The town’s heritage and amenities group, the Southborough Society, says a museum to display the area’s rich and varied history should be incorporated into plans for the new Hub.

The Society set out its ideas at its Annual General Meeting on Thursday night which saw the best attendance for a decade, with around 50 members and non-members attending.

The evening began with a talk about conservation work on Southborough Common given by Ian Johnstone of the Kent High Weald project and concluded with many members expressing their concern about the planned replacement for Southborough’s currently well-used library.

The Society’s retiring President, Lt Col Maxwell Macfarlane, told the Society’s members his view was that the replacement library should be a “self-contained quiet room, not a corridor with books in it”. He continued: “I’m worried that the library in the Hub is not going to be what it ought to be.”

The current brief for the new library has been published under a Freedom of Information request to Kent County Council.  The Council says its aim is  “to create a “buzzy”, busy space” in the Hub.  For full details click this link:

http://bit.ly/1RfwSeZ

In his address on Thursday, the Southborough Society Chairman, Michael Howes, told members: “This year is a turning point in the history of Southborough as we eagerly await the planning application for the Hub project. This has proved to be a controversial and divisive development – to say the least – and the Society has actively encouraged members to monitor the scheme at its various stages including the public consultation which was held in January.”

Michael Howes continued: “A pitiful number of people responded to this consultation and this suggests a huge apathy amongst members of the community who are presumably fed up with this political hot potato, not to mention the current eyesore of the site on London Road”.

The Southborough Society has had several meetings with Jonathan White, the project coordinator at the KCC, to advise him of the facilities the Society would like to be included.

Michael Howes’ address continued: “In particular, we have pushed for a museum area within the new library complex so that Southborough can at long last have somewhere to show off its rich and varied history. The draft plans which were released last week definitely have room for improvement and the local theatre people in particular have been vocal about the inadequacies of the proposed facilities. We look forward to the project progressing rapidly and intend to keep a very close eye on the developments”.

Labour’s Dianne Hill has won a convincing victory in Thursday’s Borough Council election for the ward of Southborough (South) and High Brooms.

She said said she was delighted by an “amazing” result, having achieved 52 % of the vote in a ward where the leading candidates in recent years have usually taken the seat with only 30-40% of the votes cast.

The turnout of 32 % was similar to the last time a local election was held without a simultaneous General Election.

 

During the campaign Labour’s Dianne Hill, told voters of her “regret” that the Royal Victoria Hall is to be demolished, while the Conservative candidate, Chris Camp,  had said he was “a big supporter” of the new facilities.

After the result on Friday, Dianne Hill told Southborough News: “I am delighted to have been elected again to the Borough Council today with a decisive majority. My victory is a victory for all of the people of Southborough and High Brooms who have said that they have had enough of the secrecy surrounding the development of our town centre.”

She continued: “People living in the town have said they want the chance to see and comment on the plans for the Hub before they are sent for final planning consent. Together with my Labour colleagues on the council I will continue to press for more openness in decision making and better communication with, and involvement of, all of the people and groups who will be using it long after the councillors and planners have gone.”

Election Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Dianne Hill	Labour	910	52%
Christopher Roger Camp	Conservative	444	26%
Keith Murray-Jenkins	UK Independence Party	197	11%
Matt Lyons	Green Party	97	6%
Jo Wright	Liberal Democrat	91	5%

Total votes 1,739

The ward is traditionally Labour, but the Conservatives won the ward in May last year.

Compared with last year in the same ward, Conservative votes dropped by 845 while Labour votes dropped by 325.

Compared with May 2014, Labour votes were up by 308 and Conservatives down by 147.

Meanwhile the team behind the Southborough Hub development have issued a new picture of what the new buildings will look like.  See below.  The four story building on the left is understood to be the replacement for the Royal Victoria Hall.  The library has the circular roof and the planned medical centre is somewhere behind in the picture.

The Southborough (South) and High Brooms ward has 3 councillors, who each face re-election every 4 years.  After Friday’s vote, the ward’s councillors are now Dianne Hill (Labour), Zulhash Uddin (Conservative) and Graham Munn (Labour).

Southborough North ward has two councillors.  They are David Elliott and Joe Simmons who are both Conservatives.  There was no voting in Southborough North this year.

Dianne Hill’s victory was the only win for Labour on the Borough Council in this round of voting. The Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, which runs most services and is the planning authority, saw voters electing 13 Conservatives, 2 Liberal Democrats and 1 Labour councillor.

