One of the largest for many years, the Parade left Drakes Lodge Scout Hut, Oak Lane around 9:45am for the Remembrance Sunday service in the Church at 10:15am.
Monday, 11 November 2019
Remembrance Sunday Parade to St. Mary's Church
Vehicle Damaged - Hartlip | Attempted Shed Burglary - Upchurch
Hartlip, Newington & Upchurch Ward
Crime Number: 46/216288/19
Between 8:00pm and 10:00pm on Saturday the 9th of November, a white Mercedes was criminally damaged by an unknown person slashing the tyres on the driver’s side. This happened in Auger Close, Hartlip.
Crime Number: 46/215977/19
A lock was damaged when a shed burglary was attempted in Bishop Lane, Upchurch sometime between midnight and 10:44am on Sunday the 10th of November.
If you have any information that could help investigators please contact Kent Police on telephone number 101 and quote the relevant crime number above.
For more information on crime prevention visit: www.kent.police.uk
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Saturday, 9 November 2019
Sittingbourne Dahlia and Chrysanthemum Show
Sunday 10th November 2019
At Stockbury Village Hall from 2:00pm - 4:00pm
All welcome - Refreshments available
Maxine Budden
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Friday, 8 November 2019
Upchurch Parish Council - Highways Improvement Plan
Upchurch Parish Council agreed to participate and produced a draft plan which was then consulted on throughout the summer. The consultation sought local residents views on whether the plan identified the correct issues, and asked them to highlight any opportunities the Parish Council may have missed and finally to rank the top 3 local highways issues they felt were the most urgent. In addition, I paid for a traffic speed survey earlier from my Swale Borough Council Members Grant Scheme. The survey was conducted for a week in Horsham Lane close to the junction with Crosier Court (at the green BT junction boxes).
There was a good response to the consultation and no doubt about what the three top priorities in the village are! Residents are very clear the priorities are (in rank order); speeding in Horsham Lane, parking in The Street outside the houses directly opposite Horsham Lane and driver behaviour where the road narrows on Oak Lane just before the junction with Wallbridge Lane (if leaving the village).
The Chair of the Parish Council (Tyrone Ripley) and I met with the Engineering Manager at Swale Borough Council and visited each site, we discussed a range of options to reduce risk, improve traffic flows and improve our road network.
You may have noticed that the Parish Council has had a 30 roundel painted at the crest of Horsham Hill coming into the village and as an immediate action at our October meeting the Parish Council approved and agreed to pay for a second roundel to be placed near the bus stop layby (opposite the church gate) for those cars that are going towards Horsham Hill and two 'Slow' signs painted on the road either side of Crosier Court, the contract has been agreed and these will be painted very soon. Our experience is that the roundels painted so far have had an impact and we are hoping to build on that.
We have also submitted proposals to KCC to start the process to deal with the parking in The Street opposite the junction, although there are difficulties and conflicting views about the best approach and to ensure we understand fully the impact on residents any developments involved parking in that section of The Street will require a formal public consultation and consideration by the KCC and Swale Council, Joint Transportation Board. This is a longer-term project and in my experience will take several months maybe as long as two years to complete.
To complete our work on the top three priorities, the Parish Council are also working on a scheme to give vehicles travelling towards the A2 (leaving the village) at the narrowing in Oak Lane priority over those entering the village with a pair of priority signs; it is hoped that informing drivers to 'give way to oncoming vehicles' or that they have 'priority over oncoming vehicles' will influence driver behaviour and reduce the instances of conflict and in particular vehicles mounting the kerb to pass. County Cllr Whiting has kindly agreed to contribute to the cost of that once approved by KCC.
The speed survey in Horsham Lane has given us a baseline speed for the road, a second survey once the changes are made (and settled in) will tell us if there is an actual change to the speeds on the road. In addition, we will re-run the consultation each year to determine residents concerns and priorities so we have both a subjective and objective assessment of the impact in place.
Speed bumps are often referred to as an obvious solution, but they are not a 'silver bullet' there are a number of complications especially around, noise, disruption and ever, more importantly, air pollution. Experience from locations with bumps show that vehicles speed up, then brake, then speed up again and as a result their exhaust fumes are far more toxic and contain more particulates than if they had passed through uninterrupted and to make matters worse in Horsham Lane at the worse traffic time there are often children stood there waiting for a bus.
There are other options for the junction of The Street and Horsham Lane, for example, a bollard island at the end of Horsham Lane that vehicles making the right turn from The Street have to go round, thus forcing them to make a more right-angled turn rather than the sweeping higher speed curve we often see. Another option gaining popularity across Kent is to transform Upchurch into a 20 mph zoned village. Our initial data indicates, however, that the average speeds are a little high to implement that without chicanes and speed cushions or bumps. All these options require extensive development, have significant cost and certainly require public consultation and support, they are longer-term and in my view, it strengthens the villages case to show we have tried and evaluated the alternatives first.
The Parish Council have the development and delivery of the Highways Improvement Plan as a standing agenda item at each meeting, you are most welcome to come along and contribute or ask questions, we would like to hear what you think.
Alan Horton
Upchurch Parish Councillor
Upchurch Parish Councillor
and
Ward Councillor serving the residents of Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch
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Newington History Group
Historians are telling tales
Stories about personal items of historic interest will be told by members of Newington History Group at its monthly meeting next Thursday (Nov 14th) at 7:30pm in the Methodist Hall, Church Lane.
The annual event usually brings a varied mix of unusual and fascinating tales.
Contact the group if you've an interesting story or item that you want to share. You can attend as a guest (£3) if you're a non-member.
NHG, which seeks to unearth, preserve and promote the history of the village and neighbouring areas, meets on the second Thursday, excluding January and August. An annual subscription is £15.
For more details, contact the group through: www.newingtonhistorygroup.btck.co.uk
Swale Borough Council - Draft Vehicle Parking Standards Consultation
Consultation on Draft Vehicle Parking Standards Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).
If you know only too well the problems we have in Swale with regards to parking on new developments now is the time to say, to ensure that future policy works and mistakes from the past are learnt from.
If you know only too well the problems we have in Swale with regards to parking on new developments now is the time to say, to ensure that future policy works and mistakes from the past are learnt from.
As part of the current Local Plan new parking standards for Swale are being drawn up and you can have your say on the draft document.
Please take a look at the document and forward your comments on to the planning team.
Swale Borough Council has published a Draft Vehicle Parking Standards Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) for consultation for a period, running from 7th November to 19th December 2019 inclusive and wants to give you the opportunity to submit any representations that you may have before it is finalised for adoption.
The Council will consider your comments and will take these into account before the document is finalised for adoption by the Council in early spring 2020.
The Draft Vehicle Parking Standards Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) is available to view from Thursday 7th November on the Council’s website at: www.swale.gov.uk/draft-car-parking-standards-consultation In addition, a paper copy is available to view at the Council’s offices in Sittingbourne, Sheppey and Faversham and all Swale Libraries.
Please note that any formal comments submitted on the Draft SPD cannot be treated as confidential and all representations must be received by the 5:00pm deadline on 19th December 2019 by Email: planningtechofficer@swale.gov.uk
Or by letter: Planning Technical Team, Development Management, Swale Borough Council, East Street, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME10 3HT.
If you have any queries about the consultation process or the Draft SPD, please do not hesitate to contact a member of the Planning Technical Team on: 01795 417308.
On behalf of Alan Horton
Swale Borough Councillor - Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch Ward
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