LETTERS TO THE EDITOR


Life away from grammars Dear Sir – In the last Mail Marks (Town, April), Dennis Fowle discusses the estab- lishment of satellite grammar schools in the Sevenoaks area under the auspices of Tun- bridge Wells Grammar School. He makes a number of generalisations, which are surely open to question. He states that grammar schools allow the essential “cream to rise”. Lots of parents in areas with comprehensive schoolswould be surprised to find their children are not able to rise. Children at wide ability schools such as Homewood, in Tenterden, might equally feel insulted. He goes on to say opponents of selection would be better employed raising the stan- dards in other schools, rather than attacking the best. We don’t attack the teachers and teaching in grammar schools, but the fact that selection produces winners and losers, successes and failures. I went through the same 11+ system he describes, but my selection for a grammar school in Cheshire meant others saw them- selves as failures. The phrase always used was “passing” the 11+. Selection for gram- mar school was, and is, always based on the number of places in a grammar school and not on individual ability. For every “suc- cess”, there were four or more “failures”. The establishment of satellites in Sevenoaks will surely mean local pupils will attend those, leaving lots of empty spaces in Tunbridge Wells or Tonbridge, which will be filled by taking more pupils from other secondary schools in the area, thus depriving those schools of their aca- demic leaders. The government will then step in and accuse those schools of failing. I amproud I taught for more than 30 years in Senacre, in what Mr Fowle would, no doubt, call a secondary modern school. I saw my pupils succeed in all walks of life, from the skilled trades to the professions, and felt hon- oured when a group of 50-year olds wanted to invite their ex-teachers to a reunion. There is more to education than passing exams. Mr Fowle should get into some of Kent’s secondary modern schools and see some of the sterling work teachers are doing to give all pupils, not just the cream, a start in life.


WALDERSLADE singer Kirsten Joy is con- tinuing to push her solo singing career after performing on BBC talent show The Voice. Kirsten (25), whose mother Phillipa Gill


runs health club Curves in SenacreSquare, was one of only 40 contestants to make it through the first stage, which saw hopefuls sing to four singing coaches who listen without seeing the performer. She was sent through by celebrity singer


Jessie J, butwas then eliminated in a vocal ‘battle’ againstToniWarne. Kirsten said: “The song I was given for the battle was one I didn't


know and it's really different when you only sing parts of the song and split it up, alongside being filmed, but this show has been a great platform for myself as a solo artist.” Kirsten, who trained at the Academy of Contemporary Music at Guildford, has provided backing for many top artists including Gary Barlow, Alison Moyet and Lol Crème of 10cc. She appeared with Stacey Solomon at last year’s FACup Final atWembley and went on to perform for the Queen that evening. Kirsten’s songwriting partner Matt Child said: “The Voice picked


up on the story that she is a backing singer - for the past few years she has worked as an in demand session singer, singing for some of the biggest artists and producers in the industry. “But while this is nice, she is an artist in her own right so has been slowly developing her direction and writing her debut album with a host of writers and producers, while also writing for other people. “From now on,we are just building up the team of industry profes- sionals around her while developing her sound and direction as an artist.”


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Parents in areas with a comprehensive sys- tem, he should note, will campaign to keep that system whenever there is talk of intro- ducing selection. I don’t claim that everything in the garden


is rosy. There is still much to be done to im- prove the English education system, but se- lection is not the answer. He should ask himself why education in places such as Finland, which is non-selective, is appar- ently so much better than here. He ends by saying of his old grammar school that he reads “about significant roles so many of my peers play for Britain and their communities”. So, if you didn’t go to grammar school, you don’t! Brian Thomas, Maidstone and Malling NUT secretary


Parking fees deter shoppers Dear Sir – I am writing to say how much I agree with the letter from Barbara Skinner in the April 2012 Downs Mail. How many people are put off spending their money in Maidstone because of the excessive and un- reasonable charges in the town’s car parks? Barbara is wrong on one count, however.


