In the Folkestone & Hythe area we have had a number of people Cuckooed and are asking people to let us know if they suspect anyone in their area is falling victim to Cuckooing.
· Vulnerable Person (Elderly, Disabled, Mental Health)
· Regular Visitors To The Property
· Unexplained Increase of Money, Clothes or Mobile Phones
· Late Night/All Day Parties
· Evidence of Drug Use
· Significant Changes In Emotional Well-being
· Increase in ASB Around The Property
· Unexplained Injuries To The Vulnerable Person
· Cars & Bikes Visiting
How to Report it? If you suspect cuckooing, report it to Kent Police online or by calling 101. You can report it anonymously to Crimestoppers online or by calling 0800 555 111. Supported by all community safety partners across Kent.
More households in the Folkestone & Hythe district could soon be eligible for a council tax energy rebate.
Folkestone and Hythe District Cabinet members have agreed on the criteria for a new discretionary scheme using £302,100 funding from the government.
To date, people living in properties in council tax bands A to D (and E if in receipt of Disability Band Reduction) are being given a one-off payment of £150 to help with the increasing cost of energy bills.
The Discretionary Energy Rebate Scheme means householders who fall outside this criteria as of 1 April 2022 could also get the £150 (from July at the earliest). These are:
Those in bands E to H who are entitled to Council Tax Reduction.
Those in bands F to H who are entitled to Disability Band Reduction.
Those in bands E to H and who are exempt from council tax because they are students, under 18, or severely mentally impaired.
Those who are not liable for council tax, but responsible for paying energy bills (ie, tenants in houses of multiple occupation where the owner pays the council tax, but they pay for gas and/or electricity).
In the case of the last criteria, an application will have to be made to F&HDC, but in all other categories, the £150 will be automatically made to those who pay their council tax by Direct Debit. Those who don’t pay by DD will be contacted.
If there is any money left over, F&HDC will consider making a top-up payment to all households in band A to H in receipt of Council Tax Reduction. This will be split evenly amongst these low-income households once all other payments have been made.
The £302,100 must be fully spent by 30 November 2022, or returned to the government.
Cllr Tim Prater – Cabinet Member for Revenues, Benefits, Anti-Fraud and Corruption – said: “I am pleased we are able to further support our most vulnerable residents in these difficult times; all those who are on lower incomes, but – for whatever reason – live in larger properties.
“This includes homes which have been adapted for those with disabilities, anyone who is entitled to a reduction in their council tax, and those who don’t pay council tax because they rent but pay their own fuel bills.”
Cllr David Monk – F&HDC Leader – said: “It was important that we had a largely consistent approach across the county, so before we devised the council tax energy rebate policy, we consulted with colleagues from different councils.
“All officers will be going that extra mile in the coming weeks to ensure everyone who is eligible gets their money as soon as possible.”
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 19th June: Completing the Enbrook Valley planters, and Don’t Step on a Bee.
A busy week where the temperatures rose, the sun shone and we had to start watering again.
The two planters outside the Golden Arrow in the Golden Valley have been under review for some time but we now think that a plan of action has been finalised and can at last be implemented. The pub landlords had been thinking long and hard about what they wanted to have there in terms of planting, and there had been conversations around perhaps making the planters taller. The issue was that because the planters were so close to the outside benches and tables they often got stood on or walked over by customers, and plants therefore failed to thrive and the beds looked sad and sorry compared to the others. After much deliberation, the decision was to cover the beds in shingle and to put some half barrels on top with flowering plants – therefore the plants will no longer be stepped on. The work is all but completed, and it is looking great.
The green outside the chip shop got a long overdue tidy up and some plants put in. The Council has added the hanging baskets already and the space is therefore looking very colourful.
At the Enbrook garden, the last of the broad beans have been harvested and the beds prepared and ready to be replanted, one was quickly filled with new lettuce plants. Spring onions were planted in the space where some of the potatoes were, and a few of the kale seedlings got pricked out into modules to grow on for another few weeks. We also planted a new rhubarb root and two Yacon plants bought last week at Stream Walk community garden in Whitstable. Yacon root is very similar to a water chestnut and needs to be harvested every late autumn and some saved for the following year.
Enbrook Garden was visited during the week by a film crew, where they interviewed and filmed the bee hives and keepers in preparation for highlighting the national ‘don’t step on a bee day’ on July 10th.