For comparison, here are the past four year’s results:

May 2015 election result for Southborough (South) and High Brooms:

Zulhash Uddin	Conservative	1289	38%
Dianne Hill	Labour	1235	36%
Naz Mian	UKIP	546	16%
Marguerita Gladys Morton	Liberal Democrat	325	10%

Total 3395 voted out of 5331 electorate

May 2014 election result for Southborough (South) and High Brooms:

Graham John Munn	Labour	602	32%
Peter John Oakford	Conservative	591	32%
Richard Harrington	UK Independence Party	486	26%
Marguerita Gladys Morton	Liberal Democrat	190	10%

Total 1869 votes

May 2012 election result for Southborough (South) and High Brooms:

Alain Matthew Bryan Lewis	Labour	630	41%
Nasir Jamil	Conservative	604	40%
Christine Jennifer Marshall	UK Independence Party	193	13%
Marguerita Morton	Liberal Democrat	96	6%

Total 1523  votes out of 5303 electorate

 

If you haven’t been out today, you may have missed the best of the Bank Holiday weather.  On the Tunbridge Wells Circular Walk from Pennnington Road out to the Viaduct and beyond, the bluebells are at their best.

The Woodland Trust is inviting people to tell everyone about the best sitings:

http://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/bluebell-watch/

The tiny lambs are another reason to venture out.

Plus we met one family group which has found a new way of getting children enthused about a long walk.  It’s a free app to get children to hunt for hidden treasures:

https://www.geocaching.com/play

 

Voters in High Brooms and the southern half of Southborough are about to say what they think about the dramatic changes planned for the area.

One seat in the powerful Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is up for grabs on Thursday and the result may be close.  The ward has traditionally been won by Labour, but in last May’s vote – which coincided with the General Election that saw David Cameron re-elected – the Conservatives were victorious.

There are three councillors who represent the “Southborough and High Brooms” ward, as it has such a large population.  Labour’s Dianne Hill lost out last year by 54 votes.  This time Dianne Hill is standing again as the candidate to replace the sitting Labour councillor Alain Lewis, who isn’t standing again.

It may sound complicated but essentially you have to choose one candidate to vote for out of the 5 standing on Thursday.  I have asked each candidate to summarise why you should vote for them and the Conservative, Labour and Green Parties have all responded.  I will add the Liberal Democrat and UKIP statements if or when they get back to me.

If – like me – you live in the Southborough North ward, there isn’t a vote for the Borough council, as this area only has two councillors. But we do have a vote for a Kent Police job.

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Conservative candidate: Chris Camp

Chris Camp was born and bred in Kent, has lived in Tunbridge Wells for 40 years and has retired from a major multi-national company. He was recently widowed and he has two children and one grandchild. Both of his children were educated in Southborough. Since his retirement he has worked with several small local enterprises in the Borough. He is also on the board of two charities, one in London and the other in Gillingham.

Chris is a big supporter of the new Community Hub for Southborough. It will provide an up to date theatre facility, a new library, doctor’s surgery and new council offices all on the same site. Ridgewaye Football Club will also get a much needed purpose built pavilion.

If he is elected on May 5^th he will be a tireless campaigner for Southborough and High Brooms. Having recently retired, he has the time and energy to give something back to the local community.

Southborough and High Brooms is Labour’s only seat being contested in this election. Chris wants to send a message to Jeremy Corbyn that his brand of Socialism is not welcome here!

Tunbridge Wells has the second lowest council tax in Kent and is the only Council in the UK to have produced a balanced budget for the last four years. Only the Conservatives will safeguard this record.

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Labour candidate: Dianne Hill

 

 

I have been on Southborough Town Council for 13 years and, until last year, 4 years on the borough council. I welcome the opportunity to stand again to represent the community I live in. I know the issues: parking, traffic, air quality, affordable housing, and loss of green spaces.

I am now retired but worked locally in the telecoms industry for over 26 years. I have 3 children and 4 grandchildren, 3 of whom attended St Matthew’s Primary School where I served as a school governor for many years.

I have fought many local campaigns and also led on the fight for kerbside glass collections.

I fought a successful campaign to get a bus service back in Kibbles Lane when Arriva cut the service in 2011 and will continue to press for better buses throughout our town on roads that are fit for purpose, not full of pot holes.

