Celebrating 20 years serving Maidstone and Malling


Jade’s Crossing Campaign The wor ds “fighting and campaigning” would


become highly significant in future years. It was that approach, and the respect it created,


which saw the Downs Mail take on the


establishment when an eight-year-old girl, Jade Hobbs, and her grandmother, Margaret Kuwertz, 79, were killed while crossing the A249 in late 2000.


r grandmother,Marr,


That part of Detling Hill had been for some time a cause for local concerns and having been allowed into the family’s inner circle and attended the family funeral, the editor decided to act.


Toughened by decades in journalism and business, the deaths hit Dennis in a way he had not expected and launched a campaign to get a footbridge crossing.


Few gave it much chance of success but dogged determination to take on the authorities won through in the end. In August 2002, less than two years after the tragedy, Jade’s Crossing was opened.


tragedy, Jade’s Cr y,


It garnered a press award for Campaign of the Year and further embedded the newspaper into the society it serves, giving a powerful voice to its readers when they really needed it.


Ye ear


Hospital C ta In particular, r,


al ampaign After the success o f the Jade’s Cr


After the success of the Jade’s Crossing campaign, editor Dennis Fowle’s confidence was already emboldened when he took on an arguably more daunting foe, the NHS.


In particular, in trying to save women and children’s frontline services at Maidstone Hospital, Dennis went toe to toe with Rose Gibb, the newly appointed chief executive of the local NHS Trust.


S T Tr


A plan to remove those services from Maidstone and relocate them to Tunbridge Wells rankled with Dennis and much of Maidstone, too. He felt it was not so much a proposal as a fait accompli.


m to T Tu We ells rankled w


Over four years, there were many collisions but an alliance with the Kent Messenger, when it emerged there were other major changes afoot under Rose Gibb’s leadership, gave voice to the 250,000 r esidents who would be af fected by such changes.


nt Messenger, when it emer r,


The press, along with political alliances and deep misgivings Asso ciation, started


to feel momentum was o n their side. A mass public pr


ultimately, y, th


ess, along with political alliances and deep misgivings inside the NHS and the British Medical Association, started to feel momentum was on their side.


Many in Kent journalism still point to this example of campaigning reporting as the benchmark against which all should be judged.


mass p ublic pr otest was staged in Mote Park, petitions came in, letters written and countless articles in both newspapers ramped up the pressure, although Dennis knew, ultimately , they would be ignor ed during the “sham” consultation process.


ough Dennis knew


But it was an outbr eak of the C-diff infection at Maidstone Hospital – which a Healthcare Commissio n r eport would blame for many deaths – that did for Rose Gibb and a two-word headline: “ROSE GOES”.


e Commission r


The 2007 r eport r eflected badly on the management of the hospital – filthy war ds, careless attitudes, sloppy practices, overworked staf f and inedible food. Rose had alr eady left the building.


A watchdog, Maidstone Action for Services in Hospital (MASH), was set up to co-ordinate future local pr otest activities.


watchdog, M w,


August 2002: Jade’ s Crossing opens after an


intense campaign with many hurdles


May 2007:


Downs Mail starts a campaign to block plans for the enormous Kent International Gateway (KIG), a freight interchange facility threatening to engulf M20 junction 8 all the way to Bearsted


November 2007:


After relentless Downs Mail coverage and campaigning to keep core services at Maidstone Hospital, editor Dennis Fowle’ s bete noire, hospital trust chief Rose Gibbs, resigns ahead of a excoriating report into her watch


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