The two Borough Council seats up for grabs in the Southborough area have been won by John Francis of Labour and Joe Opara of the Liberal Democrats.

Sixteen seats were being contested in the Tunbridge Wells Borough Council of 48 seats. The results are unlikely to alter the leadership of the council overall, which is currently run by a coalition of Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Tunbridge Wells Alliance Party.

The new state of parties is:

Lib Dem go up from 15 to 17
Labour go up from 7 to 8
Tun Wells Alliance go up from 9 to 11
Cons drop from 13 to 11
and there’s one independent in Paddock Wood left (there were 4 independents before the vote).

In Southborough North, Joe Opara joins the council for the Lib Dems – the Lib Dem there who won 4 years ago, Trevor Poile is stepping down.

In Southborough and High Brooms, it was a Labour hold, with John Francis stepping into the seat previously won 4 years ago by Luke Everitt for Labour.

The local results were:
SOUTHBOROUGH AND HIGH BROOMS
John Francis (Lab) 933
Misha Mitchem (Con) 305
Paul Johnson (TW Alliance) 169
Yvonne Raptis (Lib Dem) 165
David Holton (Green) 162

SOUTHBOROUGH NORTH
Joe Opara (Lib Dem) 619
Sarah Bridges (Con) 478
Jon Farina (TW Alliance) 163
Martin Betts (Lab) 143
Sue Lovell (Green) 73

On the Southborough and High Brooms Town Council, there will be 10 Labour, 5 Conservative and 2 Lib Dem councillors. One seat is vacant but another Labour or independent member is likely to be co-opted to bring the council to full strength.

Meanwhile in neighbouring Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, the Conservatives lost overall control.  The results were Conservatives 20, Lib Dem 11, Green 8, Labour 3, Independent Alliance Kent 2. However, the Conservatives are believed to be talking to the two Independent Alliance councillors to make an agreement which would see the current Conservative leader of the council, Matt Boughton, remain as leader. (Update 13th May)

The Conservatives retained control of Sevenoaks. The result there was Conservatives 33, Lib Dems 14, Green 4, Independent 3.

Looking at a few Tunbridge Wells Borough Council seats in more detail:
In Speldhurst and Bidborough, Paul Curry triumphed for the Tunbridge Wells Alliance, holding onto a seat previously held by Lucy Willis for the Alliance in 2019.

In Sherwood, the cabinet member for housing and planning, Hugo Pound was victorious for Labour. And it was a clearer margin of 98 votes this time – Hugo Pound won by just 11 votes in 2019.

Marguerita Morton of the Lib Dems held onto her seat in St Johns.

In Culverden, David Osborne produced a Lib Dem gain from Independent.

In Park ward, Siobhan O’Connell returned the seat to the TWA – defeating Christian Atwood by 252 votes – he had previously defected from the Alliance to the Conservatives.

The Alliance councillors David Hayward in Pembury and Nancy Warne in Benenden and Cranbrook were re-elected to the same seats they won in 2019.

Paddock Wood West was a Lib Dem gain, with Mark Munday the new councillor – that seat was Conservative four years ago, though the Conservative Matt Bailey had become Independent. Meanwhile, Paddock Wood East saw the Independent, Rodney Atkins, returned.

Pantiles and St Marks was another win for the Lib Dem candidate, Pamela Wilkinson, who replaced the independent councillor Andrew Hickey who did not run again. Long standing former Conservative councillor David Scott did compete for that seat but he was defeated by 492 votes.

In Rusthall, Jayne Sharratt of Labour defeated the sitting Lib Dem councillor, Dave Funnell by 94 votes.

In Goudhurst and Lamberhurst, Alison Webster from TW Alliance was victorious – the seat was previously held by Linda Hall of the Conservatives.

But the Conservatives did hold onto 2 seats they were contesting. Andy Fairweather held onto his seat of Frittenden and Sissinghurst for the Conservatives. He won an impressive 67 per cent of the vote. And Godfrey Bland held onto his seat of Hawkhurst and Sandhurst for the Conservatives. He had a big majority of 509, taking 48% of the votes.