I regret that the Royal Victoria Hall will be demolished and will continue to press for a replacement theatre we can be proud of. I will continue to ask questions about the Southborough community hub, especially relating to parking and traffic generated from extra housing built on the playing fields.

I am proud to live in the ward. We have a strong community that has come together to form football and cricket clubs, scout and guide organisations, and other voluntary groups.

I am standing because I care. I care about this community that I live in and will continue to fight on the issues that affect us all.

= = = = = = = = =

Green candidate: Matt Lyons

Property prices are now climbing out of the reach of those on not just locally set wages but also teachers and even shop managers. If we do not prioritise affordable housing, many key workers will be forced out of the area in a very similar way to London.

The main  A26 is on course to be gridlocked all the time from 7am to 8pm, as more housing is built along this road. This is causing more pollution. I will campaign for a better long term strategy on road use.

We are opposed to ANY  land sale of the Ridgewaye fields. There is no promise to restore full or new modern facilities for the Royal Victoria Hall (for music and theatre) in what should have been its refurbishment.

Plans are in hand to safeguard the long term future of the Assembly Hall and historically, grants have been given to other theatres and local arts organisations in the centre of Tunbridge Wells. Southborough’s facilities have by contrast been neglected for decades, with the only prospect being offered by selling valuable and irreplaceable land assets.

It would be better to just save the Royal Victoria Hall and council offices, rather than have a hub that can only be generated by losing land in the process.

Also:

• I would like better a bus service with a circular Tonbridge to Knights Park and Hospital route and more late evening buses
• Free parking should be restored immediately to Southborough
• Potholes need to be repaired
• Journeys to bottle banks should be replaced by doorstep recycling
• The Tunbridge Wells to Lewes/Brighton rail line should be reopened www.bml2.co.uk

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UK Independence Party candidate: Keith Murray-Jenkins

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Liberal Democrat candidate: Jo Wright

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May 2015 election result:

Zulhash Uddin	Conservative	1289	38%
Dianne Hill	Labour	1235	36%
Naz Mian	UKIP	546	16%
Marguerita Gladys Morton	Liberal Democrat	325	10%

Total 3395 voted out of 5331 electorate

 

May 2014 election result:

Graham John Munn	Labour	602	32%
Peter John Oakford	Conservative	591	32%
Richard Harrington	UK Independence Party	486	26%
Marguerita Gladys Morton	Liberal Democrat	190	10%

Total 1869 votes

 

May 2012 election result:

Alain Matthew Bryan Lewis	Labour	630	41%
Nasir Jamil	Conservative	604	40%
Christine Jennifer Marshall	UK Independence Party	193	13%
Marguerita Morton	Liberal Democrat	96	6%

Total 1523  votes out of 5303 electorate

 

 

Lloyds Bank will go ahead with the closure of its Southborough branch at the end of July, despite a week of public concern about the decision.

Many customers have already sent letters of protest about the loss of the town’s last bank branch, but a spokesman for Lloyds Bank told this blog on Friday that the decision still stands. And staff at the branch have been telling customers that such closure announcements are final after they have been made by the regional head office.

A spokesperson for Lloyds Bank told “Southborough News” on Friday:

“The Southborough branch will close on 28th July. We have made the difficult decision to close this branch because of the changing way customers choose to bank with us, which has resulted in customers using it less often. Customers can continue to use any other branch in our network and the local Post Office is a short distance away, where customers can manage their day-to-day banking needs. We apologise for any inconvenience that these changes may cause, and have informed customers of the closest alternative branch which is in Tunbridge Wells.”

Lloyds Bank is under pressure to improve profitability, so the government can sell its remaining 10 per cent stake to the maximum benefit of the taxpayer. The bank reported underlying quarterly profits of £ 2.05 billion this week, with the share price 13 per cent down on the year.

During the financial crisis, the UK government encouraged Lloyds to take over the collapsing Halifax-Bank of Scotland group (HBOS), but then taxpayers had to take a 43 per cent stake in Lloyds to keep Lloyds afloat.

The Bank provided “Southborough News” with the following “Background Information”:

* The number of personal customers using the Southborough branch is going down each year by 24%.

* The branch has only 41 regular weekly personal and business customers.

* 72% of our personal customers in Southborough use other branches and other ways to bank such as online and telephone banking.

* 88% of our personal customers already use other branches, such as Tunbridge Wells branch.

