"To preserve, protect and, if possible, improve the local environment"
If you have a news item that you would like to see published here, please contact the with the details, or better still, post your request in the the HRA Web site forum and we'll see what we can do...
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| Roland receives his award from Louanne Purdy |
The Royal National Lifeboat Institution honoured Cowden resident, Mr. Roland Smoult, when he was presented with the Institutes Silver Badge for long service at the Edenbridge & District Branch annual garden party held at Beaumonts, Four Elms
Louanne Purdy, RNLI South East Region Fund Raising Manager, said Roland had loyally served the branch as Treasurer for seventeen years, helped organise the annual garden party and that it was an honour to present him with his award and certificate. Roland said, "I would like to thank everyone for supporting me over the years and the RNLI for giving me this award."
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| Jan Tolfree, Louanne Purdy and Pat Humphreys smile for the camera in the RNLI shop |
For the first time, the annual garden party was held in the beautiful grounds of Beaumonts, following the death of Mrs. Jill Wright of Waystrode Manor where the event had been held for twenty years. Under a clear sky and without rain, the guests raised a staggering £976, which will go towards the work of lifeboat crews around the country saving lives at sea.
Branch chair, John Proctor thanked the many organisers and guests for helping make the event a great success and paid particular tribute to the people of Edenbridge and surrounding villages who were so generous in making donations during the street and house to house collections.
If you would like further information about the work of the RNLI or the Edenbridge & District Branch please contact Alan Townsend on 07973 818927 and he will be pleased to send you details, or to email Alan, .
Kent tourist attractions including Knole, Penshurst Place and Dover Castle took centre stage in the new film The Other Boleyn Girl starring Hollywood actresses Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson.
To celebrate its release and the locations that were used in the film, Kent Film Office and Visit Kent in association with Universal, National Trust, English Heritage, Penshurst Place and Hever Castle have released a movie map to highlight the Kent locations to the world.
The Other Boleyn Girl was shot on location throughout November and December 2006. For more information about The Other Boleyn Girl and the Kent filming locations visit www.visitkent.co.uk/boleyn
A great time was had by those Heverites and non-Heverites who came to the annual HRA Summer Party at the Village Hall on 8 September. In honour of John Scott's birthday it was entitled "A Farmer's Party" and so it was - complete with hay bales, local country music band "The Skinners' Rats", glorious sunshine and warm weather combining to a perfect backdrop. A beautifully set up marquee, well-stocked (and well visited!) bar with Larkins on tap, a colourful and delicious hot and cold buffet prepared by various local wenchens from organic local produce and free range meats, delicious breads from Groombridge bakers and a BBQ deftly and expertly dished out Allman's burgers and bangers all combined to providing everyone with "A Summer Party with style".
With so much genuine local effort by both visible and invisible local unsung heroes who year after year work behind the scenes to plan, set up and organise, not to mention clean up the day after!) it was a pity that not more local folks turned up. The Summer Party is, after all, a local event for local people and the effort put in, and the result achieved deserved more local turnout.
Do let us know what you think, do let us have your suggestions and constructive comments and most of all - do come and support your local events - after all this is your village!
Some 75 people packed into Hever Village Hall on Saturday 21 April for a Latin night with live band Más Y Más, who quickly got plenty of foot-stomping and hand-clapping response to their Latin/Afro-Cuban/Flamenco rhythmic beats.
An unexpected gorgeous Salsa teachers' group, which had "infiltrated" from Tunbridge Wells, delighted the surprised audience with some eye-popping salsa performances and soon got everyone up dancing. Fine musicianship coupled with a great sense of fun and their sheer energy made Más Y Más instantly into one of those bands that people remembered with a smile - a wonderful and exhilarating evening. As Nick Dent was famously overheard saying: "Gosh, there is so much going on, I think I have to close one eye"!
Very many thanks to all those of you who helped to make this into the great evening it was, it was very much appreciated.
If you haven't, you should go and take a look, the transformation is amazing...
After much "umming and arring" at committee meetings, waiting for KCC Highways / Southern Water / East Surrey Water to get the flooding problems sorted out etc, the committee finally decided that enough was enough - something needed to be done, and done soon!
Working parties hit the site, rubbish was removed, weeds were treated and the place was generally tidied up - ready for the real work to begin...
Cue "Kevin Agate and crew" - the guys moved-in big time, tree-felling, ditching, hedge-laying, planting, turfing, you name it they did it!
As for the results - you should really go and see for yourself...
We'd like to say a BIG THANK-YOU to: -
Note: the more astute of you may have noticed the mention of bulbs earlier on, just wait till the spring...
At long last here are the results of the Hever Village Questionnaire, which you may recall went out early this year to canvass local opinion on how people feel about our village. We asked you what you liked about your village and what you would perhaps like to see changed. We asked you about your interests and whether you would wish to see some new activity groups to share your interests or hobbies with like-minded souls, making use of local facilities?
We did have a surprisingly good response to the Questionnaire. Firstly, we asked your opinion on local events. By far the most popular event, with the highest vote, is the Annual Fireworks Party - and judging by the yearly turnout and high praise afterwards, no surprise really. Both the Summer Event and the Christmas Party received equal votes. The votes on the Summer Event were based on last year's event, with some of you suggesting that although this was very popular, perhaps a little change of format was required. We listened to you and tried something different this year - we believe with great success - by having live music and dance. A new suggestion, voiced by a number of residents, was to organise an annual May Day Celebration, this ranked in popularity right behind the Summer Event and Christmas Party. There was also a suggestion for a St George's Night. We regret to say, there were no takers for a Valentines Do!
