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There’s light at the end of this tunnel


THE speed and scale of the vaccine rollout is truly incredible. Last month I was able to see the progress


we’re making locally during a visit to the Glebe Medical Practice in Harrietsham. The practice has become one of our local


vaccination centres, with staff and volunteers working long days and often weekends to get people vaccinated as soon as possible. When I visited, the team was working at out to vaccinate two people every minute! Thanks to the efforts of teams like this across the county, we are well on our way to hitting vaccination targets. My visit was on a cold February morning, when there was still a lot of snow on the ground. Staff and volunteers had braved the snow and freezing wind to make sure not a single day was lost in getting these life-saving vaccines into people’s arms.


But the jab itself is just one part of the process. An army of volunteers is needed to help with everything from marshalling the car park and handing out information leaets to scrapping icicles off the entrance to the building. The scale of the operation and the dedication of those involved is simply extraordinary. It was wonderful to hear how much getting


vaccinated means to people, particularly those who have needed to shield and have been


By Helen Whately MP for


Faversham and Mid-Kent


unable to leave their homes for much of the last year. The vaccine rollout is not only helping to save lives, but also helping to make life worth living again for so many people. Our roadmap out of lockdown will mean many more months of vaccinations still to come – each jab helping to bring us a step closer to normal life. Our rst steps out of lockdown begin this month, with schools fully re-opening and more opportunities to see loved ones safely again, including in care homes. While the Prime Minister has rightly said our approach to easing lockdown will be based on data, not dates, we can at last see a way forward to some kind of normal life. There is light at the end of the tunnel. The hard work of our NHS staff and volunteers that helped us through some of the darkest days of the pandemic, will help us out the other side.


We must build communities


WHEN I became a councillor, I believed naively that Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) income came from council tax and funding from central government, I found the reality was somewhat different. Increasingly, income from investment was


having to replace the ever-dwindling funds from Government, with cuts in local government fund- ing while there had been an increased demand for services. In my seven years, I have sat on committees


that have agreed to purchase the Royal Mail sorting office in the centre of the county town, a rundown block of flats at Granada House at the bottom of Gabriel’s Hill with a view to demoli- tion and redevelopment (the demolition and re- development never happened) and the acquisition of the Lockmeadow entertainment centre, making MBC the landlords of the Odeon Cinemas and David Lloyd Health Club. We have purchased various industrial units in


the Park Wood area and many much-needed houses and apartments to be used as emer- gency housing for homeless families and others in need. In addition, MBC has bought flats from major house builders, most of which are let by MBC at a market rent.


By Malcolm McKay Labour group leader at


Maidstone Borough Council While I understand the need for these invest-


ments, I question on occasions if Maidstone has all the skills to act as property developer, man- ager of leisure services and private landlord, par- ticularly when overdue maintenance is required and substantial rent increases are proposed to pay for the work needed. We need to provide housing at an affordable


rent to the young of all in Maidstone borough and eligible households whose needs are not cur- rently met by the market. To make it possible for those with local con- nections to stay in their own community’s town or village. I want to see the borough council delivering


on its strategic plan, investing in the people of Maidstone borough, working to build homes that working people can afford and building communities. Just a thought.


Opinion


EARSTED has always been the borough’s cultural haven, sheltering bards and scholars. The latest to grace BBC2’s University Challenge is brainbox Andrew Rout, captain of the Warwick team, a few months after the ultra-polite Lillian Crawford turned out for Trinity College, Cambridge. Lillian is now a lm writer as her website explains: “Old, new, big, or small – I’ll watch and write about anything. I’m mostly interested in post-war British cinema, and my academic work has applied gender theory to the lms of Ealing Studios and Powell and Pressburger.” Niche!


B Z F


OOM council meetings sometimes, only sometimes, throw up vignettes which provide insights into the lives of our elected representatives. For instance, the other night deputy council leader Fay Gooch revealed her father had been a busker outside London picture houses. Made quite a bit of money and lost it, too, she said.


OR local news I always turn to the Sunday Times, where I espy an item on MBC’s intention to pilot a CCTV project to spot vehicles whose occupants hurl rubbish onto our roads. Quoted is Lib Dem litter czar, dapper Derek Mortimer who says: “It takes years for a cigarette butt to degrade, so we are saving the planet one step at a time.” I say!


P


ARISH and borough councillor Bob Hinder, who was about to move away


to the West Country after the death of his much-loved wife, Wendy, has decided to put those plans into reverse. Whilst his news received a cheer from parish members, he was reminded that his allotment needs weeding.


G T


UITAR-strumming vicar Mark Pavey tells his ock in Leeds and


Broomeld he’s the proud ‘Dad’ to a puppy. Whilst the joy of the new arrival is evident, he condes: “I’m not sure…that we quite understood how much work it would be.”


HE Royal Mail’s difficulties in delivering letters lately prompted a reader from Loose to relate a story of how, as a Christmas postie in the 1950s, the local depot he worked at ran out of sacks. The youngster located one in a darkened basement which contained a letter, unposted, dated from 1939. It was “thrown” into the mail and delivered as though nothing had happened.


T


HE excellent Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has


written much about the effects of ooding featuring the views of the appropriately named president, Mark Bridgeman.


Chin chin! 47


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