I have just sent off the following email to Garden Organic:

Hi there,

 

I received a letter in the post this morning reminding me that my membership is expiring.

 

I became a member specifically because of the beautiful gardens at Yalding that I visited all to infrequently with my family. I was disappointed to learn, through the press, rather than through yourselves of the closure of this area. Whilst I understand your ever increasing costs, and the difficulty you must be faced with, I think the manner in which this was handled was totally unacceptable.

 

Again, reported in the local press have been stories that many people gave donations recently for projects in Yalding – what is happening to this money? Will these people be refunded?

 

I have made the decision that as someone that rarely travels outside of the area, there is no longer any justification for retaining my membership.

 

I wish you well with your enterprise and hope that you can resolve your financial difficulties.

 

Julia Batt

I fully support the work of Garden Organic - the national charity that encourages organic growing, but I seriously can’t justify £36 a year for what for me, really equates to four magazines a year. They do offer lots of other perks for members, but I just don’t use them. As I said in my letter, the real reason I was a member was purely for Yalding organic gardens - if you never had the oppurtunity to go, you’ve missed out on a really beautiful and calm place.

My favourite part (and the kids for that matter) was the ‘war garden’ which showed how people maximised the use of a small area to grow their own food, when rationing was such a huge difficulty. I wonder how we’d all cope if we were rationed these days? Not too well I suspect!

I have just had one of the best days out with the kids ever and it only cost £2. It was great for the following reasons:

1. It was cheap (meaning we can do this often);
2. The kids didn’t whinge once and had a great time;
3. It wore them out completely;
4. It was very educational;
5. It was an outdoor and healthy day;
6. I thoroughly enjoyed it myself too, rather than just enjoyed their pleasure in a childish activity (which is what I normally do).

So what did we do?

Well as the title probably suggests we went to Trosley Country Park, just by Trottiscliffe and Vigo. Parking for the day is £1 (half the budget gone!) and for a further £1 we invested in an orienteering course around the park. The £1 gets you a map, instructions, a plastic protector wallet and SEVEN different courses to try. Obviously we only did one today, so we’ve still got six trips left without any more expense (other than the car parking).

Trosley Country Park is run and maintained by Kent County Council (KCC) - much as I find myself normally slagging off KCC (think Highways department here), I have to congratulate them on a fantastic service. The park is accessible to all (including young Travis in his pushchair), puts on loads of events throughout the year, has lots of fun ‘trim trail’ equipment as you go round, and to top it all off is slap bang in the middle of some of the most beautiful countryside… all this and practically on my doorstep.

When you arrive there is a visitors centre with a log fire burning away to keep it heated (presumably this doesn’t run in the summer!) and some really friendly staff that run a cafe in the centre. Obviously you don’t have to spend any money at all to walk around the park and there are several maps and plans of different suggested walks of varying difficulty. Personally though, spending that additional £1 on the orienteering course meant that I could easily keep the kids occupied (in looking for our next marker) while I enjoyed the tranquility and beauty of the place.

For more information call 01732 823570, click on this link, or pop into the Tourist Information office in town and pick up a leaflet.

Following the sad deaths of so many, through Clostridium Difficile (C. Diff) Maidstone Hospital has been in the press for all the wrong reasons in the last few weeks. Because of this I really didn’t want to take baby Travis for his outpatient appointment (to have his squint checked) today.

Since my last visit (a couple of years ago) things have changed. The first thing you now see when you walk in through the big doors is a MASSIVE display asking you to clean your hands with the alcohol sprays provided there. There’s at least 8 bottles - all at different heights so everyone can use them. In addition, there are leaflets to be found on C. Diff and hand hygiene in many points around the hospital. The alcohol sprays are to be found all around the hospital and at the entrance to every ward.

I watched for a short while, (before going to Travis’ appointment) all the people entering the hospital. I was horrified to see less than 50% of people stopping to clean their hands. Whilst, I obviously believe it is imperative that Doctors and Nurses ensure that they keep their hands clean and use the sprays between each patient, illnesses and germs such as C. Diff will only go if EVERYONE gets on board and starts using these sprays.

