Farewell to Vicar
Rev Canon Bob Whyte retired at the end of October and at our September meeting we gave him a map of the rock outcrops on Rusthall Common.
He has always been very supportive of village organisations and was Chairman of School Governors for many years.
We wish him well and hope that we will see him from time to time!
KCC Councillor’s Role
Cllr, John Davies, Vice-Chairman of Kent County Council, gave us an overview of his work. He sits on several committees – Corporate Policy Overview, Planning Applications, Regulation, Selection and the Superannuation Fund Committee. He reported that each councillor has £10,000 to spend in their area so he covers Tunbridge Wells West which includes surrounding villages.
Telephone: 01892 527360 or email:
john.davies@kent.gov.uk
Parish Council
A report went to the Corporate Services Sub-Committee of TWBC on 11th November with a recommendation to the Cabinet to support local communities who might wish to consider setting up a parish council. The Cabinet will meet in December to make the final decision. We will be setting up a committee with our local councillors and anyone interested in helping with the petition that will be needed, in the near future. Please let Jenny Blackburn know if you can help on 546520.
Sean Clarke, TWBC Head of Financial and Property Services, presented a draft budget for Rusthall to the Town Forum. This revealed that a Band D Council Tax rate in Rusthall would reduce to £60.33 down from £91.65. This is only a rough guide particularly now with the “credit crunch”! This is because we would no longer be contributing towards Tunbridge Wells facilities like Dunorlan Park, Calverley Grounds etc.
Rusthall Parish Council would, however, be responsible for parks, footpaths, allotments, football pitches etc. Establishing a PC would take upwards of a year as the Borough Council would have to carry out a “Community Governance Review” set the boundaries etc. We would need one tenth of the people on the Electoral Register to sign the petition to set it all in motion!
