Where I live...


West Malling Parish Council This year, the borough council is completely changing the way it will be collecting council tax from April.


Since 1974, people living in areas with parish councils have paid for such services as street lighting, churchyards and playing fields through their parish rates.


But people in Tonbridge have had those services paid for through the borough rates which all residents throughout the borough pay.


This has led to claims that the parishes were paying twice, and so the borough council made a grant to parished areas to partially offset this unfairness.


Because of government cutbacks, the borough council has decided to end the grant to parish councils and begin charging people in Tonbridge a fairer share of these costs. This means your borough rate will go down.


In the case of West Malling parish, we received a total of over £16,000 from the borough council which we used towards the costs of the churchyard, playing fields and street lights.


West Malling Parish Councillors decided that they did not want to see any lowering of the standards of maintenance of these open spaces, and so they decided the parish rate should go up to cover the losses. These two changes, the borough council says will balance one another out so that council tax payers will not be paying any more as a result.


At the same time, the parish council itself has additional costs this year.


Defibrillator


THERE is a defibrillator situated in the West Malling High Street telephone box which is adjacent to the kebab shop. If a member of the public has collapsed and is unconscious, the defibrillator can be a life saver if used as soon as possible. It is not necessary to have had any previous training to use the equipment as step by step instructions will be given when using the emergency phone number.


LOCAL CONTACTS


Trudy Dean, Malling Action Partnership Chairman E: trudy.dean@kent.gov.uk T: 01732 843 119


Citizens Advice Bureau – T: 01732 440488


Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council main switchboard – T: 01732 844522


Travel Enquiries


Trains – T: 08457 484950


Nu-Venture Buses – T: 01622 882288


Arriva Buses – T: 0871 200 22 33


Pothole reporting – T: 08458 247800


Police - non-emergency T: 101


www.malling.org.uk


The next phase of improvements to our streetlights will cost around £20,000.


So far, we have paid for the urgent safety related work out of our balances, but we cannot do this any longer.


Residents have told us they value the street light network and so we want to complete the programme of repair and improvement to our ageing lights as soon as possible. The new LED lights are proving very popular.


In addition to the streetlights, we will also have to get a contractor to cut the Norman Road hedge which edges the Cricket Meadow and Maceys Meadow which we own.


The work has in recent years been done by volunteers on Maceys Meadow who have done a fantastic job for us. But it is a huge job and the volunteers have decided they can no longer carry out the work as well as maintain the meadow itself.


Residents will know that our clerk Carole d’Silva retired last year after many years in the job.


Our new clerk, Claire Christmas, needs to be provided with a pension, and the office computer needs upgrading. (It kept adding up the budget wrongly.) Claire and our three new councillors also require training.


So, making up for the loss of borough grant and for the additional spending listed above, means we will be increasing the parish rate by about 45p a week per household. Twenty pence per week should be cancelled out by a reduction in the


Bulky waste collections


BULKY waste can be left at the West Malling Village Hall Car Park, Norman Road, on the following days, Saturday, February 18 from 9.15am to 10.15am and Saturday, February 25 from 8am to 9am.


borough rate. The rest will go on the new costs listed above, including especially the street lights.


We have done a number of things to cut our costs. The parish council office has moved into smaller, cheaper premises. All work done under contract is awarded as a result of competitive tendering every year.


Street lights are being replaced with LED lights which use less energy.


We support the work of the volunteers of the Village Hall Management Committee, Town Malling Football Club and Maceys Meadow Action Group, all of whom voluntarily maintain property which we own at a far less cost than would otherwise apply.


We work with the parochial church council to keep the churchyard open for burials, and fund the service charges of the Twitch Inn at Douces Manor which is run by Malling Society volunteers as a Heritage Centre. We support the activities of our local shops and businesses, help fund the Christmas lights, and run the annual Remembrance Service together with St Mary’s Church.


The parish of West Malling is truly fortunate to have such a large number of people involved in making West Malling the great place it is for us all to live.


We hope that residents will feel the increase in the parish rate of under 50p a week will be good value for money.


Trudy Dean Chairman West Malling Parish Council


Allotments


THERE are a number of vacant plots at the Ryarsh Lane allotments. If you are interested in growing your own produce this year and are resident within the West Malling parish, you can secure a plot for a reasonable annual cost. Please contact the parish clerk on 01732 870872 for further information.


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