Celebrating 20 years serving Maidstone and Malling


Jade’s Crossing C ampaign 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 r Mar


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


T oughened 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 cr ossing.


Few gave it much chance of success but dogged determination to take on the authorities won thr ough in the end. In August 2002, less than two Cr ossing was opened.


years after the tragedy y, Jade’s Cr


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.


ear


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


Hospital ta In particular


al C ampaign After the success o f of the Jade’s Cr ossing campaign, editor


Dennis Fowle’s confidence was already emboldened when he took on an arguably more daunting foe, the NHS.


particular , in trying to save women and childr en’s


fr ontline services at Maidstone Hospital, Dennis went toe to toe with Rose Gibb, the newly appointed chief executive of the local NHS T


S T m Trust.


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


u We 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 residents who would be affected by such changes.


nt r when The press, along public


inside the NHS and the British Medical Asso ciation, started to feel momentum was o n


on their side.


A mass p ublic protest was staged in Mote Park, petitions came in, letters written and countless articles in both newspapers ramped up the pressure, although ultimately, they would be ignored during the “sham” consultation process.


ultimately th


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”.


Commission


The 2007 r eport reflected 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 futur e local pr otest activities.


M ough Dennis knew w,


along with political alliances and deep misgivings Association


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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