* The Post Office is just 0.1 miles away and we will be proactively talking to customers about the service they offer. There are also good public transport links to the alternative branch.

* The nearest free to use ATM is just 0.03 miles away.

* Customers will have their accounts realigned to Tunbridge Wells which is under 2 miles away, and there will be no other impact to the way they manage their accounts.

The Lloyds Bank statement on Friday 29th April continued:

“In October 2014 we announced the Group’s three year strategy, which outlined a programme of planned branch closures to reflect the changing behaviour of our customers. The way customers interact with their bank has changed over recent years, with more customers choosing to do their banking online. This has seen a reduction in customers using branches.

“While the decision to close the branch is a difficult one, it is based on falling customer numbers. Between now and the closure date, we will engage with all of our customers, local businesses and the wider local community to make sure they are aware of the alternative ways of accessing their banking with us in the local area, and to answer any questions they might have”.

It is thought the Southborough bank staff will be offered alternative jobs in nearby branches.

Here are two earlier articles on the Southborough branch closure in other media:

http://www.courier.co.uk/Lloyds-Bank-Southborough-close/story-29193721-detail/story.html

http://www.cityam.com/239366/lloyds-poised-to-axe-hundreds-of-uk-jobs

 

The annual Southborough Town Meeting  on Tuesday was told of new efforts to stop future housing development on the Ridgewaye Fields after the Hub is complete.

A key figure in promoting the Hub project, Peter Oakford, a Conservative who sits on the Town, Borough and County Councils, said:  “The lawyers have been instructed to develop a programme that can be brought back to Southborough Town Council for discussion that will put legal protection on those fields.”

Mr Oakford continued: “Provided the lawyers tell us there’s something we can do, it will be done.”

During public questions, Ian Gavin, a local resident who is an expert in third world development projects, strongly criticised what he called a “grotesquely manipulated” Council consultation on demolishing the Royal Victoria Hall.

Mr Gavin told the meeting: “I work in international development and I conduct many surveys and community consultations, including a £ 25 million programme from the British government, and I don’t think I have ever seen quite such a manipulated survey as this one.”

Mr Gavin continued:“11,000 people said they wanted to keep the Hall –  3,000 from this area – and the consultation gave them a choice of knocking it down or partially knocking it down. It’s utterly meaningless…. They weren’t given the chance to say “can they keep the hall”.”

The Town’s mayor, Glenn Lester, responded by saying: “Southborough Town Council always works pro-actively for its community…we are looking to bring forward new facilities in Southborough because it is financially sustainable to do so”.

Glenn Lester continued: “When the options came forward with everything we were offering, most of the people that came to the consultation were in favour of having a new build, because they could see what was on offer”.

The full time Kent County Council official leading the project, Jonathan White, said : “The consultation did give them the “Option 1”, did give them “Option 2”, did give them the option of “other” and stating what they wanted in there, and we looked very carefully at what that other was.”

When Jonathan White, was asked what exactly the promised new “State of the Art” theatre would include, he said it hadn’t been decided.

He told the meeting: “Depending on the amount of income that we get coming in, there is a shopping list of “nice to haves” and we can upgrade the lighting and the sound etc etc depending on how the finances go ultimately.”

Councillor Peter Oakford was also asked about his past public commitment to a new theatre that was “State of the Art”.  Mr Oakford said: “We are developing a brand new theatre.  All the equipment will be state of the art and we certainly hope that it will be the envy of all the towns around us. That has always been our wish and we have worked with a theatre consultant that knows what they are doing in order to develop that.”

Project officer Jonathan White also confirmed the doctor’s surgery was moving forward with becoming part of the site and that the housing had increased from 55 to 62 residential units. He said he was in discussions with three retailers about taking the retail space and the whole build would take 18 months.

Resident Diana Blackwell asked if the whole project had a fully costed business plan.

Jonathan White responded: “It does depend on the final design that’s made, so – if we are changing things – then it’s pointless writing a business plan that you then change, so when the design is finalised we will then start to bring forward a business plan.”

Mr White continued: “There’s also decisions that need to be made by Southborough Town Council about whether or not they would allow a Trust to run the facility. If they do that, they can avoid business rates going forward. So those decisions will also impact on the business plan.”

Jonathan White said traffic impact assessments were being made and they had not shown so far that there would be a critical impact on the Yew Tree Road junction.