I only met Rose Gibb once - during a council scrutiny meeting. She is an incredibly articulate woman who spoke clearly on her vision for the hospital, however I did find the meeting rather like being spoken to by a brick wall. She spoke and then ignored every question and suggestion made. Her mind was clearly made up on the changes that were proposed with a real ’stuff local worries’ attitude about herself. Now I don’t know if these ‘clean your hands’ stations were placed in the entrance and all around the hospital while Rose Gibb was in post. If they were, having seen people ignore the oppurtunity to clean their hands today, I actually feel that the blame cannot lie with her and the trust alone. We as patients, visitors, volunteers, in fact anyone entering the hospital MUST take our part in hospital hygiene seriously.

All we are being asked to do is clean our hands and we must do this.

It takes seconds, isn’t sticky, doesn’t smell and helps ourselves, our loved ones we’re visiting and indeed the hospital itself….

… rant over - and if you’re interested, the lovely orthoptic doctor has given young Travis the all clear with the squint!

Today marked day one of six weeks of ‘clean sweeps’ in and around Maidstone. These are for those of us fed up with fly tipping and litter around the town. All equipment is provided - litter pickers, high vis jackets, gloves and bin bags and you set off to pick up what you can.

The photo shows just some of us that were litter picking today. Travis looks exceptionally bored, but the rest of us look pretty happy. It was a nice day for it though! One passer-by asked us if we were doing community service and couldn’t believe that anyone would willingly pick up other peoples litter without a big reward. A nicer area to live in is reward enough for me though!

Groups and individuals are invited to come along to one of these arranged events, or indeed arrange their own. For further information please contact Annika Fraser at Maidstone Borough Council on 01622 602559.

Today saw the start of Brunswick House Primary School joining the ”Walk On Wednesday” scheme. At it’s simplest, the idea is that pupils walk to and from school on Wednesdays. My kids couldn’t wait, as you get a sticker every time you walk. After so many stickers, you get a certificate.

It’s a well known fact that kids will do ANYTHING for a sticker, so this morning saw the kids up, dressed, washed and teeth cleaned with hardly any nagging. Even Mr. Mouse (Ryan’s imaginary friend) got ready without putting up a fight which makes a big change. Putting on our wet weather over clothes took more time than anything else, so we didn’t leave until 8:20am. Thankfully though we made it to school just in time (the walk took about 30 minutes) although we did have to walk at a very brisk pace.

As we walked into the school gates, I shouted for Rachael to run on ahead (her class starts 5 minutes earlier than Ryan’s) and encouraged Ryan to go with her. However, he pointed out that his running legs were worn out and he only had walking ones left!

Anyway - we did it - and the kids will be getting their first sticker added to their booklet. I have also requested a sticker, but it appears parents don’t qualify!

What a fantastic idea this is. We’ve (the kids and I) been toying with the idea of setting up a walking bus but in all honesty I just can’t face the walk there and back, twice every day - especially with all the car and bus fumes that we have to pass. However, once a week is certainly achievable and Rachael and Ryan really did enjoy it - I think even Travis (in sling) did too. On the back of this initiative, I’ve already hooked up with another mum, that lives around the corner, and agreed with her that we will set up a walking bus just for Wednesdays. We’re all going to walk to school, grab a cake (we’ll have earnt it) from Dunelm Mill, then walk home.

I’m sure other mums and dads will be doing exactly the same - well done whoever it was that thought up this idea!

Have just been sent a link about Hebden Bridge, a town that’s just made become free from plastic bags.

More information can be found here: http://www.hebdenbridge.co.uk/news/news07/59.html

One of the initiatives I particularly liked, was a session organised in the town with material and sewing machines, which gave people the chance to make their own reusable canvas bag.

