News
downsmail.co.uk £3m plan to boost town centre
THElatest phase of Maidstone town centre’s revampis about to get underway, after councillors agreed to spend more than £3m on road improvements toWeek Street and Gabriel’s Hill. The council has gone out to ten-
der for a contract to improve sec- tions of the town centre between Maidstone East Station and Frem- lin Walk and the entire length of Gabriel’s Hill, from Jubilee Square to Lower Stone Street. It is hoped a contractor can be ap- pointed before the end of the year, with work getting underway early next year. Maidstone Borough Council
plans to apply for Heritage Lottery funding which will also help to fund the design team. The county council helped fi-
nance previous work on the High Street but has no funds available for the current phase. The council hopes that the facelift will encourage new businesses into
Make music
with orchestra YOUNG musicians from Maid- stone are invited to join jamming sessions with an experimental or- chestra to craft music using tech- nology for a concert in the town. The idea of bringing music talent together in a series of free work- shops is the idea of Kent Music, whose Orchestra ONE Project 14 is aimed at musicians, of varying tal- ent, aged eight to 18. The course will be held at the Cornwallis Academy in Hubbards Road on August 1, 2, 4, and 5, cul- minating in a concert for family and friends. The theme of this year’s Project
14 will be technology. Workshops will be led by music producer Russ Callaghan-Grooms. Email
orchestraone@kent-
music.com, call 01622 358406, go to
www.facebook.com/ORCHES- TRAONE or get an application form at
www.kent-music.com/or- chestra-one-application-form.
Knife charge
A19-YEAR-OLD Maidstone man found in possession of a butterfly knife appeared in court before Mid Kent magistrates. Lewis Reynolds, from Sher- bourne Drive, admitted carrying the knife in a pub in the town’s Medway Street. Magistrates ordered Reynolds to
carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the next 12 months. He must also pay £85 costs and a £60 victim sur- charge.
Formore local news
www.downsmail.co.uk 34 Maidstone Town June 2016 Gabriel’s Hill is set for a facelift
the town centre and help reduce the number of empty shops. The county town has slipped
down the popularity stakes for shopping in the past 10 years – a situation the council is keen to re- dress.
Maidstone Greens claim the deci-
sion is hypocritical on the part of the local Lib Dems, who agreed to fund the continued paving in the town centre just a few years after they criticised the Tories for doing the same.
The Greens claim the £3.1m
could be used to address other is- sues, such as the 10-fold increase in homelessness since 2010. Stuart Jeffery, coordinator of
Maidstone Green Party said: “The Lib Dems cite a potential for 1% more sales in the town centre as a reason for pavingWeek Street and Gabriel’s Hill. “Meanwhile 130 people are
dying each year in Maidstone be- cause of air pollution caused by traffic, which will increase under Lib Dem economic, housing and transport plans. "If they wanted an immediate benefit to the town they could have spent the money on building some truly affordable homes close to the town centre.”
Road safety campaign wins award
THE Road Safety Team at Kent County Council has won a national award for its campaign against drivers under the influence of drugs. Its crackdown – Don’t Let Drugs
Take The Driving Seat –won gold in this year’s Road Safety Support young driver campaign of the year category. The team won the same category in 2015 for Speak Up, which encouraged youngsters to speak up if they felt unsafe in someone else’s car. Judges said the 2016 campaign
“addressed a vitally important area, with very clear aims and objectives”. Describing the campaign as “very
well researched”, one of the panel added: “It made great use of media, demonstrating an in-depth
understanding of the target audience” KCC road safety team leader Vicky
Watkins said “The team is thrilled to have had its work nationally acknowledged.”
Data firm expanding
A MAIDSTONE data centre has invested £3.7m in growth, tripling its current capacity and taking on new business. Custodian Data Centres, on
New Cut Road, Bearsted, has just recruited 10 new members of staff and now supports more than £1.5 billion of client turnover. It is one of the leading privately- owned data centre facilities in the UK, housing and operating IT in- frastructure for multi-million turnover companies. However, 70% of clients are
small and medium enterprises and Custodian is used by legal firms, shipping, media, account- ancy and retail companies. It also supports some localNHS services, and provides support to
Kent County Council, Shepway and Medway District Councils. Data centres are often used as
part of back-up and disaster re- covery systems, where preserva- tion of data or ability to be “always on” is vital to a business’s strategy. CEO Rowland Kinch said:
“Most IT directors understand that their equipment is critical to their organisation – data centres are able to meet business require- ments at a lower cost than if the service was kept in-house. They can get businesses up and running within hours, as well as provide the flexibility to grow. “Our job is to ensure that the in- frastructure located by these com- panies at our site stays on.”
KCC’s road safety officer Carol Collen collects the award from Meredydd Hughes (centre) and James Evans, founder of First Car.
KCC transport member Matthew
Balfour said: “The team is always setting challenging but achievable objectives and follows each campaign up with evaluation of the impact and reach.”
New gift store FLUTTERBYES, the gift and home
accessories chain, is to open a store in Maidstone.
The shabby chic retailer will take up residence on the upper level of The Mall, Maidstone, next to BB’s coffee and muffin cafe on May 26. It will be owners Giuseppe and Charmain Deblasi’s fourth store, all of which are in Kent, including one at Bluewater.
Mrs Deblasi said: “We decided to open in Maidstone as it’s a great town, but didn’t really offer any- thing like our brand. We are excited to be able to showcase our full range and have a loyal customer base, which we hope to build on with the opening of our new store.” Suzie Brindle, marketing man- ager at The Mall, said the centre was thrilled to welcome Flutter- byes.
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