That prompted a blunt response from Duncan Oakley, who said: “As a resident of over 50 years, I can assure you there are issues already.”

The mayor, Glenn Lester, was asked how Southborough town centre could be smartened up.

Mr Lester said: “I would love Southborough High Street to look a lot more tidy and clean and decorated and fantastic. The trouble is that in the past – having council offices that have looked derelict and the Tesco’s site has been derelict, it has been very hard for us to get involved with local business and say to them let’s pick up our game a bit and improve our environment for everybody”.

Mr Lester continued: “I’m hoping our hub and bringing new things forward in Southborough High Street will enable us to inspire and get other business owners and other premises owners in the High Street to shame them a little bit and get them to improve their properties. If we lead from the front, it’s the best way forward.”

Around 50 residents attended the 2016 Town meeting, which lasted an hour and a half.

Here are my audio recordings of the Town Meeting in three sections:

The annual Town Meeting – that’s for the people of Southborough to let our council know what they think – is coming up in the next 24 hours.

It is on Tuesday at 7 pm at the Crundwell Road Community Centre, TN4 0LL.

I have received a statement reacting to Glenn Lester’s interview from Martin Betts, who is a spokesperson for the Southborough and High Brooms Labour Party.

It raises various new points about the plans for the new Southborough Hub, so we are publishing Martin Betts’ comments in full below.  He suggests:

• more housing units are to be built than originally planned
• retail units will be included in the development
• the remaining Ridgewaye fields may not be permanently safeguarded

We plan to attend the Town Meeting and hope to reflect any new developments and responses from the council in another blog on Tuesday night.

Labour Group statement:

“I would like to correct the Town Mayor’s assertion that the Labour Party ran on a Royal Victoria Hall (RVH) ‘retention manifesto’ last May. This is incorrect. The Labour Party fought the election arguing for less secrecy, more public involvement, and a proper consultation to find out what people wanted for their new town centre.

The Labour Party believed that the Friends of the RVH – who raised a petition of over 10,000 signatures to retain the historic building – had an argument that should have been treated with respect. Their voice was compelling because there was NO public pressure on the other side to partially or completely demolish the Hall in favour of a new build. There were some Labour candidates who voiced a view that they would personally like to keep a refurbished and modernised RVH but overriding this was to hear what people who lived in the town wanted.

There is no doubt that the whole of the Hub Project has been shrouded in secrecy. Many council meetings on the subject were – and still are – being held with members of the public excluded on spurious commercial grounds. Proper communication and attempts to really involve people living in the town in shaping their town centre has been almost non-existent. The public consultation was asked for and was welcome but it was almost certainly never going to have a large response rate. It was held over the Christmas and New Year period when people’s minds were going to be elsewhere and at times when it was difficult for working people to attend.

The Labour Party did leaflet people living in the town to remind them of the consultation but it was obvious that those who wanted to keep a refurbished RVH were not going to get any joy. That option was not on the table. As we know, the two options on offer were demolition or partial demolition of the RVH in favour of a new build. By this time the Labour Party took the view that if people wanted to retain some part of our town heritage they should be urged to opt for option 2. Of the options it would have ensured that we retained part of our legacy in a modern context. And there are plenty of examples in the country where this has been done to good effect.

However, that discussion is now history. On the basis of the consultation where less than 2% of the town’s residents responded the 3 councils involved have decided to go for the demolition and new build. However, what the councils have yet to demonstrate is that they have taken on board the serious issues that people raised. There was considerable concern about the overly modernist architecture being proposed and requests that it should fit in with other buildings in the town. There were also concerns about overbuilding of houses and flats on the part of the playing fields give over to the Hub; serious worries about more congestion on Yew Tree and London Roads; and real apprehension about increased air pollution from traffic fumes.

We have yet to hear from the councils about what exactly they have changed in response to the consultation. What we do know is that they are now wanting to INCREASE the number of houses and flats which will inevitably further increase pressures on traffic flow, parking and pollution. What they are also saying is that they want to include some retail units in the scheme despite this hardly being mentioned in the consultation and no public demand for them. The Labour Party doesn’t know what world the three councils are living in but it is not one where businesses are clamouring to take on small shop units, particularly in Southborough.