Cllr. Tony Harwood (Cabinet Member for Environment - Maidstone Borough) is keen to see the practise of shops giving out carrier bags stopped, and instead replaced with a reuseable “Maidstone bag”. Following some publicity in the papers with this, Pat Fyfe contacted all Borough Councillors to bring to our attention the “Mors bag” concept and to encourage us to advertise it widely.

The idea is that people arrange social events where everyone turns up, drinks a few glasses of wine (that’s what got me interested!) and makes reuseable bags out of leftover material, charity shop finds, old duvet covers etc. The bags are then given out to people with a little information about the idea. The estimate is that each one of these bags, reduces the need for around 500 plastic carrier bags.

The only extra thing you have to do when you’ve got one of these bags is get into the habit of taking it out with you. To quote the website, this is just like cleaning your teeth, only with less toothpaste…

What with Rachael being back at school full-time, but Ryan starting part-time this month (he’s now full time) and young baby, I haven’t had time to arrange anything. However, last night I had my first oppurtunity to sit down and make one of these bags. The bags are very strong. If you have even the most basic understanding of how a sewing machine works, they are also very easy to make.

At clothesmaking classes (started a fortnight ago) I’m making a beautiful (at least I hope it will be) denim skirt. All I’ve done so far is cut the material for my skirt, and because there was a fair bit left over, I’ve cut material for Rachael to have a dress too. Still there was some leftover and with this I made the bag.

From start to finish, it took me about an hour to iron, cut and sew the bag, but I’m sure can be done a lot faster. It took me a fair while to work out all the measurements and because I hadn’t done it before was a lot slower than necessary.

The link to the pattern and more information can be found here: www.morsbags.com. If you want to come round, drink wine and make these bags just let me know - The more the merrier….

While I was googling “Making bags” trying to find the morsbags wesite, I also discovered this from YouTube which is all about making bags out of old carriers. Next time I have some free time I might give this a go too…

No point carrying on sulking - it’s not like it’ll achieve anything.

I’m going to make a bag. Update tomorrow.

The highly contested, controversial, multi-million pound incinerator at Allington was shut down today following further problems. For some weeks local residents and those that drive near the area have been overwhelmed with a truely awful stench eminating from the incinerator. This has allegedly been caused by a backlog of waste to be burnt.

Thousands of tonnes of stinking rotting rubbish have piled up and are now an explosive risk due to methane build up. This rubbish will now have to go to landfill.

Due to what can only be described as major design faults (the lining of the furnaces are falling off), the incinerator will be closed for up to 6 months. As well as burning our waste, the incinerator is designed to generate electricity. However, this too has broken. Parts that needed to be, were not being oiled - this was missed due to an electrical fault on the system that should have warned them! Apparently this will not be fixed for up to 12 months.

As Cllr Malcolm Robertson (who represents Allington) said on Meridian news this evening, this time we’ve been lucky… it may cost in excess of £1 million to fix, but at least there has been no damage to human health.

According to Kent County Council, the millions of pounds it will cost to repair the incinerator will not be paid by tax payers. Well who will then? At the end of the day, whether it’s via higher running costs in the future, or in some other way, of course we’ll end up paying for it…

Further information can be gained by calling the incinerator’s “community line” on 0845 803 8845 or by emailing info@kentenviropower.co.uk

It was full council tonight. The main topic for debate was funding of the recycling strategy. If people voted against it (as many of the Conservatives did), it would have meant we would have had to continue with the previous administrations plans to switch to alternate weekly collections. Thankfully, the recommendation was carried, and in February additional recycling will take place along side our existing weekly refuse collections.

As usual, there were Councillors talking a load of rubbish at the meeting -  I guess trying to win some points from somewhere… However, there were one or two valid points raised by members of the opposition. Councillors Chris Garland, Paul Oldham and Eric Hotson (all Conservative) made some fair comments against the proposals. Paul in fact proposed that the suggestion to take profits from the museum to pay for increased recycling should be removed. This motion was seconded and I’m very pleased to say unanimously carried.

