Issue No 27 : June 2010

The RVA meeting on 27 May was held in the Rusthall Social Club and was attended by 46 people. It was the Association's sixth Annual General Meeting and subscriptions were collected on the door. Membership currently stands at 73.

The meeting began with this year's Annual Report from Association chair Jenny Blackburn, a copy of which you can read HERE.

She then moved on to discussing the crane which has appeared on the Rusthall skyline like a Martian from War of the Worlds. This is due to remain for 30 weeks until December. The project to replace Simmonds Court sheltered housing is being managed by the Town & Country Housing Group who are keeping to Considerate Constructors Scheme guidelines, which means that the crane will only work during restricted hours to minimise disruption to the neighbourhood. The developers are sending a representative, Rachel Murphy, to the 22 July RVA meeting.

The 23 September RVA meeting will be addressed by Mr Goddard who will report on progress with the new Pembury Hospital with the aid of a computerised walk-through of the development.

Parish Council Developments
Meanwhile on Wed 30 June a meeting will be held in the United Reformed Church hall in Rusthall to discuss the establishment of a parish council in the village. Before then questionnaires should be delivered to each household in the village or alternatively you can do one online HERE.

Southwood Road Pavilion Renovation
Councillor Barry Edwards then stood up to explain the proposed redevelopment of the pavilion in Southwood Road by the Rusthall Community and Youth Project (RCYP). The plan is to demolish the existing building and replace it with another which will fit the same footprint but have a basement which would double the floor area. The intention is to provide a community hall which would not just provide boxing and other indoor sporting facilities but could be hired for social functions, for which its parking would be useful. Being next to the recreation area means its refreshment and toilet facilities could also be made available to users of the area and the general public.

Councillor Edwards appealed for support for the RCYP's planning application along with suggestions for other uses for the hall, such as dancing classes and exercise groups. Survey forms have been delivered around the village so you can air your opinions. Please return them before the deadline.

Concerns were raised about the security of the new building and Councillor Edwards replied that these would be considered in the planning and it was also hoped that involvement of the whole community, including the youth, would make it less of a target. He pointed out that the Council currently pays £8,000 a year on roof repairs for the old pavilion.

The subject of security led to the topic of vandalism at the adjacent allotments where 20 sheds have recently been broken into and 4 burned down. This warmed the audience up nicely for the refreshment break, after which Inspector Simon Wilshaw from Kent Police stood up bravely and with good humour to reply to villagers' concerns.

Policing in Rusthall
Inspector Simon Wilshaw was introduced as having once been resident in Rusthall for 9 years, living in Southwood Road at the time of the pavilion's erection in 1997 at which time he spent many evenings chasing hooligans away from it. So he understands the security problems in that area well.

Before addressing that issue though he first complimented the village on its thriving community and range of independent businesses and other facilities (doctors, fire station, school, Surestart etc.). He supports the Parish Council survey and hopes the new pavilion goes ahead, saying that the Police are happy to get involved on the security issue.

Regarding the allotments, he said that there is currently no possibility of CCTV there because there is no suitable powered mounting point. Also most vandalism takes place in the dark when it would be useless anyway. He suggested that shed alarms might be a way forward, for which Police funding is available. The Pepenbury Project facility already has them. There is also money available to replace vandalised sheds through the Community Safety Partnership (Elaine Bolton). A further measure to discourage vandalism is that some work will be done by Probation Teams (i.e. those caught doing it) as part of Community Payback. He added that to support this it would help if more residents were willing to come forward as witnesses to anti-social behaviour.

There followed a general and often heated discussion of the causes and possible solutions to anti-social behaviour. To the suggestion by Malcolm Geer that all the known but unproved perpetrators be locked up anyway, Insp. Wilshaw replied that however desirable this might seem, it was probably not supported by the law. He suggested a more practical if time-consuming measure might be to involve the known troublemakers in activities like community football.

This led to a complaint that the Police should not be forced to act as social workers but a lady called Jo stood up to say that as the mother of 3 and 16 year old children living in social housing it was her opinion that parents should take more responsibility for the behaviour of their own children and not leave it to the Police.

In reply to a complaint that Tunbridge Wells no longer had its own Emergency Room for 999 calls Insp Wilshaw replied that he believed that handling all calls at Maidstone was not only cheaper but more efficient because all calls could be entered on a central computer, and that the new system should make no difference at all to response times which depended purely on the manpower on hand in Tunbridge Wells at any moment.

The debate continued but ended amicably enough with Insp. Wilshaw saying that he hoped also to attend the September RVA meeting to field any other queries and complaints.

RVA MEETING DATES FOR 2010
at the Rusthall Social Club in St Paul's Street 7.30 - 9.30pm

22 July
23 September
25 November

Refreshments 50p at half time.

Membership of the Rusthall Village Association is £3:00 per person per year and is payable in May at our AGM.

Membership form HERE

Online newsletter editor Nigel Suckling
email: nigel.suckling@virgin.net

Useful Numbers

Jenny Blackburn, Chair 01892 546520   Email jennyblackb@googlemail.com
Town Hall (switchboard) 01892 526121       Tunbridge Wells Police (non urgent) 01732 771055
Ariana Sutton, Community Warden 07813 695872      
Fly tipping/abandoned vehicles 01892 548154       Graffiti hotline 01892 554159
KCC Highways for broken lights, blocked gullies etc. 08458 247800