The government has extended the trial bus fare subsidy scheme to the end of June.

Thanks to government support, the £ 2 maximum single fares apply on Arriva’s routes 7 and 402 connecting Southborough with Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.  (A list of route exceptions is at the end of the blog.)

Meanwhile, there is still no prospect of an improved route for cyclists trying to travel between Tonbridge and Tonbridge Wells.

The latest episode of the podcast, West Kent Talking, has just been published. It outlines the obstacles to efforts to get people out of cars and so alleviate the continuing road congestion that costs so many local people time and money.

There is apparently not enough funding available to build the segregated cycle routes that would encourage a big switch to cycling. Meanwhile the scheme to impose 20 mph limits on traffic speeds in Tonbridge in an effort to make streets safer got a mixed response from the public.

In this podcast, Martin Webber discusses the big local transport issues with the man responsible for the area’s roads, David Brazier of the Conservatives who’s Kent County Council’s cabinet member for Highways and Transport. David Brazier tells us why he thinks a cycle route within the existing A26 road width would be unsafe, while the idea of a new cycle route parallel to the A26 (on the fringes of farmland between Southborough and Tonbridge) would be unaffordable.

Plus you will hear from the Liberal Democrat’s Peter Lidstone, who is the cycling and walking champion in Tunbridge Wells. And finally listen to the ideas of Adrian Berendt, who works for the national group Campaign for Better Transport and who’s also vice-Chair of the Tunbridge Wells Town Forum. Adrian Berendt believes a new A26 segregated cycle lane is possible and would benefit the 7,000 children who attend schools along the A26 in the St. John’s area.

You can listen on Apple Podcasts or use this link to Spotify podcasts:

The following Arriva routes are excluded from the £2 single fares:

286 Coleman’s Hatch – Tunbridge Wells

531 Noah’s Ark – Weald of Kent School

582 Tunbridge Wells – Hugh Christie Technology College

771 Weald of Kent School – West Malling

772 Weald of Kent School – Hadlow

773 Hayesbrook School – West Malling

774 Bennett Memorial School – West Malling

775 Bennett Memorial School – Kings Hill

776 Tunbridge Wells – Hadlow

77X Weald of Kent School – West Malling

A 24-hour strike by BBC staff in Tunbridge Wells began today as journalists protested about cuts to local radio which will see BBC Radio Kent’s most popular show face the axe.

The dispute is over changes proposed by BBC bosses in November which will see Radio Kent share much of its output with neighbouring BBC local stations serving Sussex, Surrey and Greater London.

Due to the strike, the widely watched BBC half-hour evening regional TV news programme, South East Today, was replaced on Wednesday with an edition of Garden Rescue.

Under the cuts, BBC Radio Kent will be left with only two unique programmes on weekdays, while all its weekend output (apart from sport) will merge with nearby stations. 

That is likely to mean the end of Radio Kent’s most listened to programme, Sunday Gardening, which runs from 10am to 2pm and is presented in Tunbridge Wells by long term staff member, Andy Garland.  Almost all existing staff including Andy Garland (pictured below) have been placed “at risk of redundancy”.

Southborough News spoke to staff on the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) picket line outside the BBC Tunbridge Wells studios this afternoon who all feel the planned changes will mean that BBC local radio will be less effective at covering local news and issues.

The NUJ representative for Radio Kent and Online at BBC South East Bob Dale told us: “We think the audience of Kent deserves a proper local service.  That’s what they pay their licence fee for.  Something like Netflix is good for drama but its not going to tell you how much your council tax is going up by.”

Bob Dale continued: “We’ve had protracted negotiations with management on this.  There’s been no movement. The programme sharing ideas are still on the table, so that’s why we’ve had to take this unfortunately drastic step of coming out on strike for 24 hours.” 

Bob Dale said there was no sign of compromise with management.  He told us: “There were talks on Monday but there was no movement on the plans to share local programming. That’s the red line. That is what’s caused this dispute. “

Local radio is still going out on Wednesday evening but without many of the usual presenters.  The 6.30pm local television local news programmes came off air across England. The strike ends at 11am on Thursday. 

Under the management plans, many radio roles will be repurposed as jobs writing online stories.

The Liberal Democrat Party’s new candidate to fight the next general election, Mike Martin, says he believes “my chances are pretty good” of defeating the area’s current Conservative MP, Greg Clark.

Mike Martin is a former British army officer who now writes about resolving conflict.

Mr Martin (pictured below) gave an extended interview to West Kent Radio and the West Kent Talking podcast in which he promised to “reflect the values” of the people living in the constituency if he is elected.

