I
am delighted that Marden now has a Community Warden. Martin Smith, and we welcome him to
the village and look forward to working closely with him.
You will find an article below about the role of the Community Warden and
how to contact him.
2005
looks like another busy year for the Parish Council; in this newsletter we have outlined
some of our priorities for the year including the local housing needs survey and highways
issues.
Date
for your diary
The
Annual Parish Meeting will take place on
The
meeting is open to everyone in the village. Tea and coffee will be served from
Stop
press
Jennifer
Shaw from Actions with Communities in Rural
All
the Parish Councillors very much look forward to seeing you at the meeting.
Regards
Chairman
of Marden Parish Council
KCC Community Warden
Since our last newsletter you all
should now be aware that the village has gained a new resident. Some of you may have already had the opportunity to
meet and talk to him on his travels in and around Marden.
Martin Smith has been appointed by KCC to act as our Community Warden for
the parish of Marden. His role within our
community is:-
b.
Tackle
Anti Social Behaviour.
c.
Provide
information and advice on County Council, Local District Councils, Parish Council and any
other agencies.
d.
Act
as eyes and ears for other agencies.
e.
Promote
Community solidarity and to encourage communities to solve problems.
In
short please don't hesitate to pass any questions or queries that you may have by him, no
matter how trivial it may seem, an answer will be found and your problem solved. He can be contacted on 07969 584179 or through Alison in the Parish Council Office.
When
you receive the questionnaire, it is important that you complete it and return it
promptly, even if you do not have a need for affordable housing in your family. The results will give us a view of the housing
situation in Marden and will help us plan for the future needs of local people. Thank you
for your help with this.
Highways
One
of the key issues for the Parish Council is the maintenance and upkeep of roads in and
around the Parish, along with all the associated issues of parking, lorries, road safety
and good road signs. Highways are currently the responsibility of Maidstone Borough
Council, but will transfer to Kent County Council management from April 2005. The Parish Council meets regularly with MBC
Highways Unit to ensure they are kept fully aware of all the issues in and around Marden
and to seek to ensure that the issues we raise are dealt with, these meetings will
continue once the transfer to KCC has taken place.
·
Missing
and damaged road signs to be replaced and/or repaired as soon as possible.
·
Road
salting in icy weather - some of our ‘c’ class and un-classed roads are salted,
but
·
Road
patching works that were carried out last year on Copper Lane, Park Road, Tilden Lane,
Stilebridge Lane and Summerhill Road; this was done, in order for these roads to be
surface dressed this year. These roads are
likely to be closed when this takes place and we will endeavour to ensure that you are
given as much notice as possible.
·
Village
car park – we have had complaints from many of you that you are unable to use the car
park during the week as it fills up early in the morning by all day parking. It is hoped
that later this year that parking will be for a maximum period of two hours. It is also hoped that prior to then the car park
will be re-lined, with a one-way system in operation to provide a few additional spaces.
Also ‘hatching’ will be put in place by the barriers into Cherry Orchard Estate,
as this area needs to be kept free for emergency vehicles.
·
Recycling
bins – as many of you know these used to be located in the Station car park until
last year, when SE Trains announced they could no longer be placed there. We had them moved to the village car park, which is
not ideal in many ways and we continue to seek a convenient site within the village. We
are still in discussion with SE Trains but we will consider any site within the village. If you have any suggestions please contact Alison
in the Parish Office.
If there are any highway issues you want to raise
with the Parish Council please contact Alison in the Parish Office.
Trains
The
Parish Council is concerned about the proposals for the future of train services in
·
That
there is no reduction in the current number of trains serving Marden in peak and off peak
periods.
·
That
there are connections for cross country routes e.g. Paddock Wood for
·
That
networker trains will not be used in peak periods
·
That
station facilities are well maintained.
The
full version of the document can be found on the SRA website www.sra.gov.uk
Marden Station
Everyone
using the Station will be aware of the general state of untidiness and poor maintenance.
The Parish Council recently held a meeting with Dan Tall, Area Manager of SE Trains who is
responsible for the Station. He was in full
agreement with us and we are hopeful that we will soon see some improvements.
How clean is your village?
For
many people the answer would be not very clean.
Until
April 2004 the Parish Council received a grant from Maidstone Borough Council that enabled
us to contract with a local company to do road sweeping and litter pick ups. Since April
2004 we have lost this grant as MBC tell us they can more cost effectively contract road
sweeping and litter collection across the Borough. Consequently
we now have little control over this service.
