It has emerged that Southborough Council has made no plan to salvage the distinctive plaster decorative features next to the stage of the Royal Victoria Hall.

The picture and the film below shows the state of demolition up to Sunday afternoon 14th May 2017.  It is understood that saving the plaster decorative features would require a tower to be set up next to the stage and that would be too costly and time consuming.

The demolition is being conducted by grabbing sections of the brickwork by machine and dropping them on a “soft area”. This is causing the bricks to be separated from the lime mortar, so allowing some of the red bricks to be reclaimed.

Having already trimmed services at peak times last month, the Arriva Bus Company has just announced that its services that directly link Southborough with Bromley will end in July, unless it can get further Kent County Council funding.

Arriva is owned by Deutsche Bahn, which is the massive nationalised rail operator for all of Germany.

The route news was combined with new fare rises.  The all day bus travel ticket popular in Southborough will rise by 8 per cent from £ 4.80  a day to £ 5.20 a day.

The winner of last week’s County Council election for the seat comprising Southborough says he is “acknowledging feedback from the community” regarding the lack of information about how the new Hub development will pay for itself.

Peter Oakford told Southborough News that “as soon as the commercial negotiations are complete”  he would request that the financial information will be made public.

Meanwhile, the demolition of the frontage of the old Southborough Town Council Offices has begun. (Pictures from today below)

Peter Oakford, who won 42% of the vote sent this statement to Southborough News: “I think all candidates participated in a strong and active campaign  which provided local residents with a sound platform to make their voting decision. ”

He continued: “With the election behind us I can now return to the issues I have been working on with the officers of both TWBC & KCC and which formed part of my election manifesto –
* improving road safety for all users,  especially around our local schools,
* Seeking to improve the traffic flow,  air quality and the condition of our local roads, especially the A26,
* Completing the Southborough town centre hub development  – while also acknowledging feedback from the community regarding the financial information which I will be requesting to be made public as soon as the commercial negotiations are complete.

Mr Oakford’s statement ends: “While I would very much like to thank all those that voted for me on May 4th I have been elected to represent all local residents and will continue to do so to the best of my ability”.

The Royal Victoria Hall, which opened in 1900 and was described as Britain’s “first municipal theatre” still stands with its red brick walls in place, but the roof removed.

It is set to be replaced with a combined hall, library, cafe and medical centre building in polycarbonate cladding (example of polycarbonate cladding in London shown below):

At the election, the combined voting share of the opposition Labour and Liberal Democrat parties was 51%.  The defeated Liberal Democrat candidate, Marguerita Morton, told Southborough News: “Of course I am disappointed by the result.  However, if you add the votes cast for Lib Dems and Labour, both of us were against the Hub in our different ways, you would have a majority for not building the excessively expensive hub with the early demolition of the town hall and RVH.”

Ms Morton continued: “I was extremely shocked to see the business plan did not contain figures for future income or expenditure, for that matter. So, we may have the demolition of a town hall and cherished theatre building without a replacement.  That is unacceptable.”

In a statement on Facebook, the Labour candidate, Martin Betts, said: “I take heart from the fact that we nearly doubled and significantly increased the share of our vote and that I came second. In other words we bucked the national trend.”

Mr Betts continued: “We will continue to say that there must be much better engagement between councillors and the people of Southborough and High Brooms. We live here and we will enjoy or suffer the long term effects of any decisions that councillors make. We are not children. We expect to be involved in developing the town’s future, to know the total cost, and what we will be expected to pay year on year into the future. We do deserve better”.

The man who has masterminded the radical new Hub development in Southborough, Peter Oakford, was reelected for another four year term by 42% of voters in the “Tunbridge Wells North” constituency in yesterday’s Kent County Council election.

The opposition to the Conservatives was split between Labour with 26% and the Liberal Democrat with 25%.  The UKIP vote collapsed in line with national trends.

Mr Oakford added 644 votes compared with his support in the same poll in 2013.   Labour added 576 votes and the Lib Dems added 506 supporters. Opposition parties pointed out the majority of voters (58 %) did not support the Conservative candidate.

