Stephen Manion

this evening I started off with a Governors meeting. This was at St Josephs Roman Catholic primary school in Aylesham. I am proud to support their work and I feel the results are encouraging. There was a full agenda with discussion on finance and the new school buildings.

After that meeting I went to a choir practice at St Martins for our village choir. This is a small group and is gradually growing in both numbers and confidence.

Finally it was over to Kingsdown for a meeting of the Ringwould with Kingsdown Parish Council. I was pleased to introduce myself to the council and look forward to working with them. I was able to relay the latest news from the county council. 

today I went to a planning training event at the Shorne wood Country Park. It was interesting to see the similarities and differences between planning at district level and plannning issues for the county.

Many of those attending were also "twin hatters", ie. serve on both district and county councils so it provides lots of interesting networking opportunities .

I look forward to representing residents' views on planning matters to the planning committee. 

Dover North & Sandwich Neighbourhood Forums

Listening To Our Communities

Dear Resident

Re:                  Dover North Neighbourhood Forum on Wednesday 15^th July 2009

Time:             Refreshments from 6.30pm with a 7.00pm start

Location:        Pines Calyx, The Pines Garden, St Margaret’s Bay, Dover , CT15 6DZ

Re:                  Sandwich Neighbourhood Forum on Thursday 16^th July 2009

Time:              Refreshments from 6.30pm with a 7.00pm start

Location:        St Mary’s Church Hall, Church Street , Eastry CT13 0HR

We have great pleasure in extending an invitation for you to attend the next public meetings of the Dover North Neighbourhood Forum on Wednesday 15^th July and the Sandwich Neighbourhood Forum on Thursday 16^th July 2009.

Refreshments will be available half an hour before the meetings start; this provides a chance to meet local councillors from county, district and town. You will also have the opportunity to talk to a representative from the Dover District Community Safety Partnership. The agendas for the meeting will be available on the night.

The topic for the Dover North Neighbourhood Forum is ‘Making Your Community Greener’ and we will be focussing on what actions communities can take to help the environment. Guest speakers will include representatives from The Bay Trust and Deal With It. There will be an opportunity for questions and discussion.

The Sandwich Neighbourhood Forum will be discussing ‘Keeping your local area clean and beautiful’.  The meeting will focus on the work being done to clamp down on fly-tipping, littering and graffiti.  You will have an opportunity to ask questions and seek advice from our guest speakers from Clean Kent, DDC Waste Services and the KCC Community Wardens.

We are writing to you, as you may have attended a Neighbourhood Forum meeting in the past year, or expressed an interest in the Neighbourhood Forum initiative.  Your address details are held only for the Neighbourhood Forum team and used solely for extending an invitation to you for future Neighbourhood Forum meetings.  If you would rather we did not send you any correspondence on this matter, please accept our apologies and let us know and we shall remove your address details from the file. Likewise if you would rather receive invites electronically please contact us with your email address.

Have Your Say: What would you like to discuss?

The Neighbourhood Forums discuss a wide-range of local and district wide issues, not just those involving Kent County Council or Dover District Council. We will invite speakers to come to the meetings to talk and answer questions about specific topics chosen by you - these can be councillors, council officers, police, health and others. Let us know what matters to you so we can arrange meetings relevant, and of interest, to you. Please send us any suggestions or give us your ideas at the Neighbourhood Forum meetings.

Funding for local community projects

We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you about the Small Community Capital Projects fund. Kent County Council and Dover District Council have allocated funds to each of the five neighbourhood forums in the district to give out small grants for local projects in their community. Grants of up to £5000 are available to local voluntary and community groups.  Successful projects last year included new equipment, small building works, stage and security lighting, among others.

Kent County Council is administering the Small Community Capital Projects fund and application packs are now available. Please contact us if you would like an application form or they can be downloaded from Dover District Council’s website: www.dover.gov.uk/neighbourhoodforums/funding.asp

We are keen to encourage applications from voluntary and community groups that have not applied to the Neighbourhood Forums before. The application is straightforward, with advice and help available from Kent County Council.

The closing date for applications to the Small Community Capital Projects fund is 30 September 2009 – but please don’t leave completing an application form to the last-minute!

Local groups can also apply for further funding through the KCC Member Community Grants and KCC Local Schemes Grant (for either revenue or capital projects).

For advice on who can, and how to, apply for grant funding and to discuss any project you would like support for, please contact us:

·         Emma Carey: Tel (01622 694599); E-mail: emma.carey@kent.gov.uk; or

·         Anne Charman (Sandwich Area only): Tel (01622 696389); E-mail: anne.charman@kent.gov.uk

We hope you will be able to attend.  If you have any queries about the Neighbourhood Forums, please do not hesitate to contact us

Yours sincerely

Emma Carey & Anne Charman

Community Liaison Managers

Kent County Council

This morning I went to the coffee break.

I met a number of residents and the issue of highest importance was the proposal to close several junctions on the A256 Eastry Bypass .

Such closures would further isolate the villages of Tilmanstone and Eythorne and possibly lead to traffic having higher speeds along this road.

Many residents feel that the idea to concentrate all traffic on the round about at the Barville road junction will also lead to more collisions as the visability at this junction is more restricted.

At the meeting a letter from one resident was read out and a number of other pieces of correspondence were made available to members. 

At the Joint transport meeting last night there was widespread discussion on this issue and members both district and county voted to not go ahead with the Officer proposals but instead to ask for more alternatives including speed reduction along this road. 

Today I went to the annual general meeting of the county council.

the webcast for this meeting will be available shortly

 http://www.kent.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/democracy-and-elections/webcasts.htm

There was election of new chairman and vice chairman as well as debate on member expenses and voting.

I look forward to the new opportunities that will be available 

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Posted by: stephen-manion
Modified on June 25, 2009 at 10:48 PM