Residents give council cuts advice
MEMBERS of the public pro- vided Maidstone Council with feedback on its budget deficit programme at a neighbourhood forum meeting. Over the next three years, the borough needs to trim £6m from its £23m annual spend. Around 25 attendees of the rural north and east neighbourhood forum – covering parishes such as Boxley, Bearsted, Lenham and Headcorn – were divided into three groups to explore the council’s options prior to it making a final decision on what cuts to make in December’s full council meeting. Group 1 dissected the cabi-
net’s proposals and felt there should be more savings related to the arts sector, which in-
The discussion groups get down to business
cludes Maidstone Museum and Hazlitt Arts Centre. The current option is that £86,500 should next year be cut from a budget of £1.6m, with no cuts in the following two years. It was also felt that waste and recycling collections were a big burden on resources (£3.4m budget due to be cut by £180,000 by 2013/14) and that
MACHINERY and equipment worth a total of £70,000 was stolen from Gallagher's depot near junction 5 of theM20. The company has put up a £10,000 reward
for information leading to successful prosecu- tions after the break-in on the night of Friday, October 22. CCTV footage lasting nearly five hours first captured four men breaching the yard's perimeter fence at about 8.30pm. They are seen moving dozens of tyres and wheels, chains and other kit before apparently being scared off when a truck turns at the nearby highways base. But the men return just after midnight and
central services such as com- munications, IT, legal and per- sonnel (£5.6m budget due to be cut by £1.28m by 2013/14) should be more drastically re- duced. Group 2 thought that savings
from core services could be made through simplifying the planning structure by dividing the committee into north and
£10,000 reward after break-in at depot
are seen leaving the yard with a loaded pick- up and trailer. They then come back to the site with the pick-up, but not the trailer. They load up again, including a Krupp breaker on the back of the pick-up. They take another breaker later. Together, they are worth £25,000 and each has a distinctive ID number - 1471 and 0469. A company spokesman said: "We have re- viewed and beefed up security. "These people were well organised, quite re- sourceful and brazen." Anyone with information should phone the
firm’sd dedicated line 07730 522627 or Kent police 01732 379217.
CCTV footage shows the break-in taking place
south sections. Another idea was to introduce a levy and fines on those who incur en- forcement action. Group 3 looked at discre- tionary services that should be safeguarded and decided that open spaces, parks and recre- ation grounds (£300,000 annual budget) was most important, followed by economic develop- ment through tourism and con- ference venue marketing etc (£185,000), grants to voluntary and charitable organisations (£300,000) and transport serv- ices such as bus shelters and rural bus services (£40,000). However, it was thought that Maidstone Council’s funding to- wards Town Centre Manage- ment might be worth cutting.
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