DELIVERED TO 5,000 HOMES
Forties theme for the Fayre
MARCH 2016
Published by Kennington Community Forum
To mark the 70th anniversary of Kennington’s Victory Celebrations in June 1946 this year’s Summer Fayre will have a 1940s theme. It is hoped stallholders and visitors will enter into the fun and dress up in the style of
those days! The Fayre is on Saturday 25 June at the Recreation Ground, Ulley Road. The latest Fayre news can be found on Facebook: Kennington Summer Fayre email:
kenningtonfayre@gmail.com
Head teacher and his office manager cheated school out of thousands Former Kennington head teacher Robert Juniper and his exoffice manager Yvonne Pucknell, who together stole £13,000 from the school, have escaped going to prison. They were both given suspended jail sentences at Canterbury Crown Court. Juniper, 57, of Jubilee Fields, Upchurch, near Sittingbourne, was head at Phoenix Community Primary School, Belmont Road, for eight years. He admitted helping himself to more than £4,000 and was given a 30 weeks jail sentence, suspended for two years and ordered to do 150 hours of community work. Pucknell, 62, of Bybrook Road, Kennington, who previously
Juniper and Pucknell “robbed pupils of opportunities” denied her guilt, pleaded guilty to fraud by misusing the school’s credit cards, creating bills of £7,523, and stealing £2,091 between January 2011 and April 2013. She was given a 12 months suspended sentence and ordered to do
200 hours of community work. Pucknell, who worked at the school for more than 20 years, used the credit cards to buy petrol, food, alcohol, presents for her daughter and pay an hotel bill. The judge told Juniper: “You
were regarded as pillars of society but you took credit cards and used them to fund your own lifestyle.” It was Juniper’s successor, Frances Nation, who spotted discrepancies in the school’s records and referred her concerns to Kent County Council and then to Kent Police. The current head, James Tibbles, said the pair had let pupils down and robbed them of opportunities, such as school trips and new musical instruments because the money was not available. He said: “Over the past three years the school has been transformed into one where children are given opportunities that were not previously available such as learning musical instruments, visiting other countries and trips in our new minibuses.”
‘700 new homes for Kennington’ There are fears that a new estate of more than 700 homes could be built in Kennington. It would be in Willesborough Road, opposite the Little Burton Estate. Councillors Phil Sims and Winston Michael say they have learned the sites will be included in Ashford Borough Council’s Local Plan to be published in April. The document looks at potential development up to 2030. A council spokesman insisted sites in the plan were still at the speculation stage
“and at this stage we do not know what is going where." Cllr Sims (Kennington) said: “There is a proposal which recommends creating a housing estate of over 700 homes. The development would stretch from the Conningbrook Hotel to the bridge over the railway on the Willesborough Road, and north to Orchard Lane. “The land is primarily Grade 1 Agricultural Land and is defined by the National Planning Policy Framework as ‘only to be considered in exceptional circum-
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stances’. There are no such exceptional circumstances. The number of vehicle movements would be many thousand per day. There are no plans to enhance the main roads which residents of the estate would use.” Cllr Winston Michael (Boughton Aluph & Eastwell) said: “Recently I learnt these sites would be taken forward into the consultation document and informed my Parish Council. “If this site gets into the Plan it would CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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