News


downsmail.co.uk Paulina’s help to community


ELEVEN organisations in Maidstone Rural West have benefited from grants from Kent county councillor Paulina Stockell.


Cllr Stockell (pictured) had a combined member grant of £25,000 to spend in her area, enhanced by more than £9,800 carried over from the previous year. In the area of community spend, Nettlestead Village Hall received the largest single sum (£2,500) to- wards the refurbishment of the hall, with a further £2,000 going to Linton Cricket Club to help with the replacement of the artificial wicket.


Another £1,000went to Coxheath Primary School to help improve its outside play space and to the Med- way Countryside Partnership


Charitywalk


THIS year’s Rotary Club North DownsWalk takes place on Sunday, June 19. Thewalk, which raises money for Cancer Research aswell aswalkers’ individual chosen causes, starts and ends at Harrietsham Village Hall in Church Road, Harrietsham. Registration starts from 8am and


ends promptly at 11am.Walkers can choose between a three, six or nine- mile course. You can register online or on the


day for a minimum donation of £15. Fifty per cent of sponsorship goes


to Cancer Research and the other half to the charity of your choice. Oncompletion, allwalkers receive


a free ploughman’s lunch and a pun- net of strawberries and will be en- tertained by a local jazz band.


History display


THEREwill be a display of local his- tory in St Michael’s Church, Chart Sutton, on May 28. The exhibition is courtesy of Michael Beaman, whose collection which is often shown at Sutton Va- lence Church. There will be cream teas, a raffle


and a bookstall. If you have any- thing of local interest, please bring it along on the day – old photos, scrap books, maps – anything which might fascinate your friends! The day is one of a series of fund-


raisers to help pay for rewiring at the church.


Village fete EAST Farleigh Village Fete takes place this year on Saturday, June 25. The fete committee recently pre-


sented a cheque for £200 raised at last year’s fete to Dandelion Time, in Charlton Lane. Committee members Barbara Dagger and Sue Morris spent the af- ternoon withAnyes Reading, part of the fundraising team.


28 Maidstone South May 2016


working on the Yalding Nature Trail. Yalding and Laddingford FC re- ceived £600 to- wards work with its new junior teams, Marden Me- morial Hall re- ceived £657 for a cooker and Teston Village Hall received £472 to buy a


boiler. A further £500 is going to sup- port this year’s Marden in Bloom,


£300 went towards the printing of Yalding’s parish magazine and an- other £200 to Yalding Parish Coun- cil to support its 70th anniversary of VE Day celebrations. Nettlestead parish council also


received £250 towards its parish magazine. On highways, Cllr Stockell con- tributed £3,000 towards a speed re- duction project on Lower Road, West Farleigh, £2,000 on speed sig- nage near Marden Primary School and £1,945 towards the Speedwatch project in Coxheath. She also assigned £650 to an ad- visory 20mph school sign in Collier


Street and has earmarked £500 each for investigations into traffic calm- ing in Lower Road, East Farleigh, and West Street, Hunton, on ap- proach to the crossroads. Projects that are already under-


way for 2016/17 include £700 for the KGV Field in Nettlestead, £500 for wicket covers at Hunton Cricket Club and a sum towards work at Linton Village Hall. Cllr Stockell has also agreed to


help fund traffic investigation work in Chainhurst and Marden and the possibility of installing a 20mph school sign inVicarage Road, Yald- ing.


Seeds experiment out of thisworld


STUDENTS at Five AcreWood School in Loose are preparing to become space biologists by growing seeds that have been into orbit. In September last year, 2kg of


rocket seedswere flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on Soyuz 44S where they spent several months in microgravity before returning to Earth in March. The seeds have been sent to the


school as part of Rocket Science, an educational project launched by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and the UK Space Agency. Five AcreWood, a district special


school for children and young people with profound, severe and complex learning difficulties, received a packed of 100 seeds which they


have now planted to growalongside similar seeds which haven’t been to space, to measure the differences over a period of sevenweeks. The students won’t knowwhich


seed packet contains which seeds until all results have been collected by the RHS Campaign for School Gardening and analysed by professional bio-statisticians. Kirsty Oudot, senior teacher at Five


AcreWood School, said: “The out-of- this-world, nationwide science experiment will enable the students to think about howwe could preserve human life on another planet, what astronauts need to survive long-term missions and the difficulties surrounding growing fresh food in challenging climates.”


Birthing help for mums Police pitch in


EXPECTANT mums fearing the pain and potential problems of having a baby are being offered a free taster session in hypno- birthing – a concept devised in Staplehurst to encourage stress- free labour and birth. Mum-of-three Barbara Seal,


who lives in the village, said: “Women are designed to give birth naturally, and hypno- birthing teaches you HOW you can birth your baby into the world calmly in any situation – sometimes even painlessly.” She added: “Hypnobirthing is


more than just hypnotherapy and is perfect for nervous par- ents, first-time parents and scep- tical dads. “It is a complete antenatal ed- ucation programme, designed to give nervous parents the knowl- edge and tools they need to achieve a calmer, easier and


more comfortable birth.” A free taster session takes


place at the Maidstone South Cote Clinic, 3 Sittingbourne Road, Maidstone, on Sunday May 15 from 10.30-11.30am. Barbara said: “Whether prospective parents plan to have a home or hospital birth or even a planned Caesarean, hypno- birthing has something to offer everyone.” Barbara spent more than 10


years working in the health serv- ice and trained in hypnotherapy for two years before setting up HypnoBambinos 18 months ago. She recently won the 2016 Mumpreneur Kent Women in BusinessAward. For more details of forthcom-


ing free taster sessions, visit www.hypnobambinos.co.uk or telephone Barbara on 07889 025958.


OFFICERS from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate (SCD) have taken to the football pitch at Maidstone’s Gallagher Stadium to help families of officers who have died in the line of duty. Two teams, one from the serious organised crime unit and another from the SCD support team, took each other on in a match refereed by Chief Constable Alan Pughsley, assisted by Deputy Chief Constable Paul Brandon. SCD won 4-3 thanks to a last minute goal. A total of £2,326 was raised for


Care of Police Survivors. Chief Constable Alan Pughsley


said: “There were no doubt a few aching legs in the office the next day, but I’m proud of the effort that myofficers put in during their own time to organise such a successful event.”


Formore local news www.downsmail.co.uk


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56