What we are also hearing is that the town council is now moving away from the idea of permanently protecting the remaining playing fields from more development. They are being advised that they should keep their options open in case further houses are needed in the future. The Labour Party would not be surprised about this because Conservative controlled Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is selling off virtually every piece of spare green land it owns for building. They wanted to sell off part of the playing field at the bottom of Southview Road for house building, but this was stopped in the nick of time by a successful campaign by residents to have it designated as a village green.

Although the Town Mayor was keen to draw attention to promises made by the Labour Party in its election campaign last year there were Conservative promises that we haven’t heard much of lately. There were the promises to submit a planning application last summer with the prospect of building starting last November and a grand opening of the Hub in time for this year’s Pantomime. These promises were clearly undeliverable and we are pleased that the councils took Labour’s advice and put the project on a more realistic timescale.

However this is one BIG promise they made. Peter Oakford, the then Chairman of Southborough Town Council, said the town would get a “new Royal Victoria Hall which will include a theatre that will be the envy of many other towns. It will have the most up-to-date facilities and be an asset for local people for years to come”. Conservatives also promised a “state-of-the art stage, sound and lighting facilities and better facilities for the audience”. We understand that theatre experts are really sceptical about the ability of the councils to deliver on this promise. However, Labour is sure that the promise was made in good faith and expects it to be delivered in full for a town that has a proud theatre history.

We have now reached a crucial period in the Hub timetable since the councils are aiming to get a planning application to the borough council by the end of May. Residents in the town have an opportunity to have a further say before this happens by attending the Annual Town Meeting on Tuesday 19 April at 7 pm at the Crundwell Road Community Centre. They will also have an opportunity to comment later on the Planning Application.”

After publishing my interview with the Mayor of Southborough, Glenn Lester, I’ve obtained a response from one person who was active in last year’s campaign to persuade the Council not to demolish the hundred year old theatre, the Royal Victoria Hall.

He’s Ken Hampton, who is a professional production sound engineer for theatres in the London West End and around the world.  He worked with others to help maintain the Royal Victoria Hall for many years and supervised the sound for the Southborough pantomime there for the past 12 years.

Here is the audio recording of my interview with Ken Hampton:

Ken Hampton argues the insurance claim after the “finger trapping” incident should not have caused the hall to close, as the council had been offered for free 400 safe plastic seats.  These seats were in use for the last pantomime.   I talked to him on Friday 15 April, 2016.

Q: You have heard the mayor Glenn Lester say he’s looked at the details and he’s convinced that the old Royal Victoria Hall is no longer adaptable in the modern world.  Do you agree?

Ken Hampton: I work personally in multiple venues that are well over 120 years old.  The Royal Victoria Hall is only about that old. From my understanding – from colleagues who work in the consultancy profession –  generally when a building is structurally sound (which I believe from the reports the Royal Victoria Hall is structurally sound although it does need work) the option to refurbish is always cheaper than to build new.

Q: Those plastic seats that were used for the last pantomime are not ideal for the long term, so do you agree that what the hall needs is new retractable seating?

Ken Hampton: If you want to have the hall for both theatrical performances and parties, then retractable seating is the fastest way of going about that.  The venue – as it stands – doesn’t easily permit retractable seating to go in because of the height of the balcony.  However, there are solutions to that which are that 2 or 3 rows of seats could be put on each level of retractable seats, so it could be still run under the balcony.  Or alternatively, as a larger plan for a refurbishment of the building, the building could go down a couple of metres so the existing floor could be removed, dug down and you would have enough height to put a retractable seating system in.

Q: Digging down two metres sounds difficult within an existing building, you think that wouldn’t be too costly?

Ken Hampton: I don’t know about cost, but I certainly know that people do it plenty of times. The Victoria Hall has been there for 110 years so far, I would imagine that it could manage another 50 years if it is looked after and cared for.  I do wonder if a cheaply built modern building will last 50 years even.

Q: As council tax payers, what we are interested in is this building thriving in the future, having lots of productions and bringing in money for the council and not a drain on the council, so how do you think the council has gone about keeping theatre people on board?

Ken Hampton: To my knowledge there has been no communication between the theatre production side since April of last year.  You would have thought at this stage they should be engaging the previous users of the Victoria Hall as presumably they would become the new users of the new build.

Q: Glenn Lester’s view is that this is the verdict of the electorate – they were given the option of voting Labour at the last election a year ago which definitely wanted to retain the Royal Victoria Hall.  He said people didn’t vote that way.  The Conservatives won instead.  So he’s convinced that the vast majority of people in Southborough have given up on the old building and don’t want it to be retained and are happy with these new designs. Is he right?

