News

Ralph has his say on the Hawkinge 'Vicar of Dibley' council, the disappearing Partnership and more.....
 

No more Dibley quips for Quality Council

A few years ago, the thought of Hawkinge Parish Council receiving an accolade for reaching Quality Council status would have seemed by some as remote as Geraldine Grainger becoming the village vicar.

But we have witnessed a remarkable transformation which prompted Parish Council Chairman David Callahan to gleefully remark: "This shows we're no longer a Vicar of Dibley council." Good news for them but we have lost those Palace of Varieties meetings which gave us so much amusement and so many news snippets each month.

How about a Christmas Special meeting when some of the old faces could make a guest appearance?

Partnership sneaks out of Hawkinge?

No party, no balloons, no press release from Shepway Council and nobody noticed?

Not true, according to Parish Councillor Colin Tearle who did notice and has this week spoken out in the local press over the closure of the Hawkinge Partnership Office in Hawkinge, saying people are "outraged".

But is there this so called "outrage" because people are losing an important facility, or is it because people weren't told of the closure? The local management board had already left back in March, after claiming there wasn't enough to discuss.

Throughout the 6 years the Partnership has been in the village it seemed to court more controversy than was justified, not least in the early days, with the Parish Council.

And true to form, it has managed to quit Hawkinge in a similar way.

Many have questioned the logic of what was John Prescott's, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's decision to have a Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder Programme in what is a predominately affluent area.

Other areas of Shepway could have benefitted far more, and now it seems they will, if funding for the Partnership is hopefully forthcoming.

There will of course be some local people who will miss it and I would expect provision to be made for them. I just wonder how many villagers will say what a great job it has done and that the two million or so quid it cost was well spent. Time will tell.

The successful bid for the Hawkinge Partnership was announced in 2003. It had a budget of £2.25m to be spent over a period of 7 years.


What a mess - litter

Its all very well having all this greenery around the village, but what a great place to hide discarded newspapers, drinks cans, crisp packets and the occasional bike.

Already bushes and long grass is overflowing with litter along some of the footpaths and cycle tracks. But just wait a few weeks when the leaves drop and the grass dies, a nasty surprise will await us all.


Nuclear power plant fire - just 50 miles from Shepway

The fire which broke out at a nuclear plant on the Channel Coast near Dieppe in France may seem of little interest to us until you realise the plant at Penley is only around 50 miles from Dungeness.

50 miles is no distance for a cloud of radio-active material leaking from a nuclear plant.

As far as I am aware there is and never was any danger of that happening on this occasion, so we can all rest in the knowledge of no doomsday scenario.

Wind power has a lot going for it when you consider the possible consequences of a nuclear accident.

Sport Relief Chris to water-ski across channel

Christine Bleakley is to water-ski across the English Channel in aid of next year's Sport Relief.

The host of BBC1's The One Show begins training in the next few weeks.