I am a local mum and I have been using New Romney Children's Centre (NRCC) for 5 years now, I used it when it was in the old portacabin behind St Nicholas School, and I now use its new building next door to Abacus Nursery. Both my children have attended groups there and I have attended various different courses including Paediatrics first aid which I believe to be a very valuable piece of knowledge to have when having kids of your own. The centre is an excellent place for parents to meet, children to play, they run free educational courses for adults, they hold activities for all different ages. They are a centre for the local midwives, they have various different support groups ranging from health through to financial advice. Everyone that works at this centre does their absolute hardest to make life better for anybody that goes there. It has become a community place for all, and yet it goes very much unappreciated by many for a very specific reason.

Not too long ago the centre was told by the council that they could no longer open evenings and weekends without specific planning, this has forced the centre to only open Mon to Fri during normal working hours. I feel that this has had a big impact on the centre in terms of who can use it now. Many families in this area consist of one full time working parent and one stay at home parent. This in turn means that the parent who works full time (usually dad) misses out on group activities with their child. The centre used to run a Dads club on a Saturday morning and this has now stopped because of the council.
They also used to do various NVQ courses on a sat morning which were available to anyone, these have now been moved to another centre which may not be accessible to parents without transport.

The centre also used to (on occasion) have fun nights, eg family b-b-q's, quiz nights that were open to the whole family and from experience brought many families together that wouldn't normally have contact with one and other. This again has now had to stop because of the council.

The centre has also in the past been a part of the much loved New Romney Country Fair, both taking part in the parade with the children and having a stall, informing people of its facilities and courses. Because they can no longer access the centre on a Saturday morning they have had to pull out of this too.
The school holds meeting in the evening, events outside of school hours, summer fetes etc and this doesn't seem to bother anybody so why should it be a problem for NRCC.

Everybody talks about community spirit and local facilities and want them to all to be better for everybody and yet something that provides a place for many families within this local community to come together, be safe, possibly better themselves with extra qualifications, skills and/or abilities, and generally just feel like a part of something is being taken away all because of some section within the council planning statement.

If you want to see this centre continue to provide for OUR community please help support its fight to open for more hours.

Elizabeth  
New Romney
27 Jul 11

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Dear Shepway DC,
While I am generally in favour of initiatives to improve recycling provided they have a sound economics basis, there are some observations I’d like to make on the new recycling scheme:
The new purple lidded bins are not very practical for glass, because – unless you have incredibly long arms – you cannot place glass gently in them, with a high risk that the glass will break, especially once several jars or bottles are already in there.
Second, buying compostable bags is quite expensive. These are about 12p each, which if you use 2-3 a week means a spend of maybe £15-£18 over a year, simply thrown away. Your alternative suggestion of using newspaper results in a need for more washing.
Thirdly, we are required to wash containers. I agree washing is necessary to prevent smell, flies/maggots and mould/bacteria forming. The new food waste bins also need thorough washing every 2 weeks or so if they are not to become smelly. Individual washing using hot water, detergent and perhaps other cleaning chemicals is not especially “green” or economic. Bulk washing – if there were a way of doing it – would be far more economically and environmentally sound.
None of this of course takes into account the increased time spent by householders in going about their recycling duties, and the resultant “opportunity cost” loss. On the other side of the equation, one needs of course to look at the increasing cost of landfill – something which up to recently has been regarded almost as a non-cost.
I note in France that recycling is done via locally placed bulk bins, most usually arranged so there is a bank of all 4 types of recycling bin together – sometimes with additional bins for shoes and clothing. Households place their plastic, metal and cartons in a bin liner for recycling, which they then place in a bulk bin ready to be collected by the refuse / recycling contractor. Glass and paper/cardboard are placed in a different bulk bins. Finally, refuse for landfill goes in a fourth type of bulk bin. The bins for container recycling and landfill refuse are all large wheeled bins that can be picked up and emptied by a cart with a power lift.
I would be interested to know if you have any guidelines on the economics of recycling from end to end and if there are any particular models that you follow?
Regards,
MG  
Folkestone
17 Jul 11

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