Voters in Southborough and High Brooms go to the Polls on Thursday with some Tunbridge Wells Borough Council seats and all the seats on Southborough Town Council up for grabs.

In the Southborough North Borough Council ward, the sitting Borough councillor Trevor Poile is standing down from one of the two seats in the ward. Last year the Liberal Democrat, Brendon Le Page was elected to the other seat with a majority of 26 votes over the Conservative.

This time there is a choice of 5 candidates to vote for on Thursday 4th May:

Labour: Martin Betts
Conservative: Sarah Bridges
Tunbridge Wells Alliance: Jon Farina
Green Party: Sue Lovell
Liberal Democrats: Joe Opara

If you want to hear what the five parties are proposing in the Borough, you can watch extended interviews with their representatives on the following YouTube links.  Part 1 has the views of the Conservative opposition leader, Tom Dawlings and the Liberal Democrat leader of the council, Ben Chapelard:

Part 2 has interviews with Hugo Pound from Labour, Lucy Willis from the Tunbridge Wells Alliance and Geoff Mason from the Green Party. The Green Party is standing in all Borough seats for the first time.

Meanwhile in the Southborough and High Brooms Borough Council ward, there are another 5 candidates for the vacant seat. Luke Everitt won for Labour with 50% of the vote four years ago but he is standing down. The other two councillors in the ward who don’t face a vote this time are Dianne Hill and Alain Lewis – both from Labour.

The choice of 5 candidates to vote for on Thursday 4th May in Southborough and High Brooms is:
Labour: John Francis
Green Party: David Holton
Tunbridge Wells Alliance: Paul Johnson
Conservative: Misha Mitchem
Liberal Democrat: Yvonne Raptis

Votes are taking place at the same time for the Southborough Town Council which owns Southborough Common and the Civic Centre (above). There are 18 Town Councillors. The Town Council wards are divided into 3 areas:

Southborough Town – West Ward has 5 seats but only 4 candidates were nominated.  So John Francis, Jason Reeves, Rick Stewart and Mandy Wharton have already been elected for Labour.

Southborough Town – North Ward has 8 candidates for 7 seats.  There are 6 Conservatives (Harry Allen, James Allen, Sarah Bridges, David Elliott, Ian Kinghorn and Olwyn Kinghorn). There are 2 Liberal Democrats (Joe Opara and Trevor Poile)

Southborough Town – East and High Brooms Ward has 9 candidates for 6 seats. There are 6 from Labour (Alan Bullion, Brian Dury, Spike Figgett, Dariel Francis, Dianne Hill and Alain Lewis).  There are 3 Conservative candidates (Nkem Ituludiegwu, Nasir Jamil and Saloni Shukla).

Meanwhile, in Tonbridge and Malling Borough, the Conservatives are fighting to keep control.  You can hear the arguments of the five parties there on this YouTube link:

Hundreds of people joined in the Mayday Festival on the Southborough Cricket ground on Bank Holiday Monday, with the welcome return of children dancing around the Maypole.

It was the second Mayday Festival organised by Nell Price and the Southborough Street Community. Last year they revived the Maypole tradition in Southborough for the first time since the 1800s.

This year saw the event expand in size with 50 stalls, a bouncy castle and many more people. The rain held off and there were even brief glimpses of sun.

Nell Price (pictured below) said: “We are the first people to put a Maypole here since the early 1800s when it was banned by the church that’s in front of me, but they are very relaxed now and they have allowed us to have a Maypole back on Southborough Common”.

The event saw the May Queen, Ladies in Waiting and a May King all recognised for their fine costumes and enthusiastic dancing.

You can hear more about the event, Southborough in Bloom and the history of the Maypole by clicking on this link to the Southborough News YouTube site.

You can see interviews with Nell Price, Rachel Gale of the Maypole Hire Company and Mandy Wharton of Southborough in Bloom. Plus local artists Kat Vezmar and Michelle Parfitt explain their work. Finally on the 9 minute film you can hear a song from The Chartham String Band.

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: