News


downsmail.co.uk Plans for shop to be village hub


A PUBLIC meeting will be held nextmonth as villagers try to gar- ner support for a new shop in Detling. The village has been without a


store for six years, but the Detling Community Interest Company has now been set up in a bid to bring a facility back to the area. Currently, residentswithout a car


struggle to get to shops, especially since the bus services through the village were reduced by Arriva in 2016. Richard Finn, chairman of the


steering group set up to assess the viability of a newshop, said: “At the moment, it’s very difficult for older people and young mums to get things they need unless they have a car. “But not only dowewant it to be


a shop, but itwill also be a commu- nity hub for the village – apart from the pub and the church, there is nowhere for people to congregate. “We are hoping to sell local pro-


duce in the shop and we are also looking to have the Post Office in- volved somewhere down the line.” It is planned to run the shop out


of a container placed on the village green, and aside from a paid man-


ager,Mr Finn says itwill be staffed by volunteers. The proposed shop will cost around £30,000 to set up and the wheels are already in mo- tion to secure funding. “The parish council is in support


and will provide us with some money, but it is waiting to see how much interest there is from vil- lagers,”Mr Finn said. “We have also applied to the Big


Lottery Fund and the Plunkett Foundation,which helps rural com- munity ownership, for funding. “We need the money to cover


overheads – the manager’s salary and bills – aswe get things going.”


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Showroom Open 7 Days Unit 11, Newnham Court Shopping Village, Bearsted ME14 5LH A survey has been delivered to


residents in the village to ask what they would want fromsuch a facil- ity, and a public meeting will be held on Monday, February 19, at 7pmin the village hall. ChrisWebb, one of the volunteers


at the village shop in Chart Sutton, believes the number of volunteers willing to help is key. He added: “We have around 15


to 20 volunteers but even then there are times where we feel the pinch. “It’s a really good community fa-


cility and it is important that we have a shop here.”


Richard Finn outside a possible location for Detling’s con- tainer-style village shop


Community pulls together for pub


CAMPAIGNERS are raising a glass after their efforts to save their local won thema national award. Stockbury’s village pub, theHar-


row, was faced with closure until Harrow Community Benefit Soci- ety (CBS) intervened, raising £380,000 to buy the pub from brewer Shepherd Neame, with help fromthe Plunkett Foundation andMore Than A Pub. After substantial renovation,


Samuel Pendry – former chef at Eastwell Manor hotel – is at the helm. Now the pub has won CAMRA’s


(Campaign for Real Ale) Pub Sav- ing Award for 2017. Harrow CBS spokesman Chris


Porter said: “I didn’t think we’d even end up buying the pub, let alone win a national award. But from the very first meeting I was very encouraged, and we’ve gone fromthere. ” The pub aims to be a social hub


of the village, and offers a regular social lunch for vulnerable people.


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downsmail.co.uk


News


MissingGloria: searches halted


SEARCHES for missing Gloria Stringer have been halted after it was conceded that useful leads to find the 81-year-old have run out. Mrs Stringer, right, vanished on


NewYear’sDay at around 11.30pm and was believed to have been sighted the following day in Leeds. Hundreds of residents helped


police and Kent Search and Rescue teams in the hunt for the pensioner from Hollingbourne by searching sheds, outhouses and gardens. Officers went door to door in a


desperate attempt to locate her. Initial searches concentrated


around Leeds, particularly near the River Len atOldMill Road –where she once lived – and over farmland in Back Street and Forge Lane. The hunt widened as time


passed with police officers and KSAR searchers combing a vast area around south Maidstone in- cluding


Leeds, Otham,


Kingswood, Broomfield, Langley and Chart Sutton. A search helicopter was de-


ployed in the early days of the hunt. The last big push was in and around LeedsCastle, using the golf course car park as a base for the op- eration. Walkers, dog-owners and horse-riders have been keeping an eye out for any sign of Mrs Stringer, especially in the large tracts of dense, uncoppiced wood-


land of the King’sWood. One searcher said: “At first, we


were hopeful she would have sur- vived the January 2 storms and that we’d find her but we’ve run out of fresh information.” Gloria’s family posted on Face-


book on January 18 that “we re- main positive and will never give up looking”. A villager in Leeds is thought to


havemetMrs Stringer –who is be- lieved to have bouts of confusion – five weeks before she disappeared and said she was walking to the house of a family member nearby. Mrs Stringer is healthy, physically fit and is known to enjoywalking.


If you have information call101 or dial 999 quoting 02-0342.


MP helps increase lorry fine “Along with tougher rules we


ILLEGALLY parked lorries tar- geted in a pilot scheme in Ash- ford have had fines almost quadrupled after an interven- tion by HelenWhately. Mrs Whately, MP for


Faversham and Mid Kent, wrote to the min- ister Jesse Norman on December 14 saying it costs £150 to clamp a lorry but the council was only allowed to charge a £40 fee. The minister has now agreed


to allow Ashford Borough Council to charge £150 fines while it is trialling clamping lor- ries. Mrs Whately said: “I’m


pleased that the government has listened and increased fines for illegally parked lorries. This will mean that the local council is no longer being left out of pocket for clamping more lor- ries.


needmore lorry parking spaces. I understand a number of com- mercial lorry parks in Kent are looking to expand and the government iswork- ing onwhether a perma- nent


solution to


Operation Stack can also be used to tackle fly- parking.” Ukip councillor Eddie


Powell – a fierce critic of lorries using the road-


sides as free parking –wants the scheme rolled out toMaidstone "without delay". He added: “The sooner the programme is


rolled out


throughout the country and es- pecially into Maidstone, where the problems are horrendous, the better.” Illegally parked lorries and


their drivers cause disruption, noise, unwanted litter and human waste where it occurs.


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