Ken Hampton: I was a little bit confused by Glenn’s comments.  I hadn’t realised that the Conservative manifesto was only suggesting that it should knock down the Victoria Hall and build new.  From what I recall from the leaflets, they were saying they had both options on the table and whichever one was commercially viable would be the one that they would elect to go for.  However, I was unaware that it would only be knock down if we voted Conservative. The people I know are all saying they would prefer to see the Victorian building as the centre of our town.

Q: What Glenn Lester believes is that there’s a lot to be gained from putting all these facilities together.  You’ve got the doctor’s surgery, you’ve got the theatre and you’ve got the library in a sort of hallway that leads to both of them.  What do you think of the concept of having these buildings altogether under one roof?

Ken Hampton: I’m not convinced with the concept of having the medical centre along with what are normally considered recreational facilities of the theatre and the library.  It doesn’t seem to make sense.  You tend to go to the doctors specifically for an ailment, you tend to go to the theatre because you are having a good evening out and I don’t see that the two necessarily live side by side.

Currently the library is shown as a large circular space in an atrium and the toilets are provided on the opposite side of the library to the theatre, so I would have to question how we get 250 children out of the pantomime matinee performance through the library while people are trying to read their books and actually in and out of the toilets without annoying the people in the library.

Q:  Glenn also promises that this new 300 seat theatre to replace the old one will be of better quality.  So what are the things that he needs to come up with to fulfil his promise of making it a better theatre than what we had before.

Ken Hampton:  There are problems in that the plans that we’ve seen so far don’t have enough height in the grid section above the stage which allows us to fly scenery properly.  There’s a lack of an orchestra pit within the building.  Currently the Royal Victoria Hall has a small orchestra pit.  There is no provision for that in the new build.  There’s a lack of dressing room space. Currently, in the new plans there is less dressing room space than what we have in the current building.

The facilities at the moment have 3 small dressing rooms downstairs and one large room upstairs.  Typically for the pantomime there are 24-28 people in the cast of a show including the dancers and therefore we need that number to be catered for as an absolute minimum.  The dance shows that exist from some of the local dance schools will have probably a cast of well over 100 children and therefore we need to be able to accommodate that if we want the building to be used in the way it needs to be used.

Q:  What about catering facilities so people could have wedding receptions and that sort of thing.  There are no facilities on site at the moment, would there be in the new building as far as you know?

Ken Hampton:  There’s no facilities on site currently and from what I can see within the new option there is only café /bar facilities.  Whether that would include the sort of kitchens that would be needed for wedding reception events? There’s nothing that shows that on the current plans.

Below you will find the full transcript of our 20 minute interview with the Mayor of Southborough, Glenn Lester.

Has he reassured you that the new buildings will not look ugly, the library will have as many books and staff as now, and that the windfall cash from selling part of the Ridgewaye fields is being well spent?  Do you agree that people voted for the demolition of the Royal Victoria Hall in last May’s election? Are you overjoyed that action to smarten up Southborough is at last in hand after 20 years of stalemate?  Will we end up with a new and vibrant “heart” to our community?

I have finally found a way of uploading all the sound, if you prefer to listen:

Even after 20 minutes, lots of areas were left uncovered in our interview.  Indeed we need to wait until the Planning Application to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is published in late May 2016, to know what is really set to be built.  We intend to post a range of reactions to those detailed plans when we have them.

In the meantime, if you want to contribute any feedback on the interview to us, just email:

martin.webber10536@gmail.com

You can also make your feelings known by attending:

Tuesday 19th April 2016 7.00pm Southborough Town Meeting in the Community Centre Crundwell Road

Thursday 19th May 2016 8.00pm Southborough Society AGM at Christ Church Hall

Martin Webber & Anya Heilpern

Interview with Glenn Lester, Mayor of Southborough, recorded on Friday 8^th April 2016

Q: And a lot of people – maybe not so interested in the Royal Victoria Hall – will have agreed with all those aspirations – but wondered why the design (obviously we don’t know the final design because that will be in the planning document) but the draft drawings did look incredibly modern and not necessarily in keeping with the surrounding Victorian buildings on the London Road. Would it not have been possible to leave the existing façade of the council buildings and nod more to the past and yet still build all the new things behind it, without having a very modern looking design, why did you go for that?