Mike Martin said that the area’s demographics are changing and – of those people moving into the Tunbridge Wells constituency – he argued “very few of them vote Conservative”.

Mr Martin won the selection vote among local party members, replacing Ben Chapelard who fought as the Liberal Democrat candidate at the last general election.

Another general election needs to be held sometime in the next two years and the Conservative Party’s opinion poll ratings have collapsed since the replacement of Boris Johnson as leader last year. Greg Clark won 55% of the local vote at the last general election.

Following the breakdown in the water supply system for many local residents before Christmas, Mike Martin is highly critical of what he believes to be weak regulation of the privatised water industry by the Conservative government, which has led to a lack of investment in the network.

Mike Martin said: “If you dig into South East Water’s corporate structure, you can see these financing vehicles in the Caymans and in Luxemburg. And effectively what the company has been doing is swapping out debt for equity, or asset stripping, so that rather than using money to invest in the network, which would stop some of these problems, they’ve taken the money and given it to shareholders for profit and that’s completely unacceptable.”

He continued: “If you have a situation where the pipes freeze and then they thaw; and then we have water leaks and we are not able to detect all of them and so the network goes down for six days; and then pumping stations go down and all the rest of it, I would argue that is a clear case of under investment in the network.”

Mr Martin described Greg Clark’s actions in trying to improve the company’s crisis response and push for quick compensation payments as: “Bolting the stable door after the horse has fled.”

Mike Martin said: “If you are going to privatise something – particularly something that is a natural monopoly like water – then you need to regulate it appropriately.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate continued: “It is quite clear that the regulator, OFWAT, allows the companies to determine their own financial structures and it also appears that the government is very very happy with that. So effectively what the government has allowed…is these companies to underinvest in the network, allowing the ridiculous situation where people didn’t have water six days before Christmas.”

In response, South East Water’s Chief Financial Officer, Andrew Farmer said: “Between 2020 and 2025 we are investing more than £480 million in upgrading our infrastructure which includes our water treatment works and pipeline network. South East Water is resident in the UK for tax purposes.”

In a half hour interview, Mike Martin also discussed Afghanistan, Ukraine, climate change and public sector strikes.

On the issue of relations with the European Union, Mike Martin agreed that most people wanted to move on from the Brexit debate.  He accepted that the party’s policy was eventually to rejoin the EU “single market” regulatory system, but he said he was not going to be campaigning on the issue – and rejoining the EU would need what he called “some sort of democratic mandate.”

You can hear his answers in full by downloading the West Kent Talking podcast, which is available on Spotify and Apple podcasts.

A woman in Southborough says she wants more action from the authorities to combat irresponsible dog owners after she was bitten on the face and arms by a large dog.

The victim was subjected to an unrelenting attack from the dog – which was not on its lead and out of control – in the woods in Southborough Common on January 12^th.

The injuries required hospital treatment. But despite initial suggestions by a police officer that the owner of the dangerous dog could be ordered to have it muzzled and put on a lead in public, the police now say no civil action can be enforced.

In a statement to Southborough News on Monday, the police said the matter had been dealt with by a so-called “community resolution.”

The dog that caused the injuries was a fox red Labrador called Liska (pictured below with the woman who was walking the Labrador). The dog was in season at the time.

The Labrador initially appeared friendly, but then circled the victim’s own smaller dog – before the Labrador closed its jaws on the smaller dog.

To save the life of her own small dog, the woman then lifted her dog into her arms and walked away, but the Labrador went after them.

The Labrador then repeatedly leapt up to try to attack the small dog and the victim. The woman victim (her injured face shown below) eventually managed to grab the collar of the Labrador and its owner finally put the Labrador on a lead.

The police promised to visit the home of the Labrador’s owner but no such visit appears to have taken place. The officer who spoke to the victim now says no civil orders to muzzle dangerous dogs can be enforced by either the police or dog wardens.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has been notified, but apparently not the owner of the woods which is Southborough Town Council.

Kent Police were asked for a statement on the incident last Thursday and provided one today from Inspector Ian Jones of the Tunbridge Wells Community Safety Unit, which was as follows: “Kent Police received a report of a dog attacking another dog at around 10.45am in Southborough Common on Thursday 12 January 2022. The owner of the dog that was harmed also sustained injuries, which required hospital treatment.”

The statement continues: “Kent Police takes reports of this nature extremely seriously and investigations can result in animals being seized and cases pursued through the courts, which ultimately may lead to the animal being destroyed. However, we always keep victims’ wishes at the heart of our decision-making and sometimes they don’t want to pursue a prosecution. In this eventuality, a community resolution is another outcome favoured by some victims.”

“A community resolution is an agreement between the victim and offender, facilitated by the police, to resolve matters through communication and education. In this instance, officers visited the victim to discuss the incident, where it was agreed that the best course of action would be to give the dog owner words of advice, including how to keep their dog under control.”

“Officers spoke to the owner of the other dog to advise how best to prevent further incidents, making them aware of the potential consequences should they not have control of their animal.”

The statement concluded: “We encourage all dog owners and walkers to safeguard themselves. When out walking, keep your phone charged and switched on, avoid areas known to be used by unleashed animals, and walk with others if possible. If you come across a dog you are concerned about, avoid them or walk the other way, and contact the local dog warden.”

In a separate recent attack in Tunbridge Wells, a man’s Dachshund dog was killed by another out-of-control dog.

A woman in Southborough says she wants more action from the authorities to combat irresponsible dog owners after she was bitten on the face and arms by a large dog.

The victim was subjected to an unrelenting attack from the dog – which was not on its lead and out of control – in the woods in Southborough Common on January 12^th.

The injuries required hospital treatment and the police investigation concluded the injuries reached the legal threshold of Actual Bodily Harm.

Despite initial suggestions by a police officer that the owner of the dangerous dog could be ordered to have it muzzled and put on a lead in public, the police now say no civil action can be enforced.

The dog that caused the injuries was a fox red Labrador called Liska (pictured below with the woman who was walking the Labrador). The dog was in season at the time.

The Labrador initially appeared friendly, but then circled the victim’s own smaller dog – before the Labrador closed its jaws on the smaller dog.

To save the life of her own small dog, the woman then lifted her dog into her arms and walked away, but the labrador went after them.

The Labrador then repeatedly leapt up to try to attack the small dog and the victim. The victim eventually managed to grab the collar of the Labrador and its owner finally put the Labrador on a lead.

The police promised to visit the home of the Labrador’s owner but no such visit appears to have taken place. The officer who spoke to the victim now says no orders to muzzle dangerous dogs can be enforced by either the police or dog wardens.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council has been notified, but apparently not the owner of the woods which is Southborough Town Council.

Kent Police were asked for a statement on the incident last Thursday but have not responded.

In a separate recent attack in Tunbridge Wells, a man’s Dachshund dog was killed by another out-of-control dog.

The panto “Dick Whittington’s Adventures in Southborough” opens tonight in the new Southborough Football Pavillion promising fun for all ages.

Starring Emily Cooper (pictured below) as Dick Whittington, it runs for 3 days starting on Friday 13 January with 5 performances including matinees at Noon on Saturday and Sunday.

Dick Whittington travels “all the way from Tonbridge to Southborough because I thought the streets were paved with gold.”

Martin Collis (below), who plays Thomas the cat, says it is the tenth pantomime he’s performed in.  He says: “I am the hero of this story because I slay the rats.”

Tickets can be booked through thecommunitypanto.eventbrite.co.uk. The Friday evening opening performance is at 7pm, while  Saturday and Sunday evening shows are at 5pm.

The rats are played by Harrison Wheeler, Lea Lowe and Jacob Murray (all below).

Meanwhile Oscar Collis (below) plays the Mayor of Southborough.

And Rosie Mellerick (below) is Fanny Fitzwarren.

Last year’s Southborough panto was held at the new Southborough Civic Centre, which replaced the Royal Victoria Hall – home of theatre and panto for the town for the previous hundred years.

The panto director and producer, Nell Price (below) told Southborough News she was disappointed that – this year – they hadn’t been able to return to the much larger new hall in Southborough Civic Centre.

Nell Price said: “We absolutely loved having our panto in the Civic Centre last year – but unfortunately this year we couldn’t come to an agreement with Southborough Town Council for being able to use the space in a long term plan.  We just can’t afford to hire it at the cost it is at the moment.”

Nell Price explained: “We are a Community Pantomime. We don’t charge “show fees”. We try to make it as inclusive as possible, so everybody can take part, so they are not excluded because they can’t afford it.”

Actors – and parents of child actors – often pay “show fees” to productions for the privilege of being in the show.  Without such fees, it means there are no initial funds for the production to pay advance booking fees to the Town Council.

Nell Price says: “Luckily we have got the Tunbridge Wells Youth Football club that have very kindly allowed us to use their pavilion, so long may it be in Southborough.”  The Football Club are not charging the panto for hire of their hall, but the club will benefit from increased bar and snack sales.

Last year, Southborough Town Council let the panto use the Civic Centre space for free.  Nell Price says the deal that the panto offered the Council was that any profit they made (including profits on a bar and refreshments) would go to the Town Council.

At the previous location of the Angel Centre, the panto had built up a big following and made a profit of several thousand pounds.  Nell Price argues that would actually be a larger return in the long run for the Town Council than the fixed hire fee they wanted up front.  But her arguments only managed to persuade a couple of members of the Town Council and the plan was rejected.

The current annual losses of running the new Southborough Civic Centre are funded by the council tax payers of Southborough. But the council says in the next year the Civic Centre’s facilities will be radically improved by a bar and a cinema screen, which should bring in increased revenue.

Poignant tributes to the late Queen Elizabeth II from three Tunbridge Wells residents have been published on my new podcast, West Kent Talking.

The three interviews were with the Mayors of Southborough and Tunbridge Wells and a former magistrate, Peter Blackwell. They were recorded for West Kent Radio in the days following the monarch’s death in September.

Peter Blackwell (pictured below with hat and medal) was born in Tunbridge Wells in 1944 and worked as a local telephone engineer.

Peter Blackwell became a magistrate in Tunbridge Wells in 1971, before giving decades of service on the bench, which led to a memorable conversation with the Queen in 2006. He recounted how the Queen jokingly advised him to behave himself.

On the podcast you can also listen to the Mayor of Tunbridge Wells, Godfrey Bland, who was one of the first people to see the new Queen Elizabeth in Kenya in 1952. Plus the Mayor of Southborough, Dianne Hill, talks about how the Queen helped lift women’s status in British society.

The podcast also replays the official Proclamation ceremony held in Tunbridge Wells on 11th September 2022 – spectators shown below.

You can listen to the podcast on this link.

Earlier podcasts contained:
Episode 1: Organic Apple production in West Kent plus 5 other items
Episode 2: Controversy over house building plans on green fields in Capel
Episode 3: Greg Clark MP talks about why he went into politics and current issues

This is the video link to the Proclamation ceremony in Tunbridge Wells held on 11th September.

And here are the links to the earlier podcasts:

With thousands of people in the Tunbridge Wells area still without running water, the local MP Greg Clark (below) issued a new statement on Wednesday about what he called “the ongoing appalling situation with South East Water”.

Greg Clark’s statement on Wednesday reads:

“The handling of the situation by South East Water has been, and continues to be, unacceptably bad and in some instances chaotic.

I have spoken with the Minister for Water, Rebecca Pow MP, and asked for the Government to intervene with South East Water to inject better capability from other companies and from the Department to handle and resolve the situation here.

I have also spoken to Roger Gough, the Leader of Kent County Council, to ask that their experience of emergency responses is made available to be used in this incident.

Neither should be necessary. In my view, a company providing an essential service – and there is none so essential as providing running water to people – should have well-designed and well-rehearsed plans for when things go wrong, including leadership, operations and communications. South East Water has shown itself to be deficient in all of these.

I want to address two problems in particular in this update: the supply of water itself, and the arrangements for bottled water to be supplied to people without tap water.

I have spoken every day with the Chief Executive of South East Water, David Hinton. I wish I could tell you that I am confident that reliable supplies will be resumed imminently, but I’m afraid I can’t.

In my last email (see below) I described the basic engineering problems, so I won’t repeat that here – it still applies, and the reservoir at Blackhurst Lane is too low to supply all households adequately.

There is some good news since my email on Monday, in that the Tonbridge Water Treatment works – which was flooded last month and supplies the Blackhurst Lane reservoir – has passed the tests of water quality and is, as of last night, pumping water to Tunbridge Wells.  However, South East Water told me yesterday that there are still major unexplained losses of water. They assume this is from a number of big leaks somewhere on the network that they have not been able to find, probably resulting from frozen pipes last week. That means that there is as much water leaving the reservoir as filling it, so that the problem of supply persists. This is a depressing conclusion, which means there is no end in sight, but I don’t want to hide from you my own assessment from these calls.

This means that the need to get bottled water to everyone affected is especially important. Frankly, yesterday was farcical on that. The Tesco Pembury site was overwhelmed – not surprising since South East Water had only one other site open (in East Grinstead) covering Kent and Sussex, many areas of which were affected. The water ran out, and the carpark was gridlocked. Tesco then – understandably – said that the disruption to their business was intolerable and things needed to improve. Very kindly they have agreed to let their carpark to continue to be used, and supplies were finally delivered at 11.45pm last night.

As you know, I have been pressing for another site closer to the centre of Tunbridge Wells to be made available for those without transport to Pembury.

Finally a site was opened at the Salvation Army in Bayhall Road last night. I’m very grateful to the Tunbridge Wells Salvation Army for allowing this, and for the efforts of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council Chief Executive William Benson, who has been working flat out, including very late last night, on helping with the supply of bottled water. I also discussed with William Benson providing facilities for people to shower and he has kindly agreed to look at opening the St John’s Leisure Centre for this later today.

It is important to note that for bottled water priority services are available for the vulnerable or disabled, as well as those with children under 5. You can sign up here.

As I said at the top of this email, all of this paints a picture of a company that I don’t feel can be trusted to get the basics right in responding to this emergency, which is why I have asked for outside help from the Minister and – through the Government and Kent County Council – from other bodies with relevant experience.

I know how big an impact this is having on everyone, at a time of the year in which people were hoping to enjoy themselves.

I have told the South East Water Chief Executive – and I will be speaking to him again this afternoon – that I expect compensation to be paid quickly and straightforwardly, and there needs to be a robust plan implemented to make the system robust against this in the months ahead, as well as in the long term.

But I realise that compensation and future resilience don’t solve what is an emergency right now, and I will not let up in doing everything I can to try to get it resolved.”

Greg Clark statement from Monday 19 December:

It might be of interest to know what I understand from my conversation with the Chief Executive to be the basic engineering of the current disruption, since I don’t think it has been clearly explained.

The underground reservoir which serves part of Tunbridge Wells – on the corner of the Pembury Road and Blackhurst Lane – has only around 20 to 25% of its capacity filled with treated drinking water, when it should be between 75% and 90%.

It fell to such a low level because it was not refilled when the floods last month took out the water treatment works at Groombridge and Tonbridge, which supply the reservoir. At this level, most properties which are below the level of the reservoir – and are therefore supplied by the force of gravity – can still receive water supplies. But in areas above the height of the reservoir, water needs to be pumped to them and the intake for this is at the level of around 20% capacity in the reservoir. Therefore every time the water level drops below 20% these properties – about 3,000 of them – are cut off. When the reservoir refills – usually overnight when demand for water is lower – the supply comes back on when it reaches the 20% mark. This is why the supply has been intermittent for days.

To make water supply robust requires the reservoir to be fuller than 20%. The combination of leaks from burst pipes (increasing flows out of the reservoir) and the Tonbridge water treatment works being broken (decreasing flows in) has meant that the Blackhurst Lane reservoir is not filling up to stop the cuts to supplies to homes. However treatment works at Pembury and Bewl are supplying the reservoir with water and water tankers have been delivering additional supplies.

I was told that there is some positive news in that the Tonbridge works is expected to be repaired and functioning tomorrow, but that there are more burst pipes being discovered as the thaw has taken place.

This is South East Water’s explanation as I have understood it, though I am not an engineer. However, in my view it does not excuse in any way the fact that the system is so lacking in resilience as to have caused misery for so many people.

I raised the issue of Tesco at Pembury being inaccessible to anyone without a car. The Chief Executive agreed that anyone without transport would be able to have it delivered to their door. The number to call to arrange this is 0333 000 2468.

I also emphasised that compensation must be paid to everyone affected, without fuss and without hiding behind any contractual small print.

I will keep up the pressure every day until this is resolved and, once it is, hold to account those responsible for the inadequacy of the resilience of the network here in our area. As I mentioned in an earlier email, I have applied for a debate on the floor of the House of Commons early in the New Year on the subject of ‘The Performance of South East Water’.

The wintry scenes were spectacular on the footpath down the “Hilly Fields” from Pennington Road during the week of snow on the ground which ended abruptly with the big thaw on Monday.

Most stunning were the frosted glass-like shards and crystals on top of the snow.  The pictures don’t capture the full beauty of the landscape, but here are some of my photos anyway for those that want to remember the big freeze of December 2022.

 

 

Sunday night’s first snowfall of the winter left a covering of several inches in Southborough.

It led to long delays for people stuck on slippery roads overnight, but there were splendid snowy scenes to enjoy on Monday on Southborough Common morning despite the cloudy skies.  A selection of what I saw is shown below.

No more significant snow appears to be currently forecast.  But the weather is set to stay cold for another week, with temperatures of  minus 4 overnight – and rising to only one or two degrees centigrade above freezing during the day. By next Sunday 18th December, much milder weather is predicted to return.