Fond farewell to Patricia, 105


ONE of the area’s oldest resi- dents, Patricia Pritchard (105), has died at Larkfield’s St Mar- tins Care Home. She had lived there for 11 years. Harrietsham-born (nee Cot-


ton), Patricia was the third of four children. She and her younger sisterwere fostered fol- lowing the break-up of her fam- ily.


Patricia married Len - her husband of 60 years - and they moved to Sydenham Hill. But they were bombed out and set- tled in London’s Archway Road.


They moved to Teapot Lane,


Aylesford, in 1980 but Len died shortly afterwards. Patricia’s niece, Judith Gray,


said: “My aunt was a regular church goer in Aylesford and worked for awhile at the tea bar reception at Preston Hall Hospi- tal.


“She was a very private per-


son who cared about traditional values and good manners. She coped, got onwith life. She was well cared for at St Martins and that helped her live such a long life.”


Patricia leaves her niece. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Park not just for dog walkers Dear Sir - Regarding your article ‘Dog lovers growl over cows’ (Malling, August), I tooama regular user of Manor Park and the people I have spoken to, includingmanyfamilies,wel- come the Highland cattle returning. I am not sure where your information is coming from apart from Paul Ottaway, who maintains he has been walking dogs for the last 10 years, but clearly has a short memory because these animalshave been a regular fea- ture formany years and were part of the orig- inal country park theme. The park is for the enjoyment all park users,


not just dog walkers, and anyway they are only there on a temporary basis so really what is the issue?


Richard Bellamy, by email


Welcome return to hospital Dear Sir -Very Good News. I was atMaidstone Hospital today andwasdelighted and relieved to find that the containers of Jell at the en- trance to Maidstone Hospital to prevent the in- troduction into the hospital of infection by visitors have been restored. I and other visitors were very concerned the


this vital prevention of infection intothe hos- pital had been removed/discontinued.We will keep monitoring the performance at the hos- pital.


Cyril J. Sullivan,Worsfold Court, Maidstone


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


John Foster,managing the scheme on behalf of MaidstoneCouncil and the rulingpolitical ad- ministration, state that these two trees are too large, obscure views of fine architecture and are a heath and safety risk. Most would argue conversely. These mature


trees are not too large, they enhance sur- roundings and are no more 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 resort 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 theTravelodge Hotel and the museum frontage? I am desperately sorry that we are to lose


32 Malling


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these two fine trees, and others. Perhaps we should all regret thatwelive in an agewhen so many in some sort of authority merely give lip service, then do as they wish anyway, and congratulate themselves in theirownpublica- tions.


John Turner, Trevor Drive, 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 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 de- tailed cuts to youngpeople’s serviceshad only been made public a few days earlier, this gave the youngsters little time to prepare their re- sponse before putting their case to the coun- cil. To say they were treated with utter contempt


shows just how this Tory council are deter- mined 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. For many of us have memories of how, after


a very long and expensivewar,weweremuch more in debt than we are now, yet proceeded to build thousands of houses, factories and schools.We started theNHS and our first mo- torway.We hosted the Olympics, for a fraction of the cost of our present fiasco and, much, much more. All thiswithout cuts, forwecontinually pro-


moted growth while repaying our debt at a much slower rate. Let’s refuse to play the “di- vide and rule game” and see how cuts affect other groups instead of just our own. Then let us spread themessage of exactlyhowwedealt 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 our wealth of experience to tell the country exactly how it is before it is too late for all of us and, what’s more, 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. Itmaybe dressed up as “im- provements” but the reality is thatmanyyouth centreswill be closing. The report was extremely detailed while


being completely vague. How many actual jobs are to be cut?Howdid they decide which centres to keep and which to cut? How can a privately commissioned organisation bemore effective thanwhat is inplace already? If a pri- vate company actuallywanted 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 tomewas 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 vol- untary 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 shared was a passion for the service and stories ofhowthey 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 care with a passion about the young. Iwould urge as many people as go to meet-


ings and make your voices heard. It is clear that themembers have already decided on the future of young people in Kent. Two of them said as much today. It surely can’t be allowed to happen.We are talking about cutting £1m. It is a drop in the ocean.The councilhas a sur- plus 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 Iwould like to thank the following all of the invaluable con- tributions to a very successful event. This includes our sponsors, our backstage


team of volunteers, the sound engineering team, the River Festival chairmanMartinCox, the superb bands. But the biggest thanks of all must go to the festival goers, many of whom stayed with us throughout to cheer us on, afternoon and evening.


Martin Haskell, stagemanager, HRMSoundstage


You can e-mail the Downs Mail — info@downsmail.co.uk


We will remember


Pat celebrates her 105th birthday


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