I (Leonie) had the honour of being invited to give a talk to the Hythe WI, on our community garden spaces as well as an introduction to ‘No dig’ gardening. It was a delight to meet the ladies and to tell them all about the work of our volunteers and how far we have come in three short years highlighted with a pandemic! For me it was interesting to be able to sequence and put together the creation of all the growing areas here in Sandgate, plus our connection with other groups. Of course, the real treat was the tea and cake afterwards!
What’s next?
Finish pricking out the kales
Sow purple sprouting
Plant the swedes
Keep watering the small planters if the heat continues.
A photo from Chris, one of our beekeepers of a honey bee on a blackberry flower, with hairy eyes and pollen on its back legFilming crew for ‘don’t step on a bee day’Globe artichokes looking glorious in an alleyway
Path from HF46 (North End Sandy Lane) to junctions with HF48 and HB1 and from HB1 to junction at West Road and Hospital Hill (opposite MOD Area) Path can be accessed from either entrance/exit.
Dear All,
I know that many of you over the years will have used this route. A few years ago I discovered that the path used is NOT A PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY.
This needs to be rectified and I’m asking for your help as I need witness statements to ‘claim’ the path for Sandgate / Seabrook / Hythe residents and all other members of the public. I have the support of Sandgate Parish Council.
The KCC Definitive Map Officer says I need as many witness statements as I can get. The path/s must have been used for (at least) 20 years BACK from the date of the claim.
One person does not have to have used the path/s for a full 20 years, but the use needs to be continuous.
Please see attached maps and evidence forms.
The route shown with a dashed line on the attached map is the one that I’d like to ‘claim’. If you have used this route or any part of it at any time over the past 20 years then you need to include a SIGNED copy of it with your evidence forms.
There is a blank map attached for you to draw your route with dashed black lines, this is the map you need to submit NOT the map with the route already shown.
At Sandgate Library there is a map showing grid references if you would like to use them BUT a description of the route is sufficient. Also there are copies of some old maps showing parts of the path. There are also photos showing both entrance/exit of the path.
This cannot be done electronically, all witness statements must be submitted on paper.
There are maps with witness / evidence forms at Sandgate and Hythe Libraries.
Please leave your completed forms at Sandgate or Hythe Libraries.
It is permitted for help to be given (if you find the procedure complicated) with the witness statements, this can be done by me at Sandgate Library.
Check List.
Your drawn route on map.
Map signed on reverse.
General Data Protection Regulation.
Public Right of Way User Evidence Statement.
Any queries please phone 01303 249906 / 07796 784678 or email rosieneel@hotmail.com
Yours, Rosemary Sanders (Applicant)
Supporting Images and Documents
Photo of concrete posts start/end of path to be claimed. Path begins near the Military Cemetery.Private Land sign was erected approximately three years ago, near the Military Cemetery.Photo of gate and fingerpost at start/end of path to be claimed. path begins opposite MOD Area and near/opposite Upper Corniche/Martello Tower 8. Fingerpost, Dragonfly Way to Seabrook Valley.Historic Map showing very faint lines possibly indicating a path.Map showing start/end of path leading to R.C. Church.Map showing (concrete) posts at north end of Sandy Lane.OS map. (Ordnance Survey)Map with grid references. The path I would like to claim is shown with long dashed black lines.
The Council meeting is open to press and public. If you would like to attend this meeting, please notify clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk in advance. Letting us know allows us to make sure we have sufficient seats for you and allow reasonable spacing.
We keep a full list of previous Sandgate Parish Council Meeting Agenda and Minutes on this website. We publish those agendas a few days before each meeting, and will also post draft minutes in the week after a meeting.
Most of our meetings are broadcast live on our Facebook page. We’ll then leave those recordings on Facebook for a few months after the meeting so you can watch them back later.
Minimum Notice
We issue agenda’s at least three clear days before a meeting. We display them on the noticeboard in the library, Parish noticeboards on the Village Green and by Enbrook Valley shops, and on our website.
The minimum three clear days for notice of a meeting does not include:
the day of issue of the agenda, or;
the day of the meeting, or;
a Sunday, or;
a day of the Christmas break, or;
a day of the Easter break, or;
of a bank holiday, or;
a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.
