“Words and Music”, a perfomance by Terry Waite CBE, will be presented on Thursday 9th June in St Paul’s Church Sandgate commencing at 7pm and forming part of the Church’s 200th anniversary celebrations.
Terry Waite will read selected passages from his book: Out of the Silence. The reading will be interspersed with music played and sung by the accomplished musician Vicky Yannoula. The words and music blend together to provide an unforgettable reflective evening.
“Good language, like good music, has the capacity to breathe harmony into the soul. In a world torn apart by conflict it is hoped that those attending will experience something of that harmony”. Terry Waite.
The event will finish at 9pm, with an interval.
This is a ticketed event. Tickets cost £15 and will be available at all Sunday morning St. Paul’s services and at the Benefice service at St. Paul’s Church on Sunday 29th May. Tickets will also be available to purchase online. The details can be found on the Trinity Benefice website, on the St. Paul’s Church page at www.trinitybenefice.co.uk
Sandgate Community Garden Team Diary Entry for 8th May:Moths and moles, golden oregano and the need for more space!
Yippee! We have had a drop or two of rain this week, some 17.8 mm apparently, which has freshened up the gardens beautifully – still not enough of course, but it has helped.
The tomatoes have now all been planted in two beds with a few along the wall. By the end of the week the courgettes and summer squashes got planted too with space for just a few more. Some of the French beans got planted, but there are more.
We have winter squashes, and outdoor cucumbers coming along fast, and they all got re-potted and put back into the cold frames to come on for another couple of weeks. We need to clear more space for these things first, and with winter leeks, spring onions and chard coming along, goodness knows where they are going to go as there are no more beds available for a while yet and we shall have to try to keep them in their modules for a few more weeks.
The alleyway between Meadowbrook and Chichester Road seemed to be growing some fabulous forget-me-nots and dandelions in gigantic proportions which needed clearing to let the plants we want to keep a chance to breathe. It is hard to imagine the small area had twelve bags of compost spread about at the end of last autumn; however the growth is looking lush. There were some queries on Facebook about one of our plants looking particularly good there, a golden oregano (pictured below) which has made large cushions of growth and is fabulous. It will probably need splitting up later in the year so we shall have to spread more of that around the area.
Always keen to look out for insects and creatures not noticed before in the garden; what we believe is a mint moth (photo below) was spotted on a gooseberry bush. We do not think it is interested in gooseberries but probably making its way to the herb bed. A cheeky mole has made its way under the wall it seems and popped up all over the place along the back of the garden. Much as we love wildlife, the hope is it will either stay in that direction or go back under the wall again; however we probably will not be that lucky.
The Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap happened on Saturday in Cheriton High Street where a massive £406 was raised!! We took ten crates or boxes of plants to the sale. It was wonderful to be able to clear space from having to look after these plants, however the saving of plants begins all again as we work towards our own community garden sale later on in the year at the Sandgate Sea Festival. Just time to breathe for a little while and make the most of the temporary space.
What’s next?
Those hops did not get any attention this week – check for new shoots
Finish planting out the last summer squashes and French beans
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.
Since January, members of the congregation and Sandgate community have been knitting and crocheting flowers for an eye-catching display that will help promote the 200th anniversary of St Paul’s Church, celebrated with a week of events beginning on Sunday 5th June.
The display is located on the wall beside the steps leading up to the church where so many have made the walk to services and other events before the road leading up to Saga was developed.
This colourful arrangement of over 1,000 flowers was unveiled on Sunday 1st May and has already caught the eye of many passers-by. Do pop down and take a look. We would like to thank everyone who has been involved. It really is a project by the community for the community.
For more information about any of the above events please contact Carrie Thomas, Deputy Churchwarden at: stpauls200@gmail.com
The first “Sandgate Episcopal Chapel” was built by the Earl of Darnley at his own expense on a plot of land from the adjoining parkland estate of Enbrook which he had purchased. It was consecrated on May 28th, 1822 and was a square building in Georgian Classical style with a cupola. It may be seen on prints of Sandgate made a few years later.
The small village of Sandgate developed rapidly when the railway reached Folkestone in 1843, and a larger church was needed. The earlier building was demolished in 1848 to make way for the present church which was completed in 1849.
The architect, S. S. Teulon, achieved distinction in designing Victorian churches and St. Paul’s is one of his earlier works. It had two-decker seating with galleries and could accommodate 890. The four cross-gables of polychrome brickwork with stone dressings dominate the front elevation. The omission of a spire was probably to keep down the cost.
Sandgate Church was a Chapel-of-Ease until 1888, when it became a parish church. Perhaps St. Paul was chosen as its patron in memory of his sea-voyages in the service of Christ. Inhabitants of Sandgate look out to sea daily at the passing ships and on more than one occasion helped shipwrecked sailors in Victorian times.
The agenda for the Sandgate Parish Council Full Parish Council meeting, to held on 17th May 2022, in Sandgate Library. The meeting will commence at the close of the preceding Annual Parish Meeting, or 7pm, whichever is earlier.
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 Parish 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.
Members of the public can ask questions and make suggestions in the Public Participation section of the Annual Parish Meeting.
Any questions (deemed to be reasonable) sent to clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk will be read and, if possible, answered at the meeting.
If a member of the public would prefer to speak and ask their question themselves, that’s fine.