A: This is my personal view and everybody will have a different view. Yes we’ve got a High Street of Victorian buildings but Southborough High Street is an eclectic mix of buildings. We have got Hythe Close to the left hand side that was built in the 1940s or 50s, which is a high rise brick building. We’ve got Victorian buildings opposite. I’m passionate about architecture. I’ve worked in construction all my life. I love buildings. I really do. I feel that if we do mock Victorian or mock Georgian, it always ends up looking a muddle because we cannot perform the lines and the styles of those days because modern times building regulations have changed, heat insulation – all of those things have changed. The building needs to function well as the building it is and I feel personally that a modern building – if you look at the Shard at St Thomas’s Street in London – looks absolutely fantastic because it is a modern architectural structure of its day, mixed in with architecture from the Georgian period of its day. So this is of our day and this is for our children to use in the future. I want a modern facility that is smart, well designed and works and functions properly.

Q: A town square was mentioned as part of it. Again, the actual drawings at the consultation were fairly vague, will there be an area near the cafe, ideally people with young children having an area of grass for them to leave their children to run about a bit while they have a cup of coffee separated from the main road, will there be a “People’s town square” as part of the design?

A: One of the main driving factors right from day one was to improve the connection between the High Street and the playing fields and the open spaces, so the new hub design has got open spaces incorporated within it. We are trying to open up that vista so that, as you go through the High Street, you are not in a “tunnel effect” of buildings. The road will be the same width, but the vista will open up as you get to that part of the High Street, you will have tall buildings on your right, you will be able to look to your left and that will be a more open style square space there. The final detail of that is still yet to come forward, but it will have an open and airy feel.

Q: A lot of people have raised the issue of traffic congestion and whether the new housing will make the existing congestion on the A26 even worse?

A: It’s always a tricky one. We’ve got a road structure that is Victorian. It struggles at best and Kent County Council Highways have just invested a huge amount of money on the junctions with Yew Tree Road and Speldhurst Road to improve the flow of traffic through there. I think with our hub, we may actually benefit from slightly reduced traffic flows because maybe the people of Southborough won’t always need to travel into Tunbridge Wells and won’t always need to travel into Tonbridge to enable them to do their basic functions which can now happen within Southborough so – fingers crossed – we may even have brought forward a scheme that will reduce the traffic, rather than increase it.

Q: The doctor’s surgery – the existing facilities are overcrowded. The A26 has a lot of pollution from it. The initial design was to have the new doctor’s surgery right next to the A26. If you have got a child with asthma or breathing difficulties, is that a concern for them?

A: What we have done is moved the doctor’s surgery to the back, because we have had huge consultation with the planners and they want the frontage to be more active. The doctor’s surgery isn’t an active frontage so the theatre would have a higher active frontage to it. So the two boxes have been switched over. So, as it stands at the moment, the doctor’s surgery is at the back. There will be no more traffic flow, hopefully. The amount of patients going through the door will probably change very little between the new surgery and the old surgery and that traffic already enters off the A26 via Pinewood Gardens. Hopefully, our improvements will take the traffic more quickly through the High Street, down Yew Tree Road and into the doctor’s surgery and so I think – to be honest – the traffic congestion with regards to the doctors is going to be equal at the end of the day. Hopefully most people will find it a nice easy level walk to the doctor’s surgery and most of the housing is on a level plane in Southbrough to the doctor’s surgery, unless of course you are in High Brooms, so hopefully we will be bringing improvements forward that will hopefully enable more footfall to that doctors rather than it being vehicular.

Q: And for the people who come up from High Brooms and perhaps have to have a taxi – will there be parking for them?

There is new parking. There is considerable extension to the Yew Tree Road car park which is vastly underused at the moment. There is two hours free there. Most doctor’s surgery appointments are probably 20 minutes, so you can park freely in Yew Tree Road car park. It will be a nice level access from there to the doctor’s surgery, so I think it will be better for them because the doctors are really cramped with parking where they are at the moment. So there will probably be a massive improvement. I must say I would like to see an improved bus service between High Brooms and Southborough. I must admit I see very few buses go all the way up Yew Tree Road. Most of them tend to stop in High Brooms and loop and go back and most of the ones in Soutborough are along the A26. There is a relatively poor supply of bus transport I feel between High Brooms and Southborough High Street which I am hoping we can improve that in the years to come.