Mr Oakford is pictured above on the left of the picture during the campaign, with our Westminster Conservative MP Greg Clark in centre right.

Turnout was a disappointing 35%.  In a comment on Facebook, a local Conservative colleague and Southborough Town Councillor, Ian Kinghorn, called the result: “a ringing endorsement of Conservative policies.”

The Labour candidate, Martin Betts, (below) told Southborough News: “I think there was a lot of anger about the demolition of the Royal Victoria Hall among our supporters in Southborough and High Brooms. We put a huge amount of work into leafleting. It was always going to be tough to win and I think it is a positive result for us given the national trend for Labour.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate, Marguerita Morton, told Southborough News: “Of course I am disappointed by the result.  However, if you add the votes cast for Lib Dems and Labour, both of us were against the Hub in our different ways, you would have a majority for not building the excessively expensive hub with the early demolition of the town hall and RVH.”

Ms Morton continued: “I was extremely shocked to see the business plan did not contain figures for future income or expenditure, for that matter. So, we may have the demolition of a town hall and cherished theatre building without a replacement.  That is unacceptable.”

Ms Morton (pictured above) concluded: “Many people, if not most, do want to “get on” with the development – not least our businesses, because the dilapidated look of Southborough town centre puts off visitors.  But this has to be considered alongside how the infrastructure of the town is going to cope with the extra traffic from the housing development.  I fear that this is not the end of the story but the beginning of a long drawn out fight between the governors and the governed under Tory rule”.

The Annual Town Meeting held on Wednesday gave an opportunity for ordinary residents to explain their concerns with the two hours dominated by the Hub project and anger at the replacement of garages with more housing.

The full audio of the meeting is available here in 5 parts.  LISTENING TIP FOR iPHONES: Click on the words “Listen in Browser” in the pictures below.

The first section (below) lasts 9 mins and is where the Chairman of Southborough Town Council, David Elliott, gave his report. He explained he often used his “fantastic” electric bicycle to get to many Town functions.

Mr Elliott said the key event of the year was the granting of planning permission for the Southborough Hub and he said he was satisfied that “proper public consultation has taken place” over the development. He argued the Hub “will revitalise the centre of Southborough”.

The second audio section lasts 11 mins and starts with the report by Cllr Sheridan Bowie, who is the Chairman of Planning and Transportation Committee.  He explained that his committee had often objected to planning applications as overdevelopment but: “sadly in almost all cases, Tunbridge Wells have ignored our comments and approved planning.” He also said there had been “little success” in improving the bus service.  Cllr Glenn Lester’s report (begins at 1 min 40 secs) on Parks and Cemetery then explained there was new help for the fish in Holden Pond and there were new fences and a crazy golf facility in Pennington Park.

After 4 mins 25 secs, Cllr Peter Oakford (pictured above) begins his report as Chairman of Finance and General Purposes Committee. At 9 mins on the recording, he argues there is still “a small minority not supportive of the (Hub) project.” Cllr Oakford said the KCC project manager Jon White had taken “a great deal of abuse, but has always acted with utter professionalism to get us where we are today.”

Cllr Oakford announced a 2% increase in the Town’s council tax, which is a rise of £2.17 a year.

The third section deals with the Southborough Hub and lasts 30 mins. It starts with a progress report by Glenn Lester and then questions start at 7 mins.

Maxwell Macfarlane asked about forward planning for the management of the Hub theatre. Another resident asked why no survey or study had been carried out into the need for a new theatre before deciding to build it.

The fourth section is a continuation of the questions about the Hub and lasts another 32 mins:

The first question is about how the extra housing will impact on the traffic. KCC’s Jon White said “the car parking has been massively increased” in the housing development. Martin Betts pointed out that no business plan has been published and asked “how much is this going to cost?”

The fifth section is the 20 mins of general questions which followed:

They start with questions about cars parked on pavements and there is a very heated section about demolishing garages and replacing them with more new housing. After 5 minutes, one resident is asked to “calm down”. Then after 7 mins the exchange goes: “I think you’ve made your point…No, I haven’t!…We have lost 93 garages already, we are about to lose another 20”.

Residents in Southborough will go to the polls on Thursday 4th May to vote for their Kent County Councillor, with opposition parties attempting to reduce the Conservative vote by capitalising on local concern about new house building plans and the decline of the town’s shops and facilities.

In the last week, the last cafe in Southborough, Cafe Bliss, said it would close by July. Martin Betts (pictured below) is standing for Labour and his election leaflet describes what he calls “two years of chaos” in Southborough.

Mr Betts argues that the Conservatives should not be demolishing the town’s heritage asset, the Royal Victoria Hall, and does not welcome the Hub development in its current form.  Mr Betts says residents have been “kept in the dark” and warns of the consequences of 65 homes being built on Southborough’s Ridgewaye playing fields, which he fears will lead to more traffic congestion.

By contrast, the Conservative candidate, Peter Oakford (pictured below) has been the pivotal figure in championing the Southborough Hub scheme, as he is a leading figure on Kent County Council, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Southborough Town Council, which have all agreed to merge their land holdings to take the plans forward.

In Mr Oakford’s election leaflet he argues: “The Hub will create a vibrant and all-inclusive facility at the heart of our town.  The main facilities will be a new medical centre, fully flexible theatre/hall, modern library and community space.”

The Liberal Democrat candidate,  Marguerita Morton (pictured below) in a recent newsletter argued: “The planned Southborough Hub presents a key opportunity to provide high quality local services and benefit the whole community… I want to ensure … that it is a well designed, beautiful and modern building for the community fit for the 21st century”.

Ms Morton continued: “if there was any excess monies from the sale of land, they should put it into a community fund for the benefit of the people of Southborough and that they could save money by not building such an ambitious town centre building thereby making it less important to build 69 new homes behind the hub”.

The Hub scheme (pictured below) will take at least three years to complete and cost several million pounds, paid for by the sale of a section of the Ridgewaye playing fields:

The existing Southborough library building will be demolished. A plan of the new buildings is shown below:

No election leaflets have been delivered to Southborough News’s address from the UKIP or Green candidates for this election. Voting on Thursday 4 May 2017 is between 7am and 10pm. The full list of candidates in the County Council elections this year is:

The table below shows the levels of support for the parties in the last County Council election in 2013, when UKIP was polling strongly at a national level and came second.

At this year’s Southborough Town Meeting, residents were given a pledge that their Council tax bill would not rise as a result of the Southborough Hub development.

Cllr Peter Oakford (left in picture below) told the meeting that: “The worst case scenario (for the theatre hire revenue) is based on 50 per cent of the revenue that used to be generated by the Royal Victoria Hall and – at that level – the facility – with what is coming in (in rent) from the doctors and the other areas – generates enough money that there will not need to be an increase in the precept for the Council tax.  Absolutely that’s what the numbers have said.”

Cllr Glenn Lester (pictured centre) said the Hub building work would start “late this year”.  He said no decision had been made about what would happen to the current library site. It could be reused by Kent County Council or see 10 new homes built there.

Cllr Oakford revealed that “we have had some offers way above what we anticipated we were going to have for that piece of land (on the playing fields), which gives us extra money to put into the development, which perhaps means we get some better finishes than we thought.”

He continued: “As soon as the deal is signed, the numbers will be made public.” After questioning, it was clarified that the impending land deal is “subject to planning”, so no revenue will be received by the Councils from the developers until a final housing scheme for the playing fields is approved by planners, which is unlikely to happen quickly.

Cllr Oakford was asked why the detailed business plan hadn’t been given to Southborough Town Councillors to scrutinise.  Cllr Oakford argued that no business plan has been published because the information was “commercially sensitive” and if the rents they expected from the coffee shop and doctors facility were published then that would reduce what tenants would offer.