I
am sure many people will agree that the standards of cleanliness and tidiness have
deteriorated. We are pushing MBC to improve
the service and ideally to return control to the Parish where it belongs but we need your
help. Please let Alison know if you see any
road sweeping or litter collecting in your road, or if there is no evidence of this
happening – dates and time are needed, we need hard evidence to present to MBC. Also
let her know where there are particular problems with rubbish, broken bins etc.
The
parish is of course much larger than the village itself and we are conscious that many of
the county lanes suffer from rubbish. The
Parish Council is only able to put pressure on MBC for the village itself and whilst not
ideal suggests that if local residents are concerned about rubbish in their lane they
adopt a self help approach. This already takes place in some areas of the village, for
example the residents of
Both
MBC and KCC provide a telephone number to report fly tipping, dumped cars etc – this
number is on the contact sheet on the back of the newsletter, or let Alison know.
It
is also worth remembering that for disposal of your own bulky items there is the tip at
Tovil and MBC send a freighter on a regular basis to the village
Forthcoming
dates:
5
March
20
March
12.15
– 13.15 Maynards CP
Parish
Councillors hold a monthly surgery on a Saturday morning from 10.00 -12.00 at the Library,
our Borough Councillors try to attend as does our village PC. If there are issues concerning you about the
village come along and meet us.
Surgeries
will be held on 12 March, 9 April, 14 May and 11 June.
Village charities
Marden
has three village charities and we will
feature
each of them over the next few newsletters. In
this edition we feature The Marden Victory Fund (1959) otherwise known as ‘The Pie
Fund’
In
1944 the Government asked all communities to raise money for the final push for victory in
the Second World War. Many fund raising events were organised in Marden, including a fete
in the summer of 1944. One of the bakers in the village, Malcolm Evenden, (whose bakery
was at Monkton House, now the home of John and Sheila Wright), offered to make and bake
pies of any ingredients people liked to bring them.
There was strict rationing at the time and these pies were very
popular and sold well. The proceeds were
added to the fund – hence “Pie Fund”.
The
idea was to purchase a Spitfire or similar. Happily the war ended before any such purchase
could be made.
The
fund was then ‘ear-marked’ to celebrate the return of our local service men. Since they did not all return at the same
time, this celebration was somewhat muted and a healthy balance of funds remained.
The
fund was in the safe keeping of Olive Brann, Headmistress of the Girls’ department of
the village school until 1959, when Frank Day invested it and had it registered with the
Charity Commissioners. Trustees were then appointed with Frank Day – Chairman, Ken
Ballard and Cliff White.
The
Fund still exists today for the benefit of all village organisations, young or old,
established or wishing to form who have a project that needs some funding. The Fund only
makes small donations and applications must be made to the Chairman, Robin Judd. The Fund
is special in that it is for the village only and from monies originally raised by the
village.
Today,
Cliff White is still a trustee, together with Mike Lutener and Robin Judd. Sheena Mumford
is secretary to the trustees.
In
each newsletter we will feature a local organisation within our community. In this newsletter we feature Marden Working Men’s
Club.
In
2005 ladies will be able to become full members of the Working Men’s Club and to
celebrate this occasion and also in an effort to encourage new membership within the local
area, there will be an Open Day on Saturday 23rd April. The Club will open at
If
you would like more details about the Working Men’s Club, which will celebrate its
Centenary in 2007, then please call in or contact Secretary Mick Collins on 01580 892398.
Parish
Office, Memorial Hall, Marden
Alison
Hooker
Telephone
832305
Email clerk@mardenpc.fslife.co.
Martin
Smith
Telephone
07969 584179
POLICE
P.C.
Tim Stanley can
be contacted via Alison. If leaving a message
please give name, telephone number and brief details which can be passed on the PC
Stanley.
To
report a crime, anti-social behaviour etc.
Call
Maidstone Police on 01622 690690 or Crimestoppers free on 0800 555 111.
Of
course 999 should be used for urgent matters.
LOCAL
WEBSITES
Marden
Community website www.marden.org.uk
Coming
soon – Marden Parish Council website
Website:
Tovil
Tip
01622
673271
Highways
& Street Light Issues
Kent
Highways is responsible for potholes, blocked drains and any other highway problems along
with streetlights. Call 01622 602132 or via
MBC Website. Alternatively contact Alison at
the Parish Office
Rubbish
Dumping
To
report fly tipping, rubbish dumping, dumped cars etc call 01622 602162 or report via MBC
Website/Alison or KCC 0845 345 0210 (24 hr call centre)
Bulky
Item Collection
01622
602162