Meeting in Public
All meetings of our Council are open to the public, except in limited defined circumstances. We can only decide, by resolution, to meet in private when discussing confidential business or for other special reasons where publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest.
Those reasons might include, for example, discussing the conduct of employees, negotiations of contracts or terms of tender, or the early stages of a legal dispute.
The agenda of Sandgate’s Parish Council Planning Committee meeting. The meeting will be on 21st June 2022, at 7pm or at the fall of the preceding Full Council meeting. It will be held in Sandgate Library.
The Planning Committee meeting is open to press and public. If any member of the public wishes to attend, please can they notify clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk in advance. This allows us to ensure we have sufficient seats and allow reasonable spacing.
Most of our meetings will be broadcast live on our Facebook page. Recordings of the meetings will be left on Facebook for a few months after the meeting so they can be watched back later. Comments left on Facebook broadcasts during the meeting are not be monitored and are not a way of feeding back to the Council.
Minimum Notice
We issue agendas at least three clear days before a meeting. We display them on the noticeboard in the library, Parish noticeboards on the Village Green and by Enbrook Valley shops, and on our website.
The minimum three clear days for notice of a meeting does not include:
the day of issue of the agenda, or;
the day of the meeting, or;
a Sunday, or;
a day of the Christmas break, or;
a day of the Easter break, or;
of a bank holiday, or;
a day appointed for public thanksgiving or mourning.
Meeting in Public
All meetings of our Council are open to the public, except in limited defined circumstances. We can only decide, by resolution, to meet in private when discussing confidential business or for other special reasons where publicity would be prejudicial to the public interest.
Those reasons might include, for example, discussing the conduct of employees, negotiations of contracts or terms of tender, or the early stages of a legal dispute.
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 12th June: Potatoes, Brockhill School, Stream Walk Community Garden and the Golden Arrow.
It seems the temperatures are beginning to rise, and the cucumbers are not looking quite so sickly, even the dwarf beans have started to perk up a bit and the courgettes are just starting to show the first fruits. We seem to have managed to keep up with the removal of the side shoots on the tomatoes this year, and are doing the same with the hop plants too. One of the beds of broad beans got stripped and uprooted to make way for a new planting of lettuces. It made an entire trug full of bean pods, and we were able to let any visitors take some, and have plenty enough to take home too.
Having inspected the first plot of early potatoes, we took an executive decision to pull them up as they looked large enough on having an initial rummage around in the soil, and anyway we do need the room. Our gardeners working towards their Duke of Edinburgh Award had planted them back in March, and they were delighted to now be harvesting them, so we left them to it, listening to all the squeals of delight when they found more buried ‘treasure’.
Our young volunteers are at Brockhill School in Hythe, and we were invited to go and have a look at an amazing walled garden the school has on site. It has been out of use for some time, and the fantastic greenhouses need lots of restoration, but what a fabulous resource to have. The master plan is to get the garden up and running again for the children to start learning about horticulture. Such an exciting project, and so looking forward to seeing the progress as it happens. We hope to keep you informed on that.
We also had an invite to go and visit Stream Walk Community Garden in Whitstable. We had visited the garden some time ago, but during the pandemic, the garden had a change of committee and new blood to carry the project on and indeed upwards to yet another level. Much larger than any of our spaces, the garden is right in the community and so gets plenty of people using the space. The gardeners made us feel so very welcome, and spent much of their time with us telling us about the project. We always like to analyse such trips to consider our practices and if we can take anything learnt on board, and usually come to the conclusion we are different in several ways – however who knows what the future may bring.
One thing we do really appreciate is that we are also quite visible in our community, in lots of different areas, and fortunate enough to have local support to keep us up and running. After the jubilee weekend, we were invited to go to the Golden Arrow to pick up the takings from the various events that went on such as the tombola and raffle. Richard and Shona the landlords handed over a massive £570. They wanted any money they made to go to the Sandgate Community Garden team as we are always out and about in the Golden Valley and Fremantle Park, and we are all working towards community in the Golden Valley. We are most grateful and humbled.
This week in the Golden Valley at Fremantle Park, some of the lads from the Shorncliffe Barracks came out to help us plant the globe artichokes, some gooseberry and currant bushes, as well as more flowering annuals. Next week they are going to be helping one of our other contacts, Rosemary at the Romney Marsh Community Garden with several chores she has lined up. They are certainly keeping busy.