Cllr Dianne Hill (7th from left in picture) from the Labour group responded by saying “I am supposed to be representing these people (in High Brooms) and how can I represent them if I don’t know what’s going on?”

Southborough resident Maxwell Macfarlane asked what forward planning is being made about the management of the Hub’s theatre. A representative from Tunbridge Wells Borough Council confirmed that staff from the Assembly Hall would run the new Southborough Theatre for the first two years “to try to understand what kind of shows might be popular, what kind of demand there is” and then Southborough Town Council would then make a decision who they wanted to run the theatre after that.

Around 70 members of the public attended this year’s event at Southborough Primary School. Other residents expressed concerns about:

• increased traffic from all the new housing developments
• the A26 being blocked by Hub construction traffic
• possible increased fees for Ridgewaye Soccer Club as a result of renting a pavillion from Southborough Town Council when their current clubhouse is rent free
• Developers building new homes where garages were, so worsening parking issues
• What would happen to the existing community coffee shop, Cafe Bliss, if – as is hoped – the Hub attracts a branded coffee shop

Links to the audio from the meeting will be posted on this site over the weekend.

A new bus timetable comes into effect on April 2nd but there’s disappointment that there will be no improvement in the sparse service at peak times, suggesting that car drivers will continue to clog up the A26 and pollute Southborough’s air for the forseeable future.

There had been hopes that a more frequent peak time service would tempt more commuters heading for Tonbridge station to take the bus and also persuade parents using their cars on the daily school run between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells to send their children by bus instead.

However, a review by the Arriva bus company of the service from Tunbridge Wells to Tonbridge actually seems to have resulted in a less frequent peak service than before.

The bus service from 7.32am to 8.32am from Southborough still consists of just 2 buses to Tonbridge – just one every half hour. The total of morning services up to 9am is cut from 16 to 13. Arriva says its changes: “are designed to improve reliability but also include improved Sunday services”.

One passenger recently told Southborough News that the existing poor service around 8am was “outrageous” and frequently made her late for work and schoolchildren late for school.  She said: “Two buses drove straight past me because there was no more room on them – I waited 40 minutes to get the morning bus to Tonbridge.”

The packed inside of one of the peak time bus services is shown above approaching Southborough Fountain stop around 7.45am, with little room for more passengers.

During term time, two school buses also currently take on regular passengers at Southborough just before 7.30am, but one of those services has been cancelled. The 581 bus to Hugh Christie – which did start in High Brooms – will cease.

Key: Time in bold is route 7 to Maidstone; others are 402 to Dunton Green (italics to Bromley)
h – Hugh Christie bus only runs during school days

UPDATE 29th March: After receiving full timetables from Arriva, I found one extra service at 0645.  However, the new information still suggests scheduled gaps of:
25 mins from 0650 to 0714,
22 mins from 0731 to 0753,
23 mins from 0753 to 0810 and
25 mins from 0810 to 0835.

The sparse service at school and commuting rush hour contrasts with a far better service during the daytime. Southborough News has requested an explanation from Arriva.

On Mondays to Saturdays, the daytime service after 9am will continue to run on average every 8 minutes from Southborough to Tonbridge. Every hour, 3 buses will be heading to Sevenoaks and 3 to Maidstone with 1 to Bromley.

On Sundays, there will be an increase to 2 buses an hour between Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells town centres via Southborough. Currently there is just one bus every hour on Sunday. Also on Sundays, the 281 between High Brooms, Tunbridge Wells and Rusthall will be increased to run every 20 minutes.

Other changes include:

• On the 7 Maidstone route, the evening service on Mondays to Saturdays will be improved to run later, with last departures from Maidstone at 2210 hours and from Tunbridge Wells at 2226.
• On the 402 service, the through service from Tunbridge Wells to Bromley will continue to run hourly on Mondays to Saturdays but to revised times and buses will run via Weald village instead of via River Hill.

Efforts began this weekend to find the exact spot where a windmill once stood on Southborough Common near Modest Corner.

An area with a raised area of earth has been identified as the likely location and a survey was undertaken of the ground there using professional equipment in an attempt to find evidence of the original four brick pillars that supported the windmill.

