicable decisions, such as the design of the Travelodge Hotel and the museum frontage? I am desperately sorry that we are to lose


these two fine trees, and others. Perhaps we should all regret that we live in an age when so many in some sort of authority merely give lip service, then do as theywish anyway, and congratulate themselves in their own publi- cations.


John Turner, Trevor Drive, Maidstone


Drain cleaning is needed DearSir-Iamwriting to you because I can- not believe KCC. They are saying that areas in the county could be vulnerable to flood- ing.


But KCC and surrounding councils are to


blame for a lot of flooding problems as they do not go round the streets and clean out the drains with the sump lorries like they did years ago. They seem to only do it when the public report a drain blocked, which some- times has to be reported again and again. And a lot of the public do not bother to report flooding because they presume it is the jobs of councils to check the roads and drains. My friend and I drove down Willington


Street in heavy rain and found eleven drains where the water was flooding around them, with some blocked solid with grass and weeds growing out of them while others had debris from the trees blocking the drains. The one at the bottom of the Northumber-


land Road andWillington Street junction was blocked solid. It doesn’t help when the work- ers cut grass verges and then blow the grass off footpaths into the roads. Surely with all the EU laws that have come


into practice over the last few years there must be a health and safety issue here. They seem to blame everything on cut-


backs.But years ago there was no council tax, and yet the councils used to do the drains on a regular basis. It was the highlight of kids’ days when the sump lorry turned up on the estate to do the drains and sprinkle the pink disinfectant down the drains. Sadly people have lost plain common sense over the years.


A. Goodwin, Maidstone


Old people should fight cuts Dear Sir - I recently attended a KCC meeting at which young people had been asked to put questions before councillors slashed their


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services a few hours later. Amazing though it may seem, the council


had postponed the young people’s meeting many times until, surprise, surprise they were notified during their school holidays! As detailed cuts to young people’s services had only been made public a few days ear- lier, this gave the youngsters little time to pre- pare their response before putting their case to the council. To say they were treated with utter con-


tempt shows just how this Tory council are determined to target our young. Why? Because the young have lost all faith


in politicians so don’t vote,whereas “golden oldies” like myself (I am 80) do. It really is as simple as that. However, I firmly believe that now is the time the older generation should stand besides its youngsters and say not only are these cuts outrageous, they are unneces- sary. Formany of us havememories of how, after


a very long and expensive war, we were much more in debt than we are now, yet pro- ceeded to build thousands of houses, facto- ries and schools.We started theNHSand our first motorway.We hosted the Olympics, for a fraction of the cost of our present fiasco and, much, much more. All this without cuts, for we continually promoted growth while repaying our debt at a much slower rate. Let’s refuse to play the “divide and rule game” and see how cuts af- fect other groups instead of just our own. Then let us spread the message of exactly how we dealt with a much greater debt after the last war when we promoted growth not today’s savage cuts which enable the rich to get richer on the backs of the rest of us. So golden oldies let’s stop allowing our-


selves to be sidelined and patronised. Instead let us use ourwealth of experience to tell the country exactly how it is before it is too late for all of us and, what’smore, we will wish to heaven we had. Joan Langrick, Maidstone Coalition


Against the Cuts, Titchfield Close, Senacre


Make your voice heard Dear Sir - I attended a meeting at County Hall in Maidstone in order to listen to the debate on proposals for cuts in youth services throughout Kent. It may be dressed up as “improvements” but the reality is that many youth centres will be closing. The report was extremely detailed while


being completely vague. How many actual jobs are to be cut? How did they decide which centres to keep and which to cut?How can a privately commissioned organisation be more effective than what is in place al- ready? If a private company actually wanted to get involved in youth work, and there was no evidence to support this, surely they would only do this to make a profit. Most concerning to me was a flow chart on page 33. It showed what would happen to centres that were not able to be farmed out to private organisations and voluntary groups. They would be sold. I don’t think anyone appearing who op-


posed the cuts had any doubt that voluntary organisations do a great job. However, they need support from experienced and trained KCC staff. Members of the committee stated constantly that the service was superb so why spoil it? Kent is one of the lowest funded councils


in the country for youth services so why cut any more? I have met a few young people in the last few weeks who have benefited from the centres.The one thing they all sharedwas a passion for the service and stories of how they have been helped. These are people who


could easily have gone the wrong way and cost fortunes more to deal with later. Youth workers are paid for maybe eight


hours, but in reality can do 20. They would seem to be excellent value for money and clearly carewith a passion about the young. I would urge as many people as go to meet-


ings and make your voices heard. It is clear that the members have already decided on the future of young people in Kent. Two of them said as much today. It surely can’t be al- lowed to happen. We are talking about cut- ting £1m. It is a drop in the ocean. The council has a surplus fund of £30m. Invest it wisely for a change and it could save the youth services; or maybe they just don’t want to.


Tony Frost, by email


Thanks for a great festival Dear Sir - On behalf of the organisers of the Hospital Radio Maidstone Soundstage at the 32nd Maidstone River Festival I would like to thank the following all of the invaluable contributions to a very successful event. This includes our sponsors, our backstage


team of volunteers, the sound engineering team, the River Festival chairman Martin Cox, the superb bands. But the biggest thanks of allmust go to the festival goers, many of whom stayed with us throughout to cheer us on, afternoon and evening. Martin Haskell, stage manager, HRM Soundstage


Remembering war past Dear Sir -Amemorial to theWomen’s Auxil- iary Air Force Association (WAAF) was re- cently unveiled and dedicated at theNational Memorial Arboretum, Staffordshire. The memorial will stand as a lasting mem-


ory to colleagues, past and present, and is a reminder of the invaluable contribution made to this country during WWII. I imagine there are a large number of ex-


WAAF and ex-RAF in and around Maid- stone. The recognition of our service days so long ago are well deserved. The NationalWAF Association still exists.


To join, contactme on 01622 727740. Iris Sheppard, Pine Lodge, Tonbridge Road, Maidstone


Lashings of cricket Dear Sir – Further to your article (South, Au- gust) The Mote Cricket Club has already in- stigated and held a recent meeting with Lashings Cricket Club to encourage addi- tional attractive cricket to this magnificent ground. Our aim is to improve facilities and one


hope is this will encourage a return of Kent cricket and the annual Maidstone festival. Work on renovating the iconic 100-year-


old Tabernacle should be completed this year (Mail, August) and we liaise closely with Maidstone Council over a small enabling res- idential development on the site to fund a brand new pavilion roughly on the footprint of the 100-year-old pavilion nowpast its sell- by date. Funding in the current climate is a major challenge. Dennis Fowle, chairman, TheMote CC development committee


Looking for Mr Gribble Dear Sir - I am trying to get in contact with Mr Don Gribble, whowas at one time the di- rector of the ElectricVehicle Association and lived in Kent. I amsetting up my own website on electric vehicle training and would like to incorpo- rate historical information on electric vehi- cles. My details are: 01889 578464 / rjones26@ sky.com. Raymond Jones, Etchinghill, Staffs


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