The Annual Parish Meeting is a meeting for and for electors of the Parish, not the council. It is required in Part III the Local Government Act of 1972 which specifies:
when it is to be held,
the meeting notice period,
that the Chairman of the Parish Council shall Chair the meeting,
and who shall be eligible to vote, if there are any votes.
Our agenda will give an opportunity to update the Parish on the work of the Parish Council, and plans for the next year. We will also be updated on the proposed merger of the Sandgate Heritage Trust and Sandgate Society. There will be an opportunity for questions on both those items.
Following the meeting will be the annual meeting of the Parish Council (which we will try to keep short!), then a small reception for all present to say thank you for coming along.
The agenda of Sandgate’s Parish Council Planning Committee meeting. The meeting will be on 10th May 2022, at 6.30pm. 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 1st May: Tomato down, fence up, bench built, but the rain is AWOL.
There is still no rain for Sandgate and very little promise of any on the horizon. Apparently we had 21.1 mm of rain this month which must have come on the very first day or so, or crept in during one night!
The plants have to really put down their roots to find any moisture in the soil and clearing any of the plots to make way for new plants is a fight. Some of the roots and stems seem welded into the soil or set off in concrete, whilst others are sitting within a dust bowl; such is the difference between contrasting areas of the same garden.
The spinach from last autumn had gone to seed, and the parsley was trying to do the same, there are new plants of both and so the compost heap gained a deep new layer of vegetation. The sweet peas got planted with two newly positioned wig-wams near the pond (where they are sheltered from the wind). A liberal dollop of horse manure got added too, providing a mulch as well as fertiliser for such hungry plants.
An executive decision was made to plant the tomatoes this Saturday. The temperatures are fine both day and night, but the wind can be a threat and so they have been netted just for a couple of weeks to get them settled in. More will be planted this coming week, and we will start to plant in spaces along the wall. The beans, courgettes and squashes are following along just a week or two behind them, so we have time to concentrate on one thing at a time.
Concentration was certainly not happening when a complete idiot (me of course), managed to drop an entire tray of pots full of seedlings just on their way to be pricked out into larger pots. Fortunately we had some patient and capable volunteer gardeners there, who carefully salvaged all they could from the situation, and seedlings were saved but many were lost. Luckily, and on the very same day, Rosie turned up with donation plants she had grown and potted on at home for us. Thank goodness for that.
Thanks also go to Rosemary from the Romney Marsh community garden as she had even more seeds to share with us and a few plants for the Incredible Edible plant sale and seed swap which is next Saturday 7th May from 10am to 2pm outside the United Response Community Network in Cheriton High Street. If you are a keen gardener or looking to fill some spaces in the garden or house, then this is the event for you, and the place to get some terrific plants for a small donation. We will be providing some potted herbs as well as spare tomato plants, courgettes and squashes if they hurry up and get a little bit bigger for the day. We also have some garden plants and some of our very decorative tree spinach too.
Always looking for recycled additions for our garden, Rita offered a beautiful slab of slate retrieved from a neighbour throwing it out from a house renovation. We matched the slab up with some concrete blocks, hid them from view with strategically placed logs and we now have a new bench, just in front of the pond, a great place to have a sit and a chat, or a seat to work from.
We are indeed very fortunate at the garden for all the kind people who donate time, energy, or other gifts to make the garden what it is today. A very special thank you to Paul for making such a fabulous job of the boundary fencing, now finished, it just looks terrific, and we are receiving many compliments on how good the Sandgate Community Garden is looking – now all we need is RAIN.
What’s next?
Finish planting up the second tomato bed and start planting along the wall.
Repot the winter squashes
Clear some of the beds and prepare for replanting
Check on the number of hop shoots per plant
Our younger members working towards a Duke of Edinburgh awardWeeding and working with earthed up potato plot in frontRecycled benchFabulous fence
Dog owners are being reminded of the seasonal restrictions restarting on nine of Folkestone & Hythe’s beaches from Sunday.
The district boasts 26 miles of sand and shingle beaches, so there are still plenty of choices for your four-legged friends along our coastline.
There is a beach dog ban on the following beaches between 1 May and 30 September each year to ensure everyone can enjoy the seaside, as well as maintain water quality:
Sunny Sands, Folkestone
Mermaid Beach, Folkestone (in front of the Lower Leas Coastal Park)
Between Sandgate Castle and BP service station, Sandgate/Seabrook
From Twiss Road to St Leonards Road, Hythe
Between Sycamore Gardens and Martello car park, Dymchurch
Between The Fairway and the river outfall, St Mary’s Bay
From the water tower at Madeira Road to Clark Road, Littlestone
Between The Jolly Fisherman car park and 17 The Parade, Greatstone
Between 114 The Parade and 172 The Parade, Greatstone
Stuart Peall, Cabinet Member for Enforcement, Regulatory Services, Waste and Building Control, said:
“These measures are common across the country and are there to ensure all residents and visitors can enjoy our coastline.
“We ask owners to respect these seasonal restrictions by using the other dog-walking areas our district is blessed with. Penalties of up to £1,000 can be issued to those who don’t follow these reasonable rules.
“I would also like to thank the majority of people who clear up after their dogs and ensure they are on leads where required – on The Leas in Folkestone for example.”
Dog poo contains high levels of harmful nitrates which can reduce the quality of our bathing water and harm local marine life.
Please join the thousands of dog owners who are already helping to keep our waters safe by bagging your dog waste, then binning it. Don’t forget you can place bagged dog waste in normal litter bins too.
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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