We’ve been asked by a number of local residents recently if it is allowed to walk or cycle down “The Riviera” which leads from Castle Road to the seafront and a portion of which is private.
We have asked the Highways Authority Kent County Council for a definitive statement, and they say:
“The road itself is private and has a gate installed both ends of the road. The road is not prohibited for pass and repass of pedestrians: there is a TRO (traffic regulation order) that allows pedestrians to walk through. This also allows BICYCLES.
“It is governed so as only the residents of this road can use any motor propelled vehicles along this road.”
From the Sandgate Sea and Food Festival Committee:
We have taken the tough decision to cancel the Sandgate Sea Festival 2020, owing to uncertainty around the Coronavirus Pandemic. We tried to hold out for as long as possible, but it does not look likely that we will be able to make any commitments this summer and do not want to let anyone down.
This includes both the fireworks display traditionally held on the Saturday evening and the market and other entertainment on the Sunday.
We feel so sad for our wonderful traders, entertainers, our community, our sponsors, the local authorities and of course the RNLI. We promise that we will be back in 2021 as part of the Year of the English Coast and that our event will be better than ever.
We have over fifty tomato plants needing homes, so if you have not got yours yet, come up to the garden on Wednesday 22nd or Saturday 25th from 10 am until noon to collect some. A small donation would be most appreciated, and help towards our running costs.
Thank goodness for some rain, it will make a world of difference; Sandgate often seems to miss any promised rain compared to other parts of Kent, so it was most welcome. Temperatures have not dropped too far and some fleece covers have stayed off, and because of lack of greenhouse space, many plants now have to cope outside to make space for the courgettes, squashes and cucumbers!
This week, there were more sowings of carrots and parsnips between other established plants so that they will be ready to take pride of place once the first crop has gone. Some cauliflower plants got planted, but weeds got a good tackling too in the fight to keep space and soil goodness just for the fruit and veg being grown. The posts did get wired, until we ran out of parts and the drill broke!
The first strawberry flowers have appeared, and so the strawberry bed has been mulched with straw to keep the anticipated fruit clean. They will have to be netted to keep pests at bay. Talking of flowers, the wild/flower area around the banana tree is looking particularly good, and a picture has been included below. Last autumn a lovely lady came up to the garden armed with a few anemones which she planted. This lady works in Nepal for much of the year, and comes back to Sandgate every now and then, so we hope she sees the picture of how her flowers are now looking – absolutely beautiful.
Bee news
Bee keepers Ray and Chris are pleased with bee progress at the garden so far and the site has been registered officially on the government database for notifications of any diseases identified locally. Astonishingly there are 115 registered apiaries within a 10km radius of our site! Wow!
What’s next?
Annoyingly late, the asparagus plants may turn up this week and need planting
Salad to plant and sow
Might have a first picking of salad and salad spinach leaves
Due to the Coronavirus, and lockdown and social distancing rules, the Government have passed emergency legislation and guidance to allow Councils to meet online instead of in person through until May 2021.
In common with many other councils, Sandgate Parish Council will be meeting online for the immediate future and until the Government advice is that is is prudent to again meet “in person” and for the public to be present.
We will be publishing agendas (5 working days in advance of meetings) and minutes within 10 working days after a meeting on the Parish Council website at http://sandgatepc.org.uk/ (as we have done for some years).
Questions on any item of the agenda, or public questions for Full Council Meetings should be sent to the Parish Clerk (by email to clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk) in advance of the meeting and will be read out by the clerk at the meeting and responded to appropriately. Questions should include the questioners full name and address.
The meetings themselves will take place on Zoom (using recommended security such as meeting passwords, use of waiting rooms etc) with the meeting broadcast live as video 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.
Please do bear with us while we learn this new way of working – it’s new for all of us!
Kent Trading Standards Warning: as it’s the end of the tax year, please be aware that scammers are busy.
If you receive any messages like below impersonating HMRC promising a refund and that you need to click on a link, it is a scam. HMRC would never ask you to respond in this way and ask for personal details via a link.
Remember the ABC of scam protection and do not ASSUME or BELIEVE anything you receive via email, text, telephone is genuine, always CONFIRM by contacting a trusted source, Bank, Police, family or friend.
Never click on links or divulge personal data or account details when receiving an out of the blue message like the one above.
If it is “Too good to be true, then it probably is.”
There has been an alert from Action Fraud in relation to a phishing scam, where fraudsters are impersonating Tesco.
The fake Tesco emails are offering ‘free vouchers’ during the coronavirus outbreak and you are asked to click on a link, which takes you to a convincing looking phishing website that is designed to steal your login, personal and financial information.
If you receive one of these, please do not click on the link and delete it and report to Action Fraud.
These warm sunny days have started to bring the plants on at full speed and we are juggling with greenhouse/window ledge space. All the plants that can cope with the cooler spring weather have been sown or planted, and we are now looking to starting to sow the warm loving plants such as courgettes, squashes, cucumbers and sweet corn. There have also been new sowings of leeks and sunflowers, and planting of sweet peas, parsley, wild rocket, peas for pea shoots, and potatoes. The first radishes planted March 1st were picked this week as well as a few pea shoots – the taste of spring!
Rain promised in the weather reports failed to materialise, and so we had to start the laborious but now necessary job of hand watering with watering cans. The trick is to water thoroughly but not that frequently, rather than a sprinkle every day….. Water what needs it because of fast growth at a particular time, or is trying to get established, instead of watering everything at the same rate. No rain in sight this week either, when there was so much of it not that long ago.
If you fancy growing some tomatoes this year and have not been able to get some seeds or have managed to murder your own already – we will have plenty of spare plants suitable for outside growing in pots or in the garden available in a couple of weeks. We have cherry, beef, and yellow plum varieties, and a picture below shows just how strong and healthy they are looking. More information next week on how and when you can get yours.
Bee news
There are some pictures below of the bees inside the hive taken by Ray on his first inspection of the year. It seems all is as it is to be expected at this point of the year which is reassuring, and the queen is in residence; she is the bee with the yellow spot painted on her. Ray has observed, eggs, larvae and pollen stores within the hive, and in order to give the brood a good chance to grow into the season, has reconfigured the colony into a nucleus box which is sitting next to the hive. He then set to work on some new super frames in anticipation of an expansion……
What’s next?
Keep an eye on the weather as we have removed some of the fleece covers and they may have to go back on again if it gets too cool.
Watering and weeding
Sow carrots and parsnips direct
Grrrrrrrr! Still need to wire the posts for the plants to climb up, ran out of time this week again!
This will be Sandgate Parish Council’s first ever online Council meeting, so will be something of a learning experience!
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.
Questions from the public will need to be submitted in advance to clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk by 3pm at the latest on the day of the meeting. Questions from the public should include the questioners name and address so that it can be confirmed the question is from a resident. The question (and name, but not address, of the questioner) will be read out by the Clerk, and answered by the Chairman, Clerk or appropriate Councillor. A written response may also be sent by email subsequent to the meeting.
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We’ve been asked by a number of local residents recently if it is allowed to walk or cycle down “The Riviera” which leads from Castle Road to the seafront and a portion of which is private.
From the Sandgate Sea and Food Festival Committee:
