News

Thanks to Peter, one of our regular readers who sent in an interesting old photograph of the railway bridge in Risborough Lane, Cheriton.
 

"The staging on the right was a station known as Cheriton Halt.

"I'm not sure if they are pulling down the old round bridge for the squarer one, as there now, or repairing both" said Peter.

Editor's note: Please let us know if you can tell us more.

By prospective parliamentary candidate Damian Collins

Are you a member of the IPOD generation? I don’t mean the way you play your music, but an issue identified by the think tank ‘Reform’. IPOD is not a badge of honour worn by a wealthy consumer generation, but a burden born by young people struggling to make their way in the world.

IPODs are the under 35 year olds who are ‘Insecure, Pressured, Over-taxed and Debt ridden’.

The truth is that today a young couple, even with university degrees and good graduate jobs, will often find that they are struggling to make ends meet by the time they have paid their bills, debts and housing costs. That’s before they think about starting a family and the direct and indirect costs of child care.

The IPODs have seen their earnings rise less quickly than any other age group, and are more likely to be in debt. They are young working people who have been disadvantaged by changes to the tax and benefit system, which has given most support to working age people who do not work. And with house prices rising faster than earnings, they are finding it harder to buy their first home; the average age of a first time buyer is now 34, whereas just over a generation ago it was 26.

We need to give people more opportunities to match their aspirations and help young working people set an example to those still at school and college that application and ambition pays off.

To start with we need more shared equity housing schemes to help people buy their first home. We must make sure the tax and benefits system incentivises work and supports family life and that through the schools and colleges we provide good careers advice and more work based skills and training.

Looking to next generation, we need to give more young people a constructive outlet for their talents and to support them onto the right track.

On Friday evening I attended the opening of the Folkestone Youth Project’s ‘Shed’ centre in Folkestone harbour. The Project started six years ago in response to concerns that there weren’t enough facilities for young people in the Town. Now, thanks to everyone involved in the Project, including its energetic chairman Philip Carter, Michael Howard MP and Roger De Haan, who owns the site, this new centre has opened its doors. The ‘Shed’s’ facilities include a skate park, recording studio, IT, games room and café. Volunteers have helped to transform the old warehouse that houses it, local businesses have donated many of the materials used, and further financial support and resources have come from Kent County Council and Shepway District Council.

I congratulate everyone involved in the Project and wish them well for the future.

This week, Folkestone and Hythe prospective parliamentary candidate Damian Collins writes about the effect on the countryside of the foot and mouth disease outbreak.

The news last Friday evening of the outbreak of foot and mouth disease at Woolfords Farm in Elstead, Surrey, less than 100 miles from Romney Marsh, was very disturbing.

By the time you read this article we may know more about how the outbreak happened and how widespread it is.

In 2001 foot and mouth disease led to the destruction of 6 million animals, and cost £8 billion. We must hope that the lessons have been learned from that outbreak, that it will be managed by the Government more effectively and that we will not see another tragedy on that scale.

The true awfulness of foot and mouth disease is not just the costs and restrictions that come with it, it is the destruction of the animals and herds that farmers have spent their lives nurturing and with it everything they have worked for. No amount of compensation can ever replace that.

We are fortunate to live in the Garden of England, but this garden has been made fruitful by the hard work and creativity of local people.

The local economy, particularly in rural and coastal areas, is in delicate balance, and problems for a few people or businesses, can soon impact on the lives of many others.

That’s why I believe it is important that Government does all it can to support the rural economy and small community businesses. At the Conservative Party conference last year, I proposed that we should look at how can create small “Acorn Areas” of support for businesses in rural communities and deprived urban areas, to support local producers and crafts, help people start up on their own, and to make it easier for post offices and local stores to keep trading. The rural business centre at Evegate and the Creative Quarter in Folkestone, are examples of how landlords can make a positive contribution. Community businesses can provide an often unique service to local people, as well as a positive contribution to the economy. Yet, sadly, research from the Federation of Small Business shows that they often bear a heavier burden in terms of costs from regulation, than larger businesses do.

The fine weather last weekend though encouraged people to get out and about, and this is good for local businesses.

On Saturday I visited the RNLI Craft Fair and Art Exhibition at Dungeness. It was a pleasure to admire the skills of the people involved and also to support the fundraising for the lifeboat crew.

I am just old enough to remember a time when you could call British Rail and ask for train times and ticket prices. They would tell you the most cost effective and time effective route for your journey. They would also, invariably, explain how to get a cheaper ticket by booking earlier, or at a different time of day.

Nowadays, working out the rail system in this country is like taking part in an episode of The Krypton Factor and For Boyard all at the same time.

Thanks to our extremely intelligent politicians, we now have lots of separate, private railway companies, who all have separate websites with their own timetables. You can go to www.nationalrail.co.uk and look up train times for the whole network, but you can't buy tickets on that website. However, if you go to the relevant website for the network you want to travel on, you find half the trains featured in National Rail timetables are missing.

Sometimes, you may find an inbound and outbound journey on National Rail actually spans two companies, so you can't book a return ticket in, say, Virgin's website because they only cover half the journey in their timetable.

