Charities benefit from villages’ fayre MAIDSTONEmayor Cllr BrianMortimore helped distribute the pro- ceeds of last year’s Bearsted and Thurnham Fayre to local charities. More than 100 guests attended the presentation evening, includ-


ing Bearsted carnival princess Megan Armitage and her two deputies, Katie Abbot and Abbie Webster. Guest of honour was Freda Denyer, the retired headmistress of Thurnham School, who opened last year’s fayre. The main beneficiary of the funds were the V Team, who help vunerable residentswith gardening, decorating and other practical tasks. The leader of the V Team, Jackie Preston, and Barbara Dagger, fundraising manager of Voluntary Action Maidstone, accepted a cheque for £4,000, which was the largest sum awarded to a charity by the fayre committee. Seven village organisations also received cheques of amounts be- tween £200 and £300 and a cheque for £200 was awarded to


Ladies in Lycra? BEARSTED Parish Council has given approval for exer- cise classes on The Green. Fitness instructor Bethan Thompson plans to launch a series of fitness classes, to suit all abilities, later in the spring, when the days are longer – and The Green less muddy. Bethan, who has just moved into the village from Lenham, has been running indoor classes in Lenham for some time, but this will be her first foray into the out- doors. She said: “Although the classes are open to both men and women, we tend to find it is women who come along. “I shall be offering a range


of exercises, from cardio and aerobic exercise to cir- cuit training, fat-burning and ‘boot camp’ style training, to suit all ages and abilities.” Bethan (29) is being al-


lowed to use The Green from Monday to Friday free of charge and the situation will be reviewed by the parish council after three months. The parish council’s envi- ronment committee agreed that an exercise group was an acceptable form of usage which would bring “a new element of activity” to The Green. For more information, or


to register an interest, con- tact Bethan 07825 237764.


Town mayor Cllr Brian Mortimer and guests gather for the dis- tribution of funds from last year’s Bearsted and Thurnham Fayre


William Griffiths for a forthcoming world challenge expedition to Mongolia.


Entertainment was provided by local singer Rosie Penny after which guests enjoyed a buffet provided by Mick Ribbons.


Benchmark for magistrate Michael


IT was standing room only in Maidstone’s Court No 1 as court officials, lawyers and representa- tives of the probation service and Crown Prose- cution Service gathered to pay tribute to one of the town’s longest-serving magistrates, Michael Rowe. Mr Rowe, who was stepping down after more


than 30 years service, has been chairman of the bench in both the adult and youth courts and also a member of the advisory committee for the ap- pointment of magistrates. A staunch supporter of Citizens Advice, hewas awarded the MBE in 2004 for services to the com- munity.


Originally appointed to serve Tonbridge and Malling in 1981, Mr Rowe was elected chairman of the Mid-Kent bench in 2004 and, just a year later,made chairman of the newly formed Central Kent bench. Its current chairman, Lynda Jones, said: “We


oweMike a huge debt of gratitude. It cannot have been easy to integrate three benches with 300 magistrates across a large area of Kent into one co-


MEN and women all over Maidstone are being invited to walk, run, cycle and swim as part of the town’s Olympic flame festivities. A “Maidstone Mile” evening


fun run for all ages will take place on July 20, starting and finishing in the High Street. Anyone can take part, running for their own particular cause or charity, on a route that takes in Week Street, St Faith’s Street, Fairmeadow and the High Street. Competent swimmers can


Garden glee for residents KEN Swinburne has been given permission to erect 1.8m-high fencing next to Chatham Road, Sandling, to enable local people to have their own gardens. KCC and Boxley Parish Council has agreed


that the land from the boundaries of Nos 2, 3 and 4 Pilgrims View to the nearby footpath be sold to the owners of these properties. The land will be incorporated into the adjoining proper- ties and used as private gardens. Maidstone Council granted the application


on condition that the planting belt to the front of the fencing shall comprise hawthorn at a spacing of 20cm.


Extra office hours allowed MAIDSTONE Council has granted planning permission for an office at Greenway Court Farm, Hollingbourne, to have extended open- ing hours. The barn conversion is now allowed to be


used between 7am-7pm weekdays and 7am- 5pm Saturdays.


hesive and happy bench.” Justices’ clerk Malcolm Dodds paid tribute to


Mr Rowe’s “firmness, authority and fairness”, and said it was hard to imagine anyone who could have given more to the community. Mr Rowe, who was presented with a cheque


and certificate to mark his retirement, said he had calculated his last day was around his 900th day in court – which was “quite a sobering thought and probably equates to the value of a detached house in terms of value to the community”. Although presiding over the bench was princi-


pally a serious matter, he recalled a couple of amusing incidents – such as when a defendant turned up in court dressed only in a duvet and the time someone tried to claim they were exempt from paying poll tax because they lived in the “In- dependent State of Aylesford”. Mr Rowe, who lives in Offham, where he is a churchwarden, intends to take a holiday to Nor- way with his wife Eileen, to see the Northern Lights, before returning to more voluntary work – starting as a volunteer for the Olympics.


Sporting action for all as torch comes to town


take part in a “MaidstoneMile” open river swim from the Archbishop’s Palace to Tovil, starting at 7pm. To mark the passing of the Olympic torch, both Maidstone and Tonbridge and Malling Councils have joined forces to arrange the first Maidstone Triathlon on Sunday, June 24. This will comprise a 400m


swim in Leybourne Lake, a 21km cycle to Mote Park and a 5k run in the park, all for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Re- search.


Drugs programme is


not money ‘wasted’ PRIMARY school pupils are to be offered a drugs education programme, thanks to financial support from Golding Homes and Maidstone Council’s com- munity safety team. The “Wasted” programme,


from Theatre ADAD, is offered to Year 6 groups in all primary schools in Maidstone. It uses live theatre and participatory workshops to look at all drugs from alcohol and cigarettes to illegal street drugs. Most crucially, it seeks to identify what makes someone begin to experiment with drugs.


Social Housing provider Golding Homes put £5,000 to- wards delivering the project.


Seventies pop starAlvin Star- dust will headline a concert at Leeds Castle on the evening of Thursday, July 19, where the torch will spend the night after passing along the A20 and Har- rietsham. The next day, it will pass through Mote Park to the town centre via King Street and the High Street, then on to a royal barge at the Archbishop’s Palace to the landing stage near the new football stadium, where it will to go by car to Chatham and theMedway Towns.


Man jailed for child sex crimes A MAN from Penenden Heath was given an inde- terminate jail sentence after being convicted of sex- ual offences against two children in Milton Keynes. William Diack (55), of Wordsworth Road, was


found guilty of three counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault. Diack carried out the offences on two children, a boy (aged between 11 and 15) and a girl (aged between five and nine) between 1999 and 2009. On his arrest, Diack’s computerwas seized and he


was found to have more than 200 indecent images of children ranging from levels one to five, five being the most serious. Det Con Kim McHugh, of the Child Abuse Inves- tigation Unit (CAIU) based in Bletchley, said: “Diack carried out a series of horrific sexual of- fences on his two young victims and, as many of- fenders like him do, he encouraged them to keep the abuse secret. “Four of the charges Diack has been convicted of


were not individual offences. Each represented a course of conduct over several years.”


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