She seems to expect that councillors and local government officers are actually capa- ble or willing to step outside the silos they appear to operate in and display a bit of joined-up thinking. There is a lot of concern nationally about


the demise of town centres. Maidstone is no different. One only has to walk around the town to see the number of empty shop fronts and businesses lost from the town. Many have moved out of town, where park- ing for their staff and their customers is free. Those businesses based in the town al-


ready pay high business rates, which must be a disincentive to them. If they were re- duced to a reasonable level, perhaps busi- nesses would be attracted to setting up in the town and the revenue stream for the borough might just increase. Turning to parking, through excessive charges, the borough indirectly taxes peo- ple and effectively punishes them for shop- ping in those town centre businesses providing revenue for the borough and, in some cases, struggling to survive. Can coun- cillors and officers not see how perverse


Kirsten to carry on after Voice exit


and self-defeating this is? It would perhaps not be realistic to re-


move charges altogether, but surely there is a case for capping the parking charges at a realistic, reasonable level so people are not put off parking in the town and spending their money in the town’s businesses? On the matter of parking charges in the evenings in the town’s car parks, most of them are virtually empty at night. As there is no supply and demand issue, why were charges introduced? Could it be a desire to fleece the poor motorist yet again? PaulMillen, Kingswood


Camera would be best Dear Sir – Reading the letters referring to the question of parking and speeding traffic in Tudor Avenue prompts me to comment on the subject of traffic-calming measures. Two of the writers advocate speed limits


and chicanes, but I doubt these measures will be as effective as they expect. I live in Castle Road, Allington, and shortly after the new estate was built at the bottom of Castle Road, the increased traffic was such that both traffic islands and chi- canes were installed with bollards. Far from calming the speedsters, the traf-


fic islands make no difference whatsoever, and the chicanes in fact present a challenge to some drivers to see how fast they can swerve around them. I’ve lost count of the number of bollards that have been knocked over by large lorries that bounce straight over the chicanes. I guess the only deterrent would possibly be a camera. Laurie Debona, Castle Road, Allington


Ironmongers much-missed Dear Sir – The saga of Lenham Ironmongers (April, East) is extremely disappointing, as this was a great facility for the village and the surrounding area and has been sadly missed. With very helpful staff and stocks ranging


from cement to grass seed, paint to saucepans, timber to compost, light bulbs to nails, nuts, bolts and screws, if they did not have it they would get it. They also gave work experience to local youngsters. I miss it, and I am not a tradesman. John Ireland, Lenham.


Planning a right royal celebration


MAIDSTONE is gearing up for one hot summer of celebrations to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the arrival in town of the Olympic Flame. Last year, Maidstone was de-


clared “more Royal than Tun- bridge Wells” as townsfolk took to the streets to show support for thewedding ofWilliam and Kate. Now, the pattern seems set to


be repeated as applications flood in for street parties, fire- works and festivals. Kent hosted 182 street parties


for the Royal Wedding, placing the county third in a national league of local authorities for numbers of street parties. With a closing date for appli- cations of May 18, there are al- ready 200 requests for road closures in Kent, including more than a dozen in Maidstone. KCC is expecting an increase


of at least 30% on last year. Cllr Bryan Sweetland, Cabinet Member for Environment and Highways, said: “We have again


waived charges for street parties on quiet residential roads. “The aim was to repeat the success of Kent’s royal wedding street party scheme, when we were one of the top local au- thorities in the country for the numbers of residential street parties, and this certainly seems to be the case so far.” The council has offered to supply free “road closed” signs. The majority of parties will


still be held in village halls or on sites which do not require road closures – such as Bearsted Green, Yalding Lees, Lenham Tithe Barn and Day’s Green, Headcorn – so it will be impos- sible to say just howmany thou- sands of people will take to the streets to celebrate Her Majesty’s coronation in 1952. The website www.street-


party.org.uk, is receiving more than 1,000 hits a day and it is estimated between two and three million parties will be held nationwide.


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