The illustration above by Hugo Webber is based on a windmill at Nutley in the Ashdown Forest that is still operational.  It is one of the oldest designs of mill for grinding corn for flour  – used in Britain since the 12th Century – and the Southborough Common windmill may have been similar.

Saturday’s survey was organised by the Southborough and High Brooms Amateur Archaeology Society (SHAAS) and the Kent High Weald Partnership in collaboration with Southborough Town Council, which owns the land, and the Southborough Society. Work on Saturday is shown below:

One archaeology expert travelled from the Cotswolds for the occasion and a dozen or so local people helped with the geophysical survey. The organisations will continue to explore the site in the coming months and hope to add to the history of this part of the Common.

Meanwhile SHAAS is also organising a dig at the Ridgewaye allotments on 19th March 2017.  It is described as a family archaeology dig and you need to book in advance into two, 2 hour slots from 10am-12pm and 1pm-3pm.

The Society says: “This area has previously produced some interesting artefacts. So SHAAS is inviting you, your family and friends to help us discover more of Southborough’s interesting historical past”.

The dig is suitable for everyone aged 7 years plus. All children below 16 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. To book email:
info@southborougharchaeology.org

The Archaeology Society is also holding its AGM on the 7th March at 7:30 upstairs in the Imperial pub in Southborough.

A rousing speech from a former mayor, Richard Blackwell, began the historic final council meeting of Southborough Town Council to be held in its building in London Road, which is about to be demolished to make way for the Hub.

Richard Blackwell (pictured below) served on Southborough Council for 31 years from 1972, and his speech drew applause from councillors of all parties. This revised report ends with 2 new links to video highlights of the historic meeting.

Mr Blackwell said: “It is probably 140 years since the Local Government Board met here.  It was the meeting room in which the first Urban District Council met.  I was privileged to be the mayor at our centenary in 1994 when we celebrated with a magnificent carnival through the town, a church service and a flypast.”

He pointed out that Southborough goes back to the 12th Century and is therefore older than Tunbridge Wells. He remarked: “One of the saddest days was in 1974… when we lost the autonomy we had as an Urban District Council.   The old council built 850 social homes in this town. They built a magnificent park, Pennington Grounds.  They claimed the common for the people of Southborough – people thought at the time that £10,000 was a lot of money for a piece of land. What a treasure it is today!”

Here you can watch Richard Blackwell’s speech in full :

He continued: “Sadly we have lost too much in this town. We have lost our secondary school, our police station, our ambulance station, three banks, two building societies.  One wonders what we are going to lose next. But it is up to you friends, as the representatives of this council to fight for this council. We have to put politics aside, put people first and have a vision.”

Mr Blackwell, who last year dubbed the new Southborough Hub a “plastic lunch box” concluded: “We have lost the argument as this building and next door is coming down, but always hold before you that we want the very best for our generations which are to come in this town but never forget the debt we owe to those who worked in this chamber.”

Councillors posed above for a final photo in their old home.

At the meeting Councillors rejected a motion to start work on a neighbourhood plan for Southborough to try to influence the planned major housing development that the current government plans for the whole of south east England. Paddock Wood has apparently decided to consult local people on a plan, but Cllr Oakford said doing so in Southborough might duplicate efforts being made by the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.

Below are 20 mins of video highlights from the historic meeting in the old venue (above) which I filmed, edited and then uploaded to YouTube. If you care about where you live and its future development, do take a look.  Regrettably, I will not have the time to make every meeting transparent in this way, so please do make time to watch these speeches from the people that represent you. Everyone who spoke is shown speaking.

Here is the second part:

Any comments? Do submit them to this blog or email martin.webber10536@gmail.com

Developers wanting to build housing on the section of the Ridgewaye fields that is raising the money to build the Hub and the demolish the Royal Victoria Hall and council offices are being invited to bid for the land. Applications through Bracketts of Tunbridge Wells:

http://bit.ly/2mjrUux