downsmail.co.uk Maidstone North Edition Maidstone North Edition
Maidstone & Malling’s No. 1 newspaper
Christmas 2016
FREE No. 237
News Haberdashery shuts
SEW A Good Yarn is to shut after five years in the centre of Maidstone as the team running it are retiring. 3
Blue is Miri’s colour
MIRI Taylor has been picked to play for Chelsea in a crunch European match.
Christmas bling is a tip-top job
TIP, tip hooray! … The “elves” have been at work at Tovil Tip, making the best of discarded Christmas decorations.
The site in Burial Ground Road is just one of three managed for the county council by Jon Slattery Ltd, whose teams compete each year to spread Christmas cheer. Geoff Cloke, who manages the
county’s waste contracts, is a huge fan of Christmas.
He said: “Tips can be pretty un- appealing places, so using waste and some lights to cheer people up at Christmas is a great idea.” With the tip closed for just two days over Christmas, we’re not surprised the lads decided to make the most of the holidays.
Maidstone Mela may take on a food event
MAIDSTONE’S Mela is to be farmed out and turned into a combined multi-cultural and food festival.
The decision comes as the bor-
ough council’s budget cuts continue to bite and follows a lively debate by its Heritage Committee. Members heard from the council’s
head of commercial and economic development, Dawn Hudd, who said this year’s Mela ran over budget and was visited by fewer people after being moved from Mote Park into town. She went on to say the name Melawas also “either not un- derstood, or associated with one eth- nic group rather than recognised as a multi-cultural festival”and sug- gested a two- or three-day event with a food festival might be better.
Members agreed to develop the
idea, outsourcing the event to an ex- ternal provider, with a reducing council subsidy over three years so that it becomes self-financing and potentially profitable to the council. The committee heard that the fes-
tival, together with the Proms event at Whatman Park, cost the council more than £32,000 to stage. While recommending the council continued to support Proms in the Park, MrsHuddsuggested charging an admission fee could alleviate the £14,000 cost. However, members said this would be resisted – at least for another year – while alternative
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funding to reduce the council’s con- tributionwas investigated. It is already accepted that hiring
Mote Park for events like the Ram- blin’ Man Festival and the Big Day Out, have become important rev- enue earners for the council, making a significant contribution to itsparks and leisure budgets. Cllr Mike Revell said: “Mela might
well be better as a local community event, because a lot of stuff came in from the outside. I’d like to look at the whole thing again – could this be something the community can run by itself without interference from the council?”
Gyratory open THE new north-bound lanes of the Maidstone bridges gyratory system have opened. The project, which has cost
nearly £6m, aims to allow traffic to flow more freely around the county town centre.
12 Tory ejection claim
A COUNCILLOR says he was ejected from a Ramblin’ Man noise meeting. 6
Invicta art success
TWO Invicta pupils have won awards in a Kent-wide arts competition.
10 MP’s M20 campaign
HELEN Whately is pressing for a new M20 surface to reduce noise levels.
Tributes to Luke
THE family of crash victim Luke Mumford have paid a loving tribute to him.
18 Crime Reports 18
TWO tyres were slashed on a Re- nault Scenic parked in a driveway in Bower Street; a vehicle parked in Tonbridge Road had bodywork damaged; a secure shed in San- dling Road was broken in to; cash was stolen from a falt during a break-in at Hardy Street.
Obituaries 36 Parish Councils 38
THREE quotes have been ob- tained for a new kitchen at the pavilion in Barming; a budget of £2,000 has been agreed for a fund to stage community events in Tovil; a salt bin to service Wes- ley Close, Barming, was placed in a resident’s garden; the creartion of a community hub will be in fu- ture plans for Tovil.
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