Rightly or wrongly, I feel that some Councillors (from all parties) do not listen to the comments made by members of the opposition, having already made up their mind which way their vote will go. When I arrived at the meeting last night, I was certain that I would be voting for the proposal - it was one of our key election promises that we would do whatever we could to retain full weekly refuse collections. However, when Councillor Oldham made his proposal, I felt he was spot on, and was left panicing as to what to do… Could we afford to drop this money from the budget and still have enough to fulfill the increased recycling?

Thankfully the leader of the Council, Councillor Fran Wilson, quickly pointed out that we could afford to drop this and so with a major weight lifted, I very happily voted “for” this proposal.

Final votes were:

24 for the proposal (all Lib Dem, Labour or Indepdant); 18 against the proposal (all Conservative) and 5 abstentions (2 Lab - Hull & Moriaty, 3 Con - Ash, Garland and Ring).

No joking here… for those of you with a sensitive disposition, please don’t read the rest of this post…

If you’re still reading, but not sure if it’s going to be for you or not, I’ll tell you now it’s about periods. They’re half taboo and half just bloody embarressing to talk about, but lets be grown up about this - they are just a part of nature - and an important part at that - however, please don’t read anymore if you’re in anyway going to be offended, upset or just grossed out.

OK - You’ve been warned. This post is about “Moon cups” - for those of you that have already discovered and are possibly using Moon cups - why didn’t you tell me? I found about these quite by chance from a friend on the school run today (many thanks Andrea!).

Moon cups are a healthy, hygenic, environmentally friendly alternative to tampons. You buy one, wash and reuse time and time again. A moon cup is about 2 inches long, and as the name suggests like a small cup, that collects menstrual fluid rather than absorbs it. Every 4 - 8 hours, it’s removed, contents emptied down toilet, rinsed and then reinserted.

I’ve told Ryan’s teachers about them already, half the mums on the school run, the two lovely ladies in the school office (Donna and Sue - real diamonds who are forever helping/bailing out the PTA - many thanks guys!) and the receptionists at Mote Park Leisure centre where I went swimming this morning.

 More information about moon cups can be found at their web site here. Check it out and spread the word!

Bridge, Fant and Heath Wards all held their quarterly Councillor’s surgery this morning. As usual it wasn’t particularly well attended, but people that did come had never before contacted any of us (their local Councillor’s), and so it was worth putting on.

Issues brought to Peter Hooper and myself (representing Heath Ward) were very close to the hall which we’d hired this time - so clearly there is value in changing venue each time and moving around the wards.

Sadly, as with every surgery we’ve run, the majority of problems people have is with anti-social behaviour - mostly aimed at teenagers. When I was a teenager (about 100 years ago according to my 6 year old), I was no angel, and I defy anyone to prove they were a perfect teen! However, I’d never hurt anyone, damage property or ‘answer back’ if caught doing something bad.

I remember one occassion when I was about 17, I had a boyfriend who had a car (this was a big deal and I was the envy of a few mates!). Anyway, this being in the days when there wasn’t a certain fast food outlet on every street corner, my boyfriend drove my mates and I, about 30 minutes away to buy a load of burgers etc and then we ate them on the drive back to my friends house. When we arrived, I left all the rubbish on the pavement opposite my friends house. A lady who lived there, saw what I had done and shouted at me to pick up my mess. I was so ashamed of myself, I immediately picked everything up and to this day have never dropped litter again.

By contrast, I recently (while still pregnant with Travis) watched a kid chuck down a half eaten burger in the town centre (right in the middle of the pedestrianised bit) surrounded by about 50 people. Seeing history repeat itself, I asked the lad to pick up his rubbish, thinking he wouldn’t do it again in a hurry. I got told to f**k off. Being a bit hormonal, and not quite believing my ears, I asked again for him to pick up his rubbish. The response I got this time was a little more eloquent, but still peppered with a fair few choice words. The burger remained on the floor. In the end, I picked up the burger and put it in the dustbin (that was about 1 metre from the drop point). I felt a complete idiot, until an older lady came up and congratulated me on having the nerve to stand up to the lad. She said, she’d had much the same response that I’d received in the past and wouldn’t ask anymore.

