Anybody wishing to make a comment about anything to do with Tonbridge can do so right here on Tonbridge Blog. You don't even have to wait till there's a relevant topic on the blog just say what's on your mind so long as it's clean and legal it won't get deleted I promise you that. So, unlike as some have suggested, you all do have an opportunity to comment about our town right here. Failing that you could always go on that lesser known social networking site, Twitter! One recent comment below questioned whether or not our money is being wasted on the resurfacing work being carried out at the Upper Castle Fields carpark, causing its closure for at least a week.
Funny enough I too couldn't help but noticed this. "Work" had started yesterday. Except the "work" seemed to involve the "workmen" playing a game of football tennis which was a game they'd invented with a makeshift court using a rope and plastic crates. Innovative and entertaining though it was I couldn't help but wonder how much resurfacing was actually going on and how much their game would have been costing the local tax payer! If only my camera phone hadn't run out of battery I'd have been able to capture this great example of British workmanship....
11 comments:
Well if they want to lay some tarmac, lay it on those crumbling farm tracks that we in Tonbridge laughingly call 'roads'.
Tonbridge's car parks are maintained by local council TMBC but Tonbridge's roads are supposed to be maintained by county council KCC. You get the chance to show that KCC has been doing a poor job by voting out the ruling Tory party on the 3nd May.
You may have had an election leaflet from the Tories recently in which their main claims are:
Conservative Kent has delivered
• Freedom Passes for 27,000 young people
• Education for 250,000 children every day
• 300,000 free bus passes
• Funding for apprenticeships
I think these claims have not been well thought out and are taking voters for suckers.
First a lot of children get free travel to school anyway and I am sure many Kent parents cant afford the £100 a year freedom pass.
The second claim does not stand up as many of Kent school have voted with their feet and have become academies free of any KCC funding or control.
The majority of Tonbridge's senior schools are academies.
Yes, KCC administer the senior persons free bus passes but they don't pay for them. (The scheme was started by the previous Labour government.)
And yes KCC do pay for some apprenticeships costs but only set a very small fund of £2 millions compared with the overall government funding and no doubt much of the KCC money goes to pay a large number of their own staff.
Use you vote.
Yes I got the leaflet, but it was no good for the nail on the toilet wall, it was made out of that slippery stuff. The only thing I could do with it was shred it and recycle it that way.
Thursday 2nd of May is my birthday, so hopefully I'll be sober enough to vote.
Surely no-one expects politicians to be anything other than "economical with the truth", and that applies to politicians of all parties.
Despite high-sounding, alturistic expressions of good intent when they first aspire to enter politics, (they might even be deluding themselves over this, as well as the electorate), once in power the majority of them do "very nicely" out of the whole experience.
It's the old thing about power corrupting, but I'm not really decrying them for this, as it's human nature to seize oportunities, or to take advantage of situations that might happen to come their way. What I am decrying them for, is their lack of transparency and honesty in the first place.
Yes Tim, I agree the best place for election leaflets is in the recycling bin, (no, shiny, glossy paper doesn't make good toilet paper!), but that applies to the pamphlets trotted out by all political parties.
Have you seen that KCC is now blaming the French for the potholes - French tarmac
No doubt this was part of a cost-cutting exercise, but you get what you pay for in the end.
The crassest comment though has to be - "He said because many of the UK's roads were originally Roman they were more likely to move."
Do our councillors, and their employees, really believe such nonsense? Honestly, you couldn't make it up!
ps. forgot to mention, wasn't France a Roman province too?, even if it was known as Gaul at the time.
The Romans must have built the odd road or two in France during their time there, so KCC's argument just doesn't stack up. Where do these people get their crazy ideas from?
One for Tonbridge shop watchers, looks like Sainsburys is getting ready to jettison Beales - Beales Sainsburys deal
The Beales move is surely to do with the proposed plans for the Angel Center area development? From early reports seems that plan is for bigger Sainsburys, cinema and some smaller shops with the Angel Center moving over to Bradford Street carpark. This is probably first part to move this along?....
For once some praise for TMBC. Walking home last night from the excellent Angelfest, beer and music festival down at Longmead stadium, I was very pleased (and relieved) to find the public toilets in Priory Road still open.(This was just before midnight). It's a long walk from Longmead to where I live in South Tonbridge, and even though I had used the facilities at the football ground prior to leaving, I was glad of the oportunity for an additional "comfort stop" before reaching home.
I don't know whether this is a new policy, or something which perhaps only applies at weekends, but full marks to TMBC for keeping these facilities open so late.
Btw. Angelfest continues today (Sunday).There are still plenty of excellent ales left, plus a good selection of Belgian beers (both draught and bottled), to sample. I should also add that admission is free. Full report later on my blog. http://baileysbeerblog.blogspot.co.uk/
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