Swale Borough Council Parking Concessions to Support High Streets

Councillors have agreed a parking concession of an extra half an hour for free from Saturday 18th July to help residents access town centres more easily.

With social distancing still in place, there are more queues for shops, banks and barbers and hairdressers, and it can take longer to do the essential jobs in the high streets.

Paying for extended time in car parks often dissuades people from visiting town centres, so an additional half an hour for free could encourage people to linger longer and make use of cafes, restaurants and pubs, which are so important in our town centres.

Cllr Roger Truelove, leader of Swale Borough Council, said:

“We have been working hard to make sure we are supporting local businesses during this pandemic, but we also need to ensure we are getting the right balance and are able to keep people safe.

Businesses in our town centres are helping residents to shop safely, which can often mean waiting for longer and queuing outside in order to do your banking or to go into shops, so we’ve pedestrianised high streets to keep everyone safe, but this also means that waiting times are longer.

We want to take the pressure off so extending parking tickets by an extra 30 minutes allows for more flexibility. You no longer need to rush around to get the essential jobs done and can take your time, or even take a moment to get food and drink.

Most importantly it helps everyone to stay safe, stay apart and stop the spread.”

At last night’s Annual Council meeting, councillors voted to allow all car park tickets purchased to have an additional free 30 minutes added from 18th July, enforcement officers will add an extra 30 minutes to the expiry time when checking tickets in windows. This will also be applied to users of RingGo. The concession will cease on 30th September.

To enable more people to park closer to Sittingbourne High Street and to the train station, the Bourne Place Multi Storey Car Park will reopen from 20th July, however the parking concessions will not apply to the multi storey car park as this is a pay on return, barriered car park and such a concession cannot be applied.

Swale Borough Council

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Please Support Sittingbourne Community First Responders - Saving Lives in Your Street!

CFRs really do make a difference

Community First Responders provide care to patients within the local community before the arrival of the ambulance service. They are trained by SECAMB to deliver life-saving defibrillation's and interventions to patients in cardiac arrest, increasing the patients chance of survival.

In an ideal world, there would be an ambulance available on every street corner in every town and village, sadly this is not the case, making Community First Responders a vital resource to the ambulance service and the community they serve.

Saving lives in your street!

Sittingbourne Community First Responders are members of the local community who volunteer to respond to emergency and life-threatening calls through the 999 system, working in conjunction with SECAMB the South East Coast Ambulance Service and the NHS. They also run local CPR & AED sessions to the public for FREE.

Using their own vehicles, their 9 CFRs respond to incidents within a 5 mile radius of their home or work location.

The group name suggests 'Sittingbourne' although this is just the ambulance base station, in fact, they cover a vast area in support of SECAMB.

How are CFRs funded?

As a non-profit voluntary group, Sittingbourne Community First Responders rely solely on donations and receive no funding from SECAMB or the Government.

Set up costs for a new responder are approximately £2,500, and training, equipment and ongoing costs are high.

How can you help?

Sittingbourne Community First Responders has not been able to run their regular CPR & AED sessions because of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Without these sessions, their essential funds have become dangerously low. This is a major concern now, and it has become vital they gain much needed support from local communities and businesses by asking you for your help.

However much you able to give towards their £5000 target will help them continue to make a real difference in the lives of so many.

Please donate whatever you can at their new GoFundMe page >> https://gf.me/u/yfh9jd

Thank you

Find out more at >> www.sittingbourneresponders.org.uk

Upchurch Matters

On behalf of James Folan-Young - Sittingbourne Community First Responders

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UPDATED - Who Do You Recognise From These Old Photographs? What Was The Year?

Click the photographs to enlarge.

Just for fun

Thanks to Janet Latter (now Fordham) for sharing these 2 old photographs she came across recently of a children's Christmas party at Upchurch Infant School. Janet's mother was a Wraight. Her father had the Bakery in Forge Lane.

It's not known exactly which year they were taken, possibly 1950.

Thanks to Mrs Singyard for kindly sending in some more children's names:

Margaret Stevens
Barry Tyler
Roy Wildish
Peter Wildish
Ken Wildish
David Feist
Janet Hodgkins
Janet Latter
Susan Latter
Valerie Sifleet
Rosemary Gransden
Joan Gilbert

Pauline Singyard
John Singyard

Roy Kitney
Pauline Kitney
Ruth Kitney

Joe Wralght

Barry Madden
Wendy Madden

Robert Trice
Trevor Hart
Margaret Everest
Maureen Finn
Ronnie Finn
Norman Humphries
Eric Neame
Allan Neame
John Hills
Keith Pamplin

Who do you recognise?

What was the year?

Upchurch Matters

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Upchurch River Valley Golf Course is COVID-19 Compliant

Jenny Giles - Upchurch River Valley Golf Course

Telephone: 01634 360626

Website: www.rivervalleygolf.co.uk

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Medway Council - Nominate Stay at Home Stars

Medway Council is encouraging residents to nominate Stay at Home stars - young people who have been helping others during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

To celebrate the contributions, achievements and dedication of young people who are helping their families and local communities during the coronavirus pandemic, the council’s Medway Youth Service and Medway Youth Council have launched Stay at Home stars. Once nominations are received the stars are praised for their work on social media, @Medway_Youth on Twitter and Medway Youth Council on Facebook.

Nominations are open for young people aged eight to 19, and up to 25 for young people with additional needs.

So far 30 young people have been celebrated for the fantastic things they are doing to support others in their local communities.

The very first Stay at Home star, announced last month, was Nathan Dickin, who dedicated between 14 to 20 hours a week to help community churches get online so they could continue to serve their parishioners. Nathan even created a YouTube channel for residents to access. Tili-Ane Evans was the second Stay at Home star. She had been cooking and baking meals, with her mum, to donate to a local charity to give to those in need during lockdown.

Cllr Josie Iles, Medway Council’s Lead Member for Children’s Services, said:

“Despite the challenges we are all currently facing we know that many of our young people are continuing to do their best to help others. It is incredibly important that we recognise everything that they are doing to help their local communities. I would encourage residents to nominate a special young person so that we can celebrate their work.”

To nominate a young person visit: www.medway.gov.uk/stars

Medway Council

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Latest POLICE.UK Crime Data for the Area - May 2020

Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch

Here is a brief summary of crime information for the past 2 months:

54 crimes are shown on the map in May 2020 including:

15 Anti-social Behaviour

1 Burglary

2 Criminal Damage and Arson

3 Other Theft

6 Public Order

4 Shoplifting

4 Vehicle Crime

19 Violence and Sexual Offences

51 crimes were shown on the map in April 2020.

Not all crime that occurs is shown on the map.

Please visit: www.police.uk for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.

Lower Halstow and Iwade

Here is a brief summary of crime information for the past 2 months:

43 crimes are shown on the map in May 2020 including:

25 Anti-social Behaviour

5 Criminal Damage and Arson

1 Other Theft

4 Public Order

1 Shoplifting

1 Vehicle Crime

4 Violence and Sexual Offences

2 Other Crime

56 crimes were shown on the map in April 2020.

Not all crime that occurs is shown on the map.

Please visit: www.police.uk for more information including outcomes for these crimes and contact information for your local policing team.

Upchurch Matters

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