News


downsmail.co.uk Quarry protestors’ petition bid


AFINAL push is beingmade to top the 2,000 signatures already collected opposing aKentCounty Council (KCC) proposition to locate a sand quarry at Ryarsh.


Ryarsh Protection Group has


been gathering names for the peti- tion to be handed in at theHouse of Commons by the area’s MP Tom Tugendhat. Signatureswere gathered recently


inWestMalling and at various com- munity events in support of the campaign and at venues including TheAngel pub inAddington. A spokesman for the group said:


“We are assuming KCC’s environ- ment and transport committee will discuss the issue on September 20, when it next meets, after having cancelled the item at the eleventh hour in July. We intend to get the petition presented by ourMP prior to this, sowe are pushing to get the last names in now.” The 12-hectare site, which backs


on to a West Malling golf course, has been shortlisted as a potential sand quarry in the county council’s latest review of Kent’sminerals ex- traction plan. The area, off Roughetts Road, is said to contain 3.6million tonnes of soft and silica sand reserves and is one of two pos- sible sites being considered. If approved, villagers say they


will be forced to live under a “car- cinogenic dust cloud” for the next 30 years,with lorries running back- wards and forwards through the area. A vital foot link with Ryarsh and Addington would also be bro- ken and the local environment and wildlifewould be affected. Thosewishing to sign the petition


should visit www.RyarshProtec- tionGroup.com.


Gill Didino, fromRyarsh Protection Group, collecting petition signatures in West Malling


Watermain work aims to


boost supply SOUTH EastWater is installing a new 243-metre water main in Aylesford, and the work is ex- pected to take 13 weeks to com- plete. The £66,000 scheme will be car-


rying out construction in two stages. The first stage of the installation


started on Elm Walk, The Oaks and TheAvenue on July 25 and is estimated to be completed by Oc- tober 31. The next stagewill take place on


Sycamore Drive, The Avenue and Hall Road, and will include the closure of a small section of Sycamore Drive, off Hall Road, fromSeptember 19 toOctober 24. This installation of the new


water main is seen by South East Water as “necessary to improve the capacity of the network and en- sure we can continue to maintain water pressure to the area as the community grows”.


6 Malling August 2018 Primary prommakesmemories


THE Valley Invicta Primary School celebrated its year six students heading into the next stage of edu- cation by hosting its first prom. On Friday, July 6, the West


Malling-based school treated 16 students to an exciting night that began with a ride in a stretch Hummer, before walking down a red carpet to enter the prom un- derneath a balloon archway.


Dinner and a disco followed and


the children were also entertained by a street dance performance. A spokesman said: “We wanted


to do something special for the children who are leaving our school at the end of this term, and putting on a promseemed like the perfect way for them to celebrate the time they have had with us. “We all knowhowquicklymem-


ories of our school years can fade, so we were delighted to provide the children with a yearbook – it will be a fantastic keepsake for them. Everyone had an absolutely brilliant time at the prom and we hope to organisemanymore in fu- ture.” The promtook place at the com-


munity centre in Leybourne Chase.


Thea Ballard, Ben Oag andMatthew Pope with their photographs Pictures show potential loss


CAMPAIGNERS held a competition as part of the effort to highlight the environmental damage caused if quarrying is allowed in Ryarsh. Winners of the RPG Nature Photo Competition were judged by award-


ing-winning local photographers James Rowland and Andy Betts. Entrants were asked to capture views fromthe public rights ofway that traverse the area. The winners were: Ben Oag and Matthew Pope, from Ryarsh (joint winners of the adult class) and in the junior section, 14-year-old Thea Bal- lard. A spokesman for the Ryarsh ProtectionGroup said: “Wewanted to raise


awareness of the prolific flora, fauna and wildlife in and around the an- cient woods and the surrounding area that will be destroyed if the pro- posed sand quarry is allowed.”


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