Secondly, we asked you about your interests in local activities. Listed in order of priority based on percentage votes, the feedback you gave as is as follows (some sharing the same place in the league):
Some of you indicated an interest to become actively involved in helping or even organising groups that may take off. If you are interested in helping set up a new group, or are prepared to assist - or simply would wish to participate - then please contact us: -
Either on our web site www.hever-ra.org.uk (but then you knew that anyway!), Or call Jeanette Flockhart on 01732 - 700066
A spontaneous idea to organise a small group of local women walkers to "wear it pink and walk" to raise funds for Breast Cancer charities during October's "Breast Cancer Awareness Month" quickly spread, resulting in a fantastic turnout on Sunday morning, 29th October, when woman after woman arrived outside 'The Leicester Arms Hotel' in Penshurst. Eventually 32 women, children and teenage girls plus 13 dogs - all wearing various shades of pink (including the dogs of course) - set off in glorious sunshine on a 2 hour Penshurst Estate fundraising walk. The enormous goodwill and support from all those present (including a donation from 'The Leicester Arms Hotel') raised a staggering £1,025 (against a planned target of £300) which demonstrates how much people do care about a disease which kills over 1,000 women every month in the UK alone.
The funds will be distributed between Breast Cancer Campaign, the only UK charity specialising in funding independent breast cancer research in the UK and The Mid-Kent Breast Cancer Research Appeal - a local Kent charity which provides high tech equipment for the early detection and treatment of breast cancer. The Peggy Wood Breast Care Centre was opened in Maidstone in 2004 with substantial funding from the Mid-Kent Breast Cancer Research Appeal.
Plans are currently under way for an information sheet for women who are about to undergo an operation or treatment for Breast Cancer, written by women who have been through this personal experience and who, by sharing, can hopefully take away some of the concerns and fears of those facing the prospect of entering hospital.
Anyone who would like to participate by sharing their experience, or who would like to receive more information on this subject, please contact Jeanette Flockhart on 01959 561 511, or email jf@abbottlegal.com.
Believe it or not, Sevenoaks District Council is not the Authority responsible for the maintenance and repair of roads, lanes and footpaths in our area. Kent Highways (part of KCC) are. They are also responsible for the clearing and cleaning of ditches and gullies, maintaining verges and cutting grass. The western division of Kent Highways (KHS) is based in - wait for it - Gravesend! Nice and local to Hever then, they'll know where the blocked up ditches and gullies are!
However, KHS have (re) introduced the "County Lengthsman Scheme". The origins of a lengthsman date back to the 19 th Century, when a local man was employed to maintain the Highways and Byways. With increased mechanisation and centralisation, this once familiar figure with his shovel and hook, disappeared from our rural roads.
The service has been re-introduced to enable Parish Councils to have greater control on the day-to-day minor highway maintenance within their Parishes.
Each Council was to appoint a representative; the clerk or a Councillor (Hever PC has two Councillor representatives, one for Hever/Markbeech and one for Four Elms). The representative(s) would receive requests from local people for minor highway maintenance. The representative(s) would decide what work they would like the lengthsman to do, contact the highway inspector to agree the work, and then monitor what work got done.
Sounds Idyllic doesn't it? Well before we start cheering, let's have a look at the logistics. KHS have allocated £300,000 annual budget for the whole of Kent. Each lengthsman crew comprises two men and a truck. Their job is to tour the County on a planned rota, carrying out planned maintenance work from the lists provided in advance by the PC If every Parish in the county were to avail themselves of the service, each would have the use of one crew for approximately three days per year! - (and remember, Hever PC serves three villages!)
The sort of work the lengthsmen can do is limited by the plant and equipment carried by the vehicle, but includes:
The sort of work they cannot do includes:
To be fair to KHS, the lengthsmen's efforts are in addition to general maintenance work identified and prioritised by KHS's local highway inspector.
The memo from KHS outlining the lengthman scheme ends: -
"...every Parish and Town Council can look forward to a more responsive service in the coming months..."
KHS have scheduled work at both Four Elms and Cowden Crossroads and plan to improvesight liness and road surfaces at both (thank goodness). They have also scheduled to install a "positive drainage system" and "repair gullies" at Hever bus shelter area, but in my view the priority given to the Hever work is too low and I am battling with KHS to get it improved.
Consultants Jacobs Babtie have produced a 31 page report on the situation at Cowden Cross, Cowden Pound Cross (The Queen's Arms) and Stick Hill. Peter Lake, the Parish Council, KHS and I are due to discuss the report, which covers signage, sight lines, double white line extension and speed limits, on the27 thh March. Watch this space...
| Contacts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Parish Council Roads Representatives | ||
| Hever and Mark Beech | John Scott | 07768-300002 |
| Four Elms | Alan Miller | 01732-700205 |
| Kent Highways | ||
| Sevenoaks Area | Sue Ireland | 01474-544076 |
| Local Inspector | Allan Gibbons | 01474-544015 |
If you would like to discuss the state of the roads, footpaths etc. on-line a good place to start would be here!...