News | Town centre T Rex hunts town for children
AMONSTROUS dinosaur is about to be let loose to roam the streets of Maidstone. The lifesize baby Tyrannosaurus
Rex is part of a promotion for Di- nosaur SFX, a day of workshops taking place at the museum on Sat- urday, June 13 – but the dinosaur is too large to fit into certain sections of the building. Even though it is only a toddler
in T Rex terms, he stands 7ft tall, 3ft wide and is 15ft long, including his tail!
Fitted with full animatronics, he
makes realistic sounds, blinks, roars and opens and closes his mouth, while swinging his tail from side to side. He comes with his trained keeper
to guide him around, keep him under control and help with inter- action. The carnivorous creature is very lifelike – according to those old
Tour leaflets
snapped up LEAFLETS depicting awalking tour of historic Maidstone have proved so popular they are being reprinted. The glossy leaflet, which takes
walkers on a tour from the Maid- stone Museum, through Brenchley Gardens, Week Street, Earl Street and the Corn Exchange, to the Royal Star Arcade, Town Hall and High Street to the river and Archbishops Palace andAll Saints’ Church, going along the river to end at Fremlin Walk, details Maidstone’s history along with bite-sized snippets about the architects and figureheads who helped to shape the county town. Maidstone Council’s local econ-
omy assistant marketing and com- munications officer Daniel Taylor said:“Withinweeks,we ran out.”
Arts events
MAIDSTONE Arts Festival will be staging two events in Jubilee Square, on June 27 and July 11. Instead of having six consecutive Saturday events through the summer, the arts festival committee is concentrating its efforts this year on just two.
Arcade plan
J&JGAMINGhas applied to set up an amusement arcade in an empty unit at 59Week Street, Maidstone. If given planning consent the ar-
cade would succeed retailer Shoe Zone, which has now moved to The Mall.
Maidstone Council will decide.
Band concerts THEbig band sound is coming back to Maidstone, with three band con- certs from the bandstand in Brench- ley Gardens. The concerts will take place on Sundays at the end of June.
26 Maidstone South May 2015
enough to remember dinosaurs first time around – and will be at- tempting to entice children from 10
years upwards to take part in one of two workshops being run by Liz Bylett, an award-winning creative
Plastic fashion up for grabs
A NEW home is wanted for Maidstone’s bag lady. The elaborate costume and headdress, created entirely fromplastic car-
rier bags, was designed and launched by artist Clare Southern in 2009 as a recycling initiative by the town centremanagement. However, with itsmove to
new premises, there is nowhere to store the size- able suit so the TCMis seek- ing a new home for it. “Maybe a school art de- partment or college could make use of her – we are open to suggestions,” said the TCM’s Ilsa Butler. The Bin the Plastic Bag
campaign was designed to encourage people to use cotton or hessian bags in- stead of plastic and the TCM commissioned 10,000 paper bags for shops to hand out instead of plastic. The outfit is life-sized and,
with an expansive bag-em- blazoned skirt, almost as wide as it is tall.
THE Heart of Kent Hospice cafe in King Street has been rebranded – and has already been given the thumbs up by its customers. The new Heart of Flavour is
New flavour to hospice cafe Heart of Flavour has already
open from 8am to 8pm, offering homemade, freshly-prepared food using mostly Kentish produce. While the cafe is open for those
wanting breakfast on their way to work, the hospice has successfully applied for an alcohol licence, en- abling the cafe to become more of a restaurant in the early evenings. Upstairs, what was once a ‘pre-
loved’ bridal boutique is now available to hire as a meeting or function room or an event space.
proved a popular spot for people meeting up with friends or enjoy- ing an after-work coffee or glass of wine, particularly as there is free wifi access. In just a matter of weeks, it has
leapt up the rankings on the TripAdvisor website, in the list of restaurants reviews in Maidstone. A spokesman for HOKH said:
“It’s fantastic that the changes have been met with such a good response from our customers. It doesn’t look and feel like a charity- run shop, yet all profits go to- wards supporting our invaluable work.”
makeup artist. Liz will be running a workshop
for 10- to 16-year-olds from 10.30am to 12.30pm on the day, with another aimed at people 16 years and older from 1.30pm to 4.30pm. She will be bringing along enough products for participants to re-create dinosaur skin and wounds just like those which would have been obtained in a ve- lociraptor attack The idea is to give youngsters a
taste of a career behind the scenes in the movies and the skills needed to produce amazing TV and film special effects. The hungry animatronic di- nosaur will be roaming the streets in the town centre during the busy shopping period – so parents with small children, beware!
Celebrating
independents JULY 4 is going to be a real Inde- pendence Day for Maidstone. As well as the Maidstone Parade celebrating cultural diversity, inde- pendent retailers are invited to take part in their own “independents’ day” offering discounts to visitors. The Town Team’s marketing
groupwants to run a competition in conjunction with businesses which to encourage shoppers to discover more of the town’s independent shops and businesses. The town team events group is
also looking at making Maidstone a “town of flowers”, allowing traders to match-fund a contribution from Maidstone Council. More than 600 people have signed
up to take part in the Maidstone Pa- rade, including youth and voluntary groups and marching bands. The walking parade will complete a cir- cuit of the town to Brenchley Gar- dens.
TCMmove
MAIDSTONE Town Centre Man- agement will move from its offices near the bus station to the top floor of the Palace Avenue police station, where thenewtown centre manager will be based. However, the role is currently being re-evaluated before being advertised. The manager of Maidstone Mall,
Andy Davey, has been made chair- man of Town Centre Management.
Water works WATER main work inWeek Street is running behind schedule and is now not expected to finish until the end of May. South EastWater orig- inally expected the work to be com- plete by April 3.
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