Wednesday November 22 | 2017
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Local, National and International Tonbridge Castle
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TOTALLY COOL: WHEELCHAIR RUGBY DISPLAY ON ICE RINK Page 70
SUPERMARKETS GIVE NOURISH FOODBANK A BIG BOOST Page 9
CELEBRATE STIR-UP SUNDAY WITH SEASONAL SWEET TREATS Page 52
Control Mr Tugendhat is regarded as one of the high fliers in Theresa May’s ailing administration and has been tipped for the top job despite having only been elected two years ago. He said: “I am firmly of the opinion that our national interest is best served by keeping the maximum negotiating flexibility so that we can exploit every opening to see our economy go from strength to strength, here in Tonbridge, Edenbridge and Malling, and the country as a whole. “That’s why I am concerned that fixing a precise time for our departure will give the EU control over the timetable and allow them to restrict our freedom of manoeuvre.”
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Broad support for ‘rebel’ Tugendhat over opposition to exact Brexit date TOM TUGENDHAT has received widespread approval from fellow politicians and business leaders in the town after he was branded a ‘Tory rebel’. The MP for Tonbridge & Malling was identified as one of 15 ‘Brexit mutineers’ by the Daily Telegraph on its front page last week – a move which was condemned by his fellow Conservative MP Anna Soubry as a ‘blatant piece of bullying’. The article said the MPs ‘had informed senior party figures that they will join forces with Labour to block new measures that would enshrine the date of Brexit in law’.
ROSS ARMSTRONG TELLS MR BOOKS ABOUT ACTING AND WRITING
LIGHT ENTERTAINERS Special guide to town’s official Christmas launch party Page 24
CRY WITH LAUGHTER Bring Your Own Baby comedy show comes to the pub Page 2
MOVING MOUNTAINS: (L-R) John Jenner, Nick Massey, guide Amolak Boohi and Darren Apps trekked to Everest Base Camp and raised more than £13,000 on behalf of charity Taylor Made Dreams for children with life-limiting illnesses to fulfil their wishlists. See page 2
Fidelity shuts its Hildenborough office leaving 650 staff in limbo By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk ONE of the town’s largest employers, Fidelity International, announced yesterday [November 21] that it is closing its offices in Hildenborough. Oakhill House at 130 Tonbridge Road, which is one of three Fidelity branches in the UK, houses 650 staff. There are likely to be significant job losses. The multinational said it ‘plans to relocate the majority of employees and roles to its existing Kingswood site in Surrey’. Kingswood is accessible for those who live locally – it is 25 miles away on the A217 off junction 8 of the M25. Fidelity also has an office in Cannon Street, London.
A consultation period will being in January, when employees will be able to ‘get involved in helping shape Fidelity’s future plans for the office and role transfer’. The news comes as another blow to the local economy after the demise of Tonbridge family firm Southern Salads in August.
‘We have to work in different ways and that includes being more efficient and flexible’ The company went into administration after 31 years, with around 260 job losses. The decline of the salad supply business was blamed on the pound’s devaluation and import costs since the EU referendum. Last month Tunbridge Wells stockbroking
firm AJ Bell said it would be moving more than 100 jobs to London or Manchester because of a lack of office space. And at the end of last year the largest private employer in Tunbridge Wells, AXA, decided to relocate up to 150 jobs from its motor claims division to Birmingham. Fidelity has a total of around 2,500 staff in total. It revealed in July last year that it would move 100 employees to Dublin, and some members of that initial exodus departed from the Hildenborough office. Peter Horrell, Managing Director UK, said: “We have to work in different ways to deliver for our clients and that includes being more efficient, more collaborative and working with more flexibility.”
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MUSIC TO THE EARS
Tonbridge Philharmonic’s The Dream of Gerontius Page 68
WING AND A PRAYER
Angels clinch nine-goal thriller 5-4 in the last minute Page 71