I was staying in Redhill, which is currently a meeting point for three lines, and I needed to get back to Folkestone. At the ticket office, the lady said, "That will be £85," (I can't actually remember the amount but it was ridiculously high).

After telling her I wanted to buy a ticket and not an actual train, she said, "That's how much it costs because it goes via London."

"I don't need to go via London. Why can't I go via Tonbridge like every other sane person?"

She checked that route and, sure enough, it was less than £20.

Still, it doesn't really matter any more because privatised rail travel is now so expensive, and there are so few carriages in a decreasing number of trains, that I will soon be doing all my travelling by air. After all, the Government is clearly not committed to keeping us on the ground so I may as well go with the flow.

Former Shepway lad, Ron Colman now lives in Strathalbyn, 35 miles from Adelaide but although he speaks in an Aussie accent  and the town is regarded as one of the most attractive  in South Australia, he has never lost his love for England.

Born in Cheriton in 1939, Ron has a brother John Tapping aka Raymond, who lives in Folkestone and works for the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway, and a sister Pat.

As a young man, Ron was a keen dancer and could often be found tripping the light fantastic at the Don and Joy Dance studio in The Bayle Folkestone.

The family lived in Woodville Close, Cheriton and Ron worked locally for the NAAFI before he paid his £10 and sailed from Tilbury to Australia in December 1960.

From the freezing cold winter of 1960, he was welcomed to the Antipedes in January 1961, by a heat wave with temperatures hitting 104F.

Ron settled in the farming village of Strathalbyn. It was a quiet place in those days bemoaned Ron, but it now has a rapidly growing population of 2600, with many people from the city who know nothing about rural life moving into the small town.

In 1963 Ron married Jean Goodall from Hawkinge, whose father was secretary of the Shepway Labour Party. Unfortunately the marriage didn't last and they were divorced in 1971.

Ron never re-married and hung up his driving gloves 5 years ago after working for 20 years as a chauffeur and limousine driver showing tourists around the local wineries and the tourist sites in the Adelaide area.

He also worked as a chauffeur to Dame Roma Mitchell when she was the Governor of South Australia, who he said "was a truly wonderful lady."

Ron returned to England in 1991 and visited his old dance studio at The Bayle. Whilst there he met Pat ( not his sister) and they struck up a friendship, but he had to return to Australia and lost touch with her.

In 1993 he came back, to look for Pat but to no avail and he returned home disappointed.

Years passed when suddenly, out of the blue in 2006, his brother called to say he had met Pat at a boot fair in Elham and from that chance meeting Ron and Pat have stayed in contact ever since.

Ron is hoping to travel to England again next year when he will be able to see his mother who is 99 this year and a resident in a Saltwood Nursing home and his family, and of course his long lost special friend Pat who lives in the Hawkinge area.

Ron said he has never lost his love of England and spends a lot of time listening to BCC Radio Kent on the world wide web, especially his favourites, Pat Marsh and presenter and comic entertainer Paul James.

Looking back at his time in Hawkinge, he said he was shocked at the loss of the airfield to new homes.

"It's a pity to see this but it is the same the world over. City people are moving into my home town as well and the population is growing far too quickly. The world is a different place from when I left 47 years ago on that cold December day in 1960.

Editor's note: If this story stirs any memories or you have your own story to tell, email us here.

I realise there have been a fair few comments and letters about the sex education video shown at The Churchill School but I wonder if they are now taking things too far.

The following announcement concerning a teacher who is expecting a baby, appeared in this week's edition of 'The Churchill Times'.

Editor

One for Lord Gnome methinks!
 

LIFT INSPIRES POET

Our thanks go to Leas Lift  campaigner, Robert Mouland for sending us this poem written by Ann Houghton and inspired by the Leas Lift 1890 Carriage Restoration project. We hope you enjoy it

A Gauge of Time

Out with the old, in with the new
Call it modern philosophy, is that what we do
Not so long ago, there was value and repair
Age to respect of things to love and share

Down by the sea, things of great design
Fagg's bathing carriage, ladies so refined
Trolley o­n a switchback, riding an undulating course
Amusing and exciting, like a strong and gallant horse.

Up and down the cliffside, little cars to ride
Lifts balanced by water, tiered seats built inside
Busy, busy how those steel rails had shone
Breaking to 4 miles per hour, bearing to 40 tonne.

Now standing o­n the shoreline a hundred years hence
All that I find is a crippled railway inside a modern fence
Why should I feel sad, when I wasn't there
History's not even my subject, but feelings I still bear.

Who am I but a resident respecting the past
Knowing someone made something, intending it to last
I'm not doing a lot but others certainly are
Looking to the lift, now where is that car

There are still two others riding up and down
But o­ne built in 1890, must surely 'wear the crown
A chap called Bob Mouland more than loves it a bit
He's vowed to return it, where weeds now do sit

He's gathered some friends with a like minded view
Away o­n a crane, the car to renew
Down at the bottom we'll wait by the lift
For something repaired and valued, how proud it will sit.

Anne Houghton
November 2006