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PHOTO: Rose Bainbridge
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after amendments which had been submitted by opposition councillors to alter its wording were accepted. These included a commitment to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2030 rather than 2050, and to report on the progress being made by May next year.
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‘We will be able to make sure that the council has measures addressing all areas of its work’
Only one councillor abstained, Tim Bishop, the Liberal Democrat representative for Larkfield South. In contrast, KCC had amended a motion proposed by Green councillor Martin Whybrow, putting back the target for zero carbon by 20 years. The Leader of Borough Council, Nicolas Heslop, said: “Doing all we can to help reduce the impact of climate change is a priority for Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, and that is why the Conservative group put down this motion. “We believe it is important to recognise the challenges this brings. “By taking steps such as renewing the Climate Change strategy, we will be able to make sure that towns and villages are carbon neutral, where possible, and that
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systems, review operations to deliver more electric charging points, and renew the council’s Climate Change strategy to head for carbon neutrality. The motion passed with near unanimous support from all political parties
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andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk
TONBRIDGE and Malling Borough Council [TMBC] has joined other local authorities in voting to recognise the climate change ‘emergency’. Crucially for environmental campaigners, the motion put forward included ‘an aspiration to be carbon neutral by 2030’. It also insists that TMBC must report back on its progress within 12 months. Other bodies, such as Kent County Council [KCC] last month, refused to accept this date, opting to aim for 2050. Carbon neutrality means that as much of the greenhouse gas should be taken out of the atmosphere as is put into it – or net zero emissions. The Conservative Group proposed the motion on July 9 in order to move ‘towards a more sustainable economy’. It included a commitment to strengthen protection of species, habitats and eco-
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By Andy Tong
Council aims for carbon neutrality by 2030 not 2050 after amendment
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75 years ago: How a boy was pulled from bomb wreck by his big sister
FAMILY VALUES Yvonne Vickery with a picture of herself and her four siblings during World War Two
‘He told me how pleased he was to see a familiar face when I got him out. What a coincidence it was’
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Wednesday July 17 | 2019
A NINETY year old woman has recalled how she pulled her brother from the rubble after a flying bomb dropped on the town 75 years ago. The pulse-jet propelled V1 device, known as a ‘doodlebug’, was one of two that fell on the Racecourse Sportsground during the summer of 1944. A plaque was installed this year to mark the spot where one fell at 7.13pm on July 12; another came down on Tinker’s Island at 6.47pm on June 19. The latter landfall was caused when a Spitfire pilot ‘tipped’ the bomb with his wing to divert its course to stop it striking neighbouring houses. The explosion damaged 500 shops and houses in the High Street and Barden Road area. Twelve-year-old Michael Osborne was killed after sustaining shrapnel injuries while he was playing hide-and-seek. Local resident Harry Elliott described in the Times how he cheated death – he was supposed to be with Michael but they had fallen out over riding the latter’s new bicycle. As a result of the article, Yvonne Vickery, née Johnson, contacted the Times to describe how she had run over to help her younger
brother Rodney in the blaze. The nonagenarian, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, said: “Michael was our cousin, we all lived in Danvers Road. “We played in the river and on the island all the time.” She had a twin sister, Dolores, who also lives in Tunbridge Wells; Rodney, who was four years younger than them, also had a twin, Charmaine. Mrs Vickery was 15 at the time, and the day’s events made an indelible impression. “I was walking over the playing field with a friend and we saw the doodlebug come over and the plane that tipped it,” she said.
Awful “We heard the tinkling of glass, which must have been along Barden Road. The first thing I saw was my brother Rodney crawling out of the rubble, so I ran over and pulled him out. “He had shrapnel in his leg. He had told Michael ‘don’t look up’. “But of course, being a child, he did look up and he got shrapnel in his head. “Rodney could remember people trying to clamber over him to get pieces of shrapnel. “He thought that was awful – but that’s what they used to do.”
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