The Government is seeking views on the use of the current arrangements which have allowed local authorities to hold meetings remotely during the pandemic. They are inviting views from the public, elected members and officers.
If you wish to give your views you can do so using the link below – closing date 17 June 2021.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/local-authority-remote-meetings-call-for-evidence
With the planned reopening on Sandgate Library from April 12th, we’re pleased to say we can also reopen our Food Bin drop off point for donations to the Folkestone Rainbow Centre Foodbank.
The call on the Foodbank, and their need for donations is greater at this time than ever. They really do need any help and donations you can offer: simply bring them to Sandgate library and drop off in the foodbin.
Waitrose in Hythe, Asda & Tesco in Folkestone, and Sainsbury’s also all have drop off points, and all dried or tinned food donations would make a big difference.
At this moment, there is particular need for long life UHT milk, tinned meat, instant mash, long life orange juice and jams and spreads.
April-21-collection-bin-poster-A4-1-1Thank you.
From Kent Highways: It will be necessary to close Coolinge Lane, Folkestone from 6th April 2021 for up to 2 days.
The road will be closed between the junctions of Sandgate Hill and Bathurst Road.
The alternative route is via Sandgate Hill, Grimston Avenue, Shorncliffe Road and Coolinge Lane.
It is planned that the road will be closed between 09:00 and 16:00 hrs each day.
This is to enable carriageway patching to be carried out by Kent County Council.
Sandgate Parish Council will broadcast this meeting as a video on Facebook live at the time of the meeting itself on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/sandgatepc/ Comments made on the Facebook video during the meeting will not be monitored and are not a way of feeding back to the Council.
Env-Agenda-4-06-04-21
It will be necessary to close Seabrook Road, Hythe from 1st April 2021 for up to 1 night.
The road will be closed outside 11 Seabrook Road (near The Bell Inn).
The alternative routes are via:
Mill Road and Station Road.
B2063 Hospital Hill, B2063 West Road, B2063 North Road, B2063 Military Road, B2063 Risborough Lane, B2064 Cheriton High Street, M20, A20 Ashford Road, A261 Hythe Road, A261 London Road, A259 Military Road, A259 Rampart Road and A259 Prospect Road.
A259 Sandgate Esplanade, A259 Sandgate Hill, A259 Sandgate Road, A259 Earls Avenue, B2064 Shorncliffe Road, B2064 Beachborough Road, B2064 Cheriton High Street, M20, A20 Ashford Road, A261 Hythe Road, A261 London Road, A259 Military Road, A259 Rampart Road and A259 Prospect Road.
It is planned that the road will be closed between 19:00 and 23:00 hrs.
This is to enable manhole cover repairs to be carried out by Southern Water.
Sandgate Parish Council will broadcast this meeting as a video on Facebook live at the time of the meeting itself on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pg/sandgatepc/ Comments made on the Facebook video during the meeting will not be monitored and are not a way of feeding back to the Council.
Members of the public can ask representations regarding an application. Any comments sent to clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk will be sent to all Councillors prior to the meeting and acknowledged by the meeting. If a member of the public would prefer to speak to the application (for up to three minutes) themselves, they can do so by emailing clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk at least 2 working days before the meeting asking to speak to Planning committee, specifying on which application. Members of the public joining a Council meeting to make a representation will be asked to follow the protocol at https://sandgatepc.org.uk/public-speaking-at-online-meetings-of-sandgate-parish-council-protocol/
Planning-Agenda-06-04-21-doc
Do you have some special memories of Folkestone you’d like to share for a new community project?
Perhaps you used to visit the Rotunda regularly and met your partner there. Did you gaze in wonder at the rock being made in the Old High Street? Maybe you used to have a secret den in the Warren?
Or maybe you know someone in your family, or a friend who likes to wax lyrical about their memories or has some funny anecdotes?
Hand of Doom Productions, a Folkestone-based community interest company, would love to hear your memories and share them as part of a project called Folkestone StoryMap: Your Stories.
