Maidstone & Malling’s No 1 - 88,000 copies - 4 editions
SPENDING cuts by Kent Police have contributed to a £25,000 shortfall in funding for vital work by the Beat Project in Ton- bridge andMalling’s three most deprived communities. The charity employs three community development work- ers based in Snodland, East Malling and Trench, with the £75,000 costs of this work funded by the borough council and other organisations, through the Community Devel- opment Partnership. But the borough’s chief exec-
utive, David Hughes, told coun- cillors there is currently a
financial shortfall for the part- nership for the latter half of 2012/13 following withdrawal of funding by Kent Police be- cause of budgetary constraints. Also, no further cash was avail- able from the Local Strategic Partnership through the per- formance reward grant. Mr Hughes said he was in dis- cussion with the Beat Project’s director on how to rectify the situation and would report back in November. Given the important role of
the three community workers, it was hoped to enable them all to continue with no reduction in
Beetle threat to our trees
RESIDENTS in the parishes south of Maidstone are being asked to keep an eye out for a pesky predator which is threatening to blight Kent’s rural landscape. There was an outbreak of the Asian longhorn bee-
tle in and around Paddock Wood earlier this year, since which time the ForestryCommission and FERA, the Food and Environment Research Agency, have beenworking hard to contain the outbreak. The beetle, a native of China, kills trees by its larvae
boring into the tree trunks and branches. The adult beetles are shiny and black and can be 20-40mm long, with antennae as long as their body. The beetles are recognisable from their distinctive white markings. The insect was first spotted in the Paddock Wood
area in 2009, and is believed to have arrived in wood packaging from China, used to import stones
MP JOHN Stanley has asked the government to intervene to stop Malling patients being axed from NHS surgical waiting lists be- cause of costs. He wants health secretary An-
drew Lansley to step intoprevent West Kent Primary Care Trust re- moving patients from the NHS waiting lists for “low priority pro- cedures”. The Tonbridge and MallingMP claimed it was unacceptable that NHSpatients have to endure “in- creasing pain, discomfort and im- pairment until they reach a point where the NHS considers they have sufficient priority for their surgery to be carried out”. He wrote to the chief executive
of Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust after one of his constituents complained about being taken off thewaiting list be- cause his case had been cate- gorised as low priority. Mr Stanley highlighted the
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An area of trees near the Hop Farm in Beltring has been felled after signs of the beetlewere found
NHS cost-cutting ‘leaves patients in pain’
chief executive’s reply that the some surgical procedures would not be funded unless a patient’s symptoms met a certain criteria. Those who did not would be managed appropriately within the primary care setting. The MP said: “This … is of course NHS management-speak for patients being axed from the NHS surgical waiting lists and being left with no information as to when their operation will, if ever, be carried out on the NHS.” Writing to Mr Lansley, he said:
“First, a relatively small minority ofNHSpatientsmaybe able to af- ford to finance their own surgery and have it carried out privately. “Second, NHS patients may
have to continue living in pain, discomfort and impairment for the indefinite future.” “I consider it unacceptable to
place NHS patients in my con- stituency in such a position, which the West Kent Primary
1%
CareTrusthas done by producing its low priority procedures docu- ment.” He asked the health secre- tary to intervene on the grounds that it went against government policy for primary care trusts to introduce such procedures for fi- nancial reasons.
A £10,000 National Lottery grant hashelped fundanewroof for Snodland CommunityCentre. For more details, see Town Talk in the central pages of this month’s Downs Mail. The bi- monthly independent magazine is written by and dedicated to Snodland and Halling residents.
Town Talk
Doctors vote to hold NHS budget
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Stones return home after 11 years P21
Malling Edition August 2012 No. 184 Beat Project funds at risk
working hours. He said: “Over the past years, the involvement of the Beat Project community workers in our three most de- prived communities has proved to be an invaluable resource. The fact that the three workers are employed by an agency which is independent of any funding partner means they are able to engage local residents more readily.” Being part of a larger charita-
ble organisation also enables the three workers to call on ad- ditional resources and expertise from within it and bid inde- pendently for external
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Police offices could be shut
to save money KENT Police plan to close the public inquiry offices at West and East Malling to save money. The community shops are
used for dealing with inquiries from the public, giving anti- crime advice and recruitment. But statistics given to Kent Po-
lice Authority show that only six per cent of people contact the police by using the offices. Most contact (77 per cent) is through the Kent Police website, Facebook and Twitter. A further 17 per cent of contact is over the phone. The force has to make £53m worth of savings in four years, and the offices are in the firing line. Closing the East and West Malling offices would make a saving of £95,000 in the first year and £7,000 a year after that. Currently, Kent Police operate
19 police stations, 26 police of- fices and 10 vulnerable victim units. There are 32 public en- quiry counters within these buildings. Further cuts could follow the close of the Malling offices. The counters could be re- placed by mobile police vans and caravan-sized police sta- tions. The proposals follow a re- view of property owned by Kent police, which is trying to cut its spending property to increase funds for operational activity. KCC member Cllr TrudyDean,
who is also chairman of West Malling Parish Council has called for a public meeting of the parish council in West Malling village hall on Monday, Septem- ber 3 to discuss the issue.
Petition for late bus VILLAGERS in the Aylesford area have asked for later buses following the loss of their 155 evening service. A 300-signature petition was handed to KCC by MP Tracey Crouch and residents. The proposals, which were drawn up after a survey of homes in Aylesford, Eccles, Burham and Wouldham, in- cluded an 11.05pm last arrival time in Maidstone. The bus would then turn round, leaving Maidstone at 11.10pm and arriv- ing inChatham at midnight. The villages were left without a bus after 6pm when KCC withdrew its £27,000 subsidy to Arriva.
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