Borough Insight SPRING 2019 THE COMMUNITY MAGAZINE FROM MAIDSTONE BOROUGH COUNCIL FLYING HIGH AT HEADCORN AERODROME WITH PARKY + CHARLIE BROWN MAYOR MEETS RETAILERS SEWING THE SEEDS FOR WILDLIFE PROJECTS HOW NEW TEAMS A NEW ADVENTURE ARE SERVING FOR MOTE PARK RESIDENTS PRIDE IN OUR BOROUGH EASTEROPENS 2019 sky ADRENALINE trail FUELLED ADVENTURE ACTIVITIES for all ages! climbing wall dino KIDS golf FROM £2.95 Adults FROM £4.95 segway terrain BOOK ONLINE NOW! We also do perfect for FOOD your little INCLUDED Birthday adventurers parties & their friends from £13.95 per child www.moteparkadventure.com Mote Avenue, Maidstone, Kent ME15 7RN Tel: 01622 220232 MoteParkAdventure MoteParkAdventure Editorial IN THIS ISSUE.... REGENERATION Mayor visits Gabriel’s Hill 4 Innovation Centre at Kent Medical Campus 4 Mote Park Adventure Zone 5 COMMUNITY Arriva launches contactless payments 6 Headcorn Interview with Maidstone Community Support Centre 7 Parky & Charlie Brown, page 8 The Big Interview: Headcorn Aerodrome 8-9 LETTER FROM THE LEADER SERVICES 10 As Leader of Maidstone Borough Sign up for bin alerts Council I am determined to Garden waste subscription 11 ensure that the people of Homefinder incentive scheme 12 Maidstone are able to access Funding injection for homeless outreach 13 and take up the opportunities New team tackles fly-tipping 13 that arise from change. We have ambitious plans for the LEISURE town and borough as a whole. We What’s on at the Museum 15 are investing in infrastructure, health 16-17 and leisure, housing and our environment. Out and about in Maidstone The funding and delivery of projects such as the Innovation WILDLIFE Centre will make us an even more attractive place for 18 business and inward investment. Go Green, Go WIld 19 Our commitment to supporting the retail high street will 400 years of swan upping continue. We are committing to additional work alongside Fant Wildlife Group 19 the Maidstone BID to regenerate the town, resulting in benefits which can be shared across the borough as a DEMOCRACY whole. Local elections 20 As well as greater local job opportunities, we are Changes to benefits and Council Tax 20 working to enable further investment in our transport Contact the Council 21 infrastructure, as well as tackling air quality. This is A day in the life of the Mayor 22 important for the health and wellbeing of us all. Our Strategic Plan sets out the priorities for us as a Editor: Sarah-Jane Adams Council, as well as our vision for Maidstone as a place Design: Natalie Tye, Sue Fuller of opportunity and ambition, building on the borough’s Contributor: Ann-Marie Langley reputation as an attractive area for people to live and work Advertising Sales: communications@ for existing and future generations. maidstone.gov.uk The community is at the heart of all that we do at MBC – as reflected within this issue of Borough Insight. The introduction into combat of the Focke Wulf Fw190A on the Channel coast in the Spring of 1942 heralded one of the biggest shake-ups to effectCover daylight fighter image: With kind permission and bomber operations for the RAF in Northern Europe during World War Two. The Fw190As supremacy over the main operational Fighter Command type at the time, the Supermarine Spitfire V, has become one of the great legends of the Second World War. ofThe ‘Butcher Bird’s’ Andrew Critchell, reign would last well into 1943 and only be Having a passion for military aviation history challenged by the widespread introduction Martin Cox for as long as he can remember, ANDREW into service of what was arguably the most CRITCHELL has contributed numerous successful variant of Supermarine’s design, articles and photographs to aviation the Spitfire IX. magazines both in the UK and Europe since It was clear that the Fw190 presented a his first image was published in Flypast serious and crediblewww.aviationphoto.co.uk threat to the RAF’s magazine in 2000. The result of an article fighting capability. But what did the idea that ran wild, A Tale of Ten Spitfires is superiority of the Fw190A actually mean for the Spitfire V pilots of Fighter Command at Andrew’s first book. the time? What was it like to have to climb into the cockpit of a Spitfire on a daily basis Cllr Martin Cox knowing that your machine was outclassed, that a single cannon shell could turn your fighter into a flaming coffin of fuel and A Tale of Ten Spitfires looks explosives? into this question by examining the full combat historyAndrew of one Spitfire that survived, Critchell is an aviation AR501 (currently owned and operated by The Shuttleworth Collection) and the next nine Spitfires on the production line, serials Leader of the Council AR502 to AR510. The story that emerges is one of victory and loss, of long, uneventful