Following the success of last year's Folkestone Multi-Cultural Festival which attracted thousands of visitors and residents to join in celebrations of the town's many different cultures, a bigger event is planned for 2008 - and the organisers are inviting participation from ethnic and other groups and also from schools which would like to their pupils to be involved.
In a key meeting today, Kent Fire Authority have voted for cuts to Folkestone Fire Brigade. The Conservative dominated Authority voted by 14 votes to one against for the cuts to the Folkestone Brigade, which will now lose its second full-time engine, 24 full-time fire-fighters and lose its turntable ladder. The only member of the Fire Authority to vote against was Liberal Democrat Andy Stamp.
The Springvale Focus Team has started to deliver the March Focus across the Ward. The main stories are: Massive rises in Council Tax and Rent, road resurfacing a disgrace, recycling boxes for flats, pedestrian crossing for Biddings Lane.
Liberal Democrats have called on Chelmsford Borough Council to take real steps to reduce their carbon footprint. In a motion presented to Council on Wednesday 20th February, Cllr. Andrew Sosin called for all new Borough Council buildings to be carbon neutral in terms of how they are built & how energy would be produced and consumed within the buildings. The motion also called for any significant changes to current buildings to aim to substantially reduce the carbon footprint of that building.
Wolverhampton City Council has revised its criteria for considering new pedestrian crossings. Consequently, Springvale Lib Dem Cllr Richard Whitehouse has asked the Highways Department to take a fresh look at his request that was made a few years ago for a crossing at Biddings Lane/Shaw Road. Richard said, "The residents of the sheltered scheme at Hinchliffe Avenue particularly need this crossing and because they are unable to cross Biddings Lane/Shaw Road. They are now becoming prisoners in their own complex. I have been told the new guidelines will take this into account. I really hope that we may now be successful in getting a crossing."
Hythe Lib Dem campaigners Darren Briddock and Neil Matthews have today written to the Chief Executive of Southern Water to demand an explanation for the delay in fixing a collapsed sewer that serves the residents of St Nicholas Road and Frampton Road in Hythe.