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Minister comes to Maidstone


AFTER growing up in Florida, Bonni-Belle Pickard is putting down roots as the minister of three Methodist churches in the Maidstone area. Picking up from Rev Clifford Newman, who spent five years in the min- istry, Bonni is getting used to her new home and responsibilities as the minister for the churches in Union Street, Tonbridge Road and in Bearsted. She is also co-super- intendent of the North Kent


Methodist


Church, which com- prises 27 churches, from Dartford, across to the Isle of Sheppey and down to Maidstone, where her main office is in Union Street. She will preach at Bearsted Church at least once a month, and will provide pastoral care and over- sight for the church, along with her colleagues. Bonni, the eldest daughter of a United Methodist minister, met her


husband Alfred in Florida. He was born in India as the son of a Methodist missionary and shared Bonni’s love for music, which they both studied at a Methodist univer- sity. They married soon after they graduated. The


couple


worked in a church in Jacksonville be- fore moving to India to teach music for 20 years. They had a family of six children, including one they adopted and twowhomthey fostered. After leaving India in 1998 they


returned to America for three years, to Atlanta, Georgia, where Bonni trained for ministry at Emory Uni- versity. The couple then moved to the UK, where Bonni served in Birmingham and on the north Lon- don circuit for six years, before be- coming the superintendent in Kingston upon Thames. She is now in Maidstone, where her husband teaches music.


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downsmail.co.uk Reprieve for care home


THE threatened Dorothy Lucy Cen- tre in Shepway has gained a stay of execution. Kent County Council, which


wanted to close the care home, along with three others in the county, has had to postpone its final decision because of its inability to find alternative care for those using the centre. Although there are few perma-


nent residents at the centre, it is widely used for respite and by day care patients. Following a campaign by resi-


dents and the local Lib Dem county Cllr Brian Clark to save the centre in Northumberland Avenue, KCC de- ferred the vote scheduled for the


Driver banned A DRIVER breathalysed in a car park in Downswood has been banned from driving for 18 months. David Matthews (60), fromWest


Walk, Maidstone, was stopped as he drove a camper van in the grounds of a pub in Spot Lane. He gave a breath test of 68mg of alco- hol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35mg. Matthews pleaded guilty and must also pay a £400 fine and £275 costs.


adult social care committee in Jan- uary. The decision will now be taken at the Marchmeeting. But Cllr Clark, who still wants KCC


to scrap the proposal in its entirety, said: "I am very doubtful that KCC will ever able to replace services like for like locally, in an area where de- mand is increasing. “Day care is a cornerstone of care


at the centre. In looking for alterna- tives in the private sector, KCC has received a lukewarm response to its need to replace day care services provided at the Dorothy Lucy Cen- tre.” KCC says the care homes under


threat do not meet modern stan- dards and are not fit for purpose.


Appeal for gifts


AGEUKis urging anyone with un- wanted gifts to take them to its shop in Gabriels Hill, Maidstone. The shop accepts donations of


new and used items, all of which are re-sold to raise funds for the charity’s work for older people. Manager Mary Kennett said: “It


can be difficult knowing what do to with gifts you will never use. By donating them to our shop people are helping a great cause.”


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