Finally: Advance Notice – next week’s newsletter will be a day later, because of a family wedding in East Sussex (that is if the groom has recovered from covid which appeared in the last couple of days!).
What’s next?
Prick out the kale, swede and basil seedlings.
Plant the next batch of lettuces and spring onions
Pulling up and stripping the broad beansFinding treasure in new potatoesDeadheading flowers by the banana treeThe entrance to Stream Walk Community Garden
We have previously issued PWLB Reports quarterly alongside committee reports. We will aim to do so from now using this standalone format.
The PWLB loan reserve was formed following our receipt of a loan of £500,000 from the Public Works Loan Board in August 2018 for the purchase of land which then fell through. Despite lobbying Government, the PWLB (a branch of the Treasury) refused to cancel the loan and take the money back from us without requiring a six figure penalty fee. They did, however, confirm the money could be retained and invested by the Council.
The Council has committed that the costs of the loan will not fall on taxpayers through increased Council Tax without a consultation on doing so. We have held no such consultation to date.
As such, we placed the full loan amount in a defined PWLB Loan Reserve.
All payments for that loan (capital repayments, interest payments) come out of that reserve.
All income from that loan (currently interest payments on the loan amount) we put into that reserve. The value of the reserve is published regularly (quarterly).
At this time, while the costs of the loan exceed the income (due to historically low interest rates), the value of our PWLB Loan Reserve is dropping. Although we seek investments with the best return, we want security for the money (so it is all currently in accounts backed by guarantee up to £85,000 per account) and some investments are not open to local authorities, so there are limits on what we can do.
Sandgate Parish Council uses (the excellent) Scribe Accounts to manage our Council accounts and generate reports.
Sandgate Parish Council’s finances are governed by our Financial Regulations and Standing Orders. Every Town and Parish Council has similar rules. Because those rules govern our financial management, we can only amend or vary them by a Council resolution.
Our Council’s Standing Orders require quarterly reporting of receipts, payments and balances. For instance, they say at 17.c:
The Responsible Financial Officer shall supply to each councillor as soon as practicable after 30 June, 30 September and 31 December in each year a statement to summarise:
i. the council’s receipts and payments for each quarter;
ii. the council’s aggregate receipts and payments for the year to date;
iii. the balances held at the end of the quarter being reported
and which includes a comparison with the budget for the financial year and highlights any actual or potential overspends.
Sandgate Parish Council uses (the excellent) Scribe Accounts to manage our Council accounts and generate reports.
Sandgate Parish Council’s finances are governed by our Financial Regulations and Standing Orders. Every Town and Parish Council has similar rules. Those rules govern our financial management, and we can only amend or vary them by a Council resolution.
The Council’s Standing Orders require that we report quarterly on receipts, payments and balances. For instance, they say at 17.c:
The Responsible Financial Officer shall supply to each councillor as soon as practicable after 30 June, 30 September and 31 December in each year a statement to summarise:
i. the council’s receipts and payments for each quarter;
ii. the council’s aggregate receipts and payments for the year to date;
iii. the balances held at the end of the quarter being reported
and which includes a comparison with the budget for the financial year and highlights any actual or potential overspends.
We are now publishing our reports monthly to exceed that requirement. We then consider those reports at the next Parish Council Resources Committee meeting.
We broadcast our meetings live on our Facebook page. Those meeting recordings are then left live for a few months after the meeting, giving you the chance to watch it back later!
The next suitable meeting will formally approve the draft minutes of this meeting. When approved, the Chairman of that meeting then signs them.
The signed minutes of the meeting serve as the legal record of what has taken place at the meeting. Before a meeting approves the draft minutes of a preceding meeting, the meeting may, by resolution, correct any inaccuracies in the draft minutes. The attendance (or otherwise) of the Chairman or those voting in favour to amend or approve of the minutes is irrelevant.
Only if meeting minutes are found to be inaccurate after they have been signed can they then be altered. Inaccuracies in signed minutes can only be amended by resolution at a subsequent meeting.
Report a Highways Issue
Kent Highways are responsible for maintaining and repairing roads and pavements.
Let Kent Highways know about highways problems via their online reporting tool, to help them schedule repairs.
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