When did kids stop respecting their elders?

Whilst at the surgery, husband phoned to let me know that he’d just arrived at local (under 5’s) playground with kids, only to find it covered in obscene images and words. Trust me on this, you never want to answer a 6 year old asking: “What does **** mean Mummy?”

A local resident was cleaning down the worst of the graffitti, but there’s only so much you can do without industrial grade equipment - unfortunately, the remaining graffitti must stay until Monday, when Maidstone’s ‘hit squad’ go back to work…

I attended a meeting this evening organised due to the ever increasing number of  complaints regarding Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) around the Oakwood Campus. In attendance were local and County Councillors, the Police & PCSOs, heads of the three secondary schools and representatives from the Community Safety Team (Maidstone Council).

There have been a number of incidents of missiles being thrown from or around Astor of Hever school (mostly rocks, but I’ve had the pleasure of sandwiches being chucked at my car - marmite in case you were wondering). In addition, local residents have been intimitaded by large groups of students out of class hours hanging around by their properties. These ‘visits’ often culminate in large amounts of litter being left, and often with some amount of verbal abuse occurring.

The meeting today highlighted each parties problems with the estate. The general consensus was that parking (and overspill), security and lack of definition of boundaries around each school are all contributing to the problems. All three schools, Astor, St. Simon Stock & Oakwood Grammar, agreed that any allegations of misbehaviour by a student wearing their uniform will be fully investigated and dealt with. But they each went on to say that this is detracting from their main priority, which is of course to teach.

The PCSO assigned to this estate has been absent due to illness for four months and is only just back in post. Hopefully, his renewed presence on and around Oakwood will help ease some of the problems. In addition, County Councillor Dan Daley has offered to pay out of his budget for appropriate lamp posts to be wired up with CCTV cameras. Maidstone’s Community Safety Team have been asked to investigate examples of best practise on simliar campuses across the country, and we did discuss, although not in detail, the idea of students being surveyed to discover what they thought might help the problems.

All these actions will be reviewed in November, hopefully with a positive outcome. Please remember that we need you to report any issues you have either to myself or to the local police. By letting us know all the issues you have, we can build up a file and really see the bigger picture.

From the 1st October, the No. 8 bus service that runs from Maidstone Hospital to Downswood is having a slight cut in service.

The detailed changes are that the following journeys are withdrawn on Mondays to Fridays:

0845 Downswood to the town centre.

1555 Hospital to Downswood,

1643 Downswood to Hospital,

1730 Hospital to Downswood

1815 Downswood to the town centre.

The Saturday service remains unchanged.

Timetable for No. 8 Bus service

With so much negative campaigning being done by the Conservatives, its time the record was set straight…

FACT: Conservatives commissioned report into future of Coombe Quarry Park and Ride.

FACT: Conservatives set the parameters for the report including consultation levels.

FACT: The park and ride report proposing closure of the Coombe Quarry park and ride was programmed to be published in February – for some reason it did not appear in the run-in period to the local elections.

FACT: We assumed control to find the report recommending closure waiting for us.

FACT: Conservatives set a 2007/8 park and ride budget falling far short of the cost of running the service in 2006/7.

FACT: The Council is locked into the Conservative budget for 2007/8.

FACT: Liberal Democrats introduced park and ride to Maidstone in the face of Conservative opposition.

FACT: The Liberal Democrats are ensuring that resources released by the closure of the Coombe Quarry Park and Ride will be used to deliver improved public transportation in south Maidstone.

FACT: Local bus services were decimated by Conservative deregulation of public transport.

If you have any further comments or questions on the Park and Ride service in Maidstone please get in touch.