patrols and bomber escorts interspersed with intense,photographer sudden and frenzied dogfights, and author of A Tale of mechanical failures and flying accidents, and inevitably of many encounters with the Focke Wulf Fw190s of the Luftwaffe. uk £19.99 us $34.99 ofwww.pen-and-sword Ten.co.uk Spitfires, which examines the Jacket design: Jon Wilkinson · us $34.99 uk £19.99 For a complete list of current titles ringIM orITE writeD to: ORD BOOKS L SCAN THE QR MORE 19/09/2017 15:10 PEN & SW CODE FOR FROM 47 Church Street, Barnsley TITLES D South Yorkshire S70 2AS PEN & SWOR E-mail: [email protected] individual combat histories of ten For the latest on what's happeningTel: 01226 734222 www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Or visit our website at: www.pen-and-sword.co.ukAVAILABLE. OVER 6000 TITLES Spitfire VCs. Through first hand accounts, combat in Maidstone, join us on socialA TALE OF TEN SPITFIRES jckt.indd 1 media! reports, unit diaries and more, the book provides maidstonebc maidstoneboroughcouncil a unique looking glass into the period, told via the experiences of the Spitfire pilots themselves, tracing maidstonecouncil maidstonebc their fates and those of the machines that they flew. www.maidstone.gov.uk 3 REGENERATION Traders smooth things over with Gabriel’s Hill resurfacing With improvement works now drawing to completion on Gabriel’s Hill, Cllr David Naghi visited a number of retailers to discuss their experiences of the resurfacing project. Feedback was positive, with the general consensus from shop owners being that whilst inevitable disruption occurred, the finished result is a tangible upgrade to the look and feel of the area. ‘It was disruptive whilst it was happening, but now it looks lovely, we’re very pleased with the facelift it’s given the hill. We’ve been here for over 20 years, and with a 16th Century listed building, we take a lot of pride in the way the shop looks – this work enhances that for us. We were very excited to meet the Mayor. We were very touched that he spoke with brides and looked at gowns - he seems to know his stuff!’ Kathryn Lister, Perfection Bridal and Menswear ‘I think it is a vast improvement. ‘It was a perfect process for us – Although it hasn’t happened we’re very pleased with the new without a few hiccups and look, and feel it ties in very well. disruption for traders, the end They just cracked on with it, and result is well worth it. I hope it we were out here bringing the will bring new business to this workers cups of tea. We love it.’ part of town.’ Adam Nesbitt, Damon Lau, Lau Hairdressers Cornell Jewellers Innovation Centre KMC At the forefront of innovation Home to Cygnet and KIMs hospitals, and with a The proposal comprises a range of flexible office spaces, new state-of-the-art care home currently under meeting rooms, hot desking areas and a conference construction for Care UK, the Kent Medical Campus is facility with roof terrace. It is anticipated that the centre firmly establishing itself as a fully integrated centre of will support around 270 jobs and generate a further excellence for health, science and education in the South £120m of additional gross value for the local economy. East. MBC has applied for substantial European Regional Making the most of the opportunity to be part of a Development Fund monies to help deliver the project and dynamic and forward-thinking initiative, Maidstone hope to hear the outcome of this bid in spring 2019. Borough Council has submitted a Reserved Matters The building is intended to support business growth and planning application for an Innovation Centre: a four encourage further entrepreneurship within the business storey, 37,000square foot co-working hub for Small and capital of Kent, helping cement the core vision and Medium-sized Entreprises in the medical sector. development of the Kent Medical Campus as a whole. 4 www.maidstone.gov.uk REGENERATION MOTE PARK Adventure Zone What’s coming next? • Visitor Centre, with options for venue hire • New café within the new centre • Accessible toilets, with baby change facilities • A Changing Place facility • Additional parking • Improved access, including footpaths, road repairs and surfacing A new adventure for Mote Park Spring 2019 sees the opening of an exciting new The Sky Trail course will enable around 40 people per activity area, which boasts a high rope Sky Trail, mini hour to enjoy the new adventure experience. The course dinosaur golf course, climbing walls and Segway hire. includes options for participants to repeat their favourite For intrepid explorers and curious climbers, Mote sections, and ‘overtaking’ facilities avoid the bottlenecks Park’s brand new Adventure Zone will give big and little so often encountered on other courses.