You can record your stories using a smartphone, or via a Zoom call, and then send them in. They’ll then be added to Folkestone StoryMap audio trail in the Lower Leas Coastal Park which launched at the end of last year. The trail uses QR codes fixed to a site specific location and are accessed via smart phones to listen to the stories.
Michele Sheldon, of Hand of Doom Productions, said:
“Everyone is aware that Folkestone has changed greatly over the last few years, with the loss of much-loved landmark attractions like the Rotunda, and there’s almost a sense of loss from people who remember the town as another place. We’d love to record memories of the town for posterity.”
Michele, along with fellow directors Ribs Norman and Jude Sach, is looking for stories of up to two minutes. Stories can be recorded stories either over the phone or via Zoom with help and advice available at folkestonestorymap.co.uk, or if you’d like more help to record your story, you can use the contact form on the website to get in touch.
Your Stories is being funded by the National Lottery Community Fund through the Local Connections Fund.
Please visit folkestonestorymap.co.uk for full details.
The slightly warmer weather has started to move some of the plants this week. There was kale, purple sprouting, chard and spinach to pick, there is also wild garlic (popular for making into pesto), coriander, and a few mustard leaves which are now mature enough to make your eyes water they are that hot! The broad beans were flowering underneath the fleece covers so we took them off or the pollinators will not be able to find them. The fleece had been protecting the beans as well as the weeds so there was plenty to sort out. As fast as we weed the sycamore seedlings all over the plot, they pop up again to make it look like nothing has been cleared.
There is a photo below showing the purple shoots of the Hythe Hops just poking through, totally surrounded by sycamore seedlings, and that is just in one small space! So all the hops have survived their first winter and are all showing. The hairy twine which the hops use to climb up has been fixed or replaced ready for them to romp away bigger and hopefully better than last year.
It seems that most of the plants have survived, and although we lost the annual flowers that seemed to come through the previous winter, they had time to seed, and we can see nasturtiums, violas and pot marigolds popping up making the weeding more challenging to identify what to keep and what to hoe. The welsh onions are just starting to flower, which will be appreciated by the insects, and with any luck provide us with more seeds. Welsh onions are a perennial which just keep dividing and making more onions. We are still using the seeds from our chives to grow lots of new plants.
We are all very excited that from next week we will be able to have six of us at a time back in the garden, no more shifts of working in ones and twos for just an hour at a time. We welcomed back one of our gardeners who has been away for months recovering from Covid and the after symptoms. Once she had managed to stagger up the hill to the garden, she could at least sit in the sunshine and sow some seeds and gather some energy to walk home again, armed with some spinach and kale to make a smoothie to help on the road to recovery. In celebration we think that next week we should certainly indulge in some cake sharing to mark the start of spring, the chance to work together again and look forward to better times to come (like planting tomatoes perhaps!)
Reminder –From Wednesday 21st April – Tomato plants are available
Last but not least a big THANK YOU to the supermarket Morrison’s for very kindly donating 10 plants, a mix of perennial flowering plants, herbs and a gooseberry bush. Some of them are to be planted at Enbrook Park, whilst others will go to the garden at Fremantle Park. We have an invitation to come back again for more plants when they have more stock with particular plants we have on our wish list.
What’s next?
Sandgate Library reopened for Click-and-Collect then browsing services in September, becoming one of the first libraries in Kent to do so post the first Covid lockdowns. Sandgate Library has continued to run Click-and-Collect services since November. We are delighted to announce that, assuming the current Government Covid re-opening schedule not change, we will reopen for browsing as of 12th April.
The numbers in the library will be limited, so until June there will be no clubs and events restarting. If a large number of users turn up you may be asked to wait until entering the library. However, we would expect waiting to be relatively rare and limited.
Sandgate Library will reopen for browsing from 9.30-12.30 on Monday 12th April. We will then be open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings 9.30-12.30.