News


Walkout aer cancellation of music festival


PARISH councillors concerned at the collapse of this year’s Music on the Green have quit a key de- cision-making parish council committee. Bearsted Parish Council voted to disband its community committee after all but two members of the committee resigned. The mass walkout followed the cancellation of this year’s Music on the Green event and four code of conduct complaints arising from issues at last year’s fireworks dis- play. Cllr Tim Licence asked to join his


father Cllr Geoff Licence and Cllr Pat Marshall on the committee, bringing numbers up to three – but members felt this was still insuffi- cient to carry the burden of organ- ising village events. Even though Cllr Geoff Licence


said he did not intend to continue as chairman of the committee,


members still declined to join. Cllr Marshall therefore proposed it be disbanded. Future decision-making will rest


with the entire council, with sub- committees appointed as necessary to organise and run community events. Cllr Trevor Smith, one of those


who quit, said: “I think members should be asked why they do not want to be on this committee. I, for one, am not satisfied with the way it is being run and theway it might be run in the future.” Cllr Geoff Licence said: “It is a


shame not to have a committee to engage with the community in Bearsted. I think it is very sad.” The council’s environment com-


mittee will now increase its cycle of meetings from bi-monthly to monthly. The council’s planning committee already meets once a month.


downsmail.co.uk Keeping boundaries tidy


THEmystery of who restored seats on Bearsted Green to their former glory has been solved. After a letter we published from Bearsted Parish Council chairman


Richard Ash, thanking the unknown person who gave the benches a smart new look, the DownsMail can reveal the identity of the phantom painter. Step forward Raymond Jeffery, general coor- dinating manager of Bearsted Cricket Club, who was pleased to read the praise of his handiwork. Ray has been busy in the closed season sprucing up the benches around the pitch and renovating the pavilion with fresh paint and flowerbeds. Raymond said that although the running of


the colts and senior cricket teams had kept up with the latest requirements, the pavilion and benches had been “somewhat neglected”. He added: “The clubwas formed in 1749 but is nowmoving into the 21st cen- tury. The players like nothing better than to see spectators mingling around the boundary when a game is being played and I intend to make their ex- perience a pleasant one.” This year the club will have a stall at Bearsted Fayre on June 28 where Ray


and other club officials will be outlining future activities aimed at enabling cricket to flourish on The Green.


Tree faces axe PLANNING permission has been granted to fell a pro- tected cedar tree on land be- tween numbers 50 and 52 Franklin Drive,Weavering. Maidstone Council allowed


the proposal on condition that a replacement tree is planted.


Boxley church IN last month’s Downs Mail, we ran a story stating improvements costing £200,000 had begun at Box- ley Church. This was wholly incorrect. The church referred to in the story was St Paul’s in Boxley Road, Maidstone and bore no resemblance whatso- ever to the situation at St Mary’s All Saints in Boxley.


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