Wednesday March 21 | 2018
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Radical rethink is rejected as station keeps ‘kiss and ride’
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Times OF TONBRIDGE
INSIDE
PICTURE THE SCENE Kitty Bruce shows her vision for River Lawn; the campaign to save the public space is now entering its final stages. See page 2
HOW REFRESHING
CAMRA award for new-look pub on High Street Page 2
THE railway station will keep its drop-off points outside the main entrance after residents said they did not want radical changes to ease the traffic burden. Councillors voted to keep the existing layout after examining the findings of a public consultation, which rejected a proposal to move the bays to Priory Road. A redesign had been put forward by Kent County Council (KCC) to change the station approach in order to reduce congestion around the transport hub.
PHOTO: Simon Partington
ENTRANCING DANCE
Busiest Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council’s Joint Transportation Board made their decision after more than 200 people gave their views on the plans. It is the busiest station in Kent, with around 4.4million passengers using it every year. There are also multiple bus stops in the vicinity which serve the students attending the plethora of schools in south Tonbridge. Commuters and schoolchildren crowd into the site on weekdays and KCC had decided that the area was no longer ‘fit for purpose’. County Hall have a budget of £500,000 which must be spent on the project during 2018-19, allocated by the South-East Enterprise Partnership. After the improvements it made to the High Street, KCC looked at ways to provide more room for pedestrians and more capacity for sustainable, ‘green’ transport.
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Police must ‘have the tools’ to deal with chemical attack By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk LOCAL MP Tom Tugendhat, a leading figure in Britain’s response to the chemical attack on a Russian spy in Salisbury, has said the same could happen on the streets of Tonbridge and the police must be in a position to deal with it. And he added that while he does not think England should boycott the football World Cup in Russia this summer, their fans should be wary of reprisals from the police in that country. Former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Julia were found unconscious on a park bench in the city centre on March 4 after being poisoned by a nerve agent.
The Conservative MP for Tonbridge & Malling is Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Parliament and is convinced it is the work of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin cronies. Mr Tugendhat has been widely praised for his condemnation of the Russian
‘I’ve been vocal about areas where I feel extra funding would help make us safer’ state and led calls for retaliation against what he describes as a ‘warlike act’. He has recommended targeting the Russian oligarchs who have moved their wealth to London, while Prime Minister Theresa May ordered the expulsion of 23
Russian intelligence officers from the UK. But the focus of public fears rests not in the capital’s mansions or corridors of power but in people’s everyday lives. Tonbridge and Salisbury both have populations of 40,000 and the incident has shown how vulnerable British citizens are to such an attack, with 36 people requiring treatment in the Wiltshire city as well as the two Russians. Mr Tugendhat told the Times: “The incident in Salisbury demonstrates the importance of having a co-ordinated, strategic response to major incidents which threaten our whole country. “This could have happened here, locally, and Kent Police need to have the
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Britain’s young ballet talents are gliding into town Page 59
THE PERFECT PINT
Tonbridge Brewery reveals secrets of ale trade Page 64
NEW DEAL FOR BOSS ...and you can be the Angels’ manager for a day! Page 79