Ap
pl
i ed
e an br
em M
ite
im sL
d.
COPY
Page
d
OF TONBRIDGE
COPY
Page
ui
COPY
Liq
FREE
r EEape FRwsp
The BIGGEST local paper and it’s still
Local, National and International
s SS ur L A I N G tail Yo E G O F r de B R R O fo F I AT e 6 F L pag
Times
All the news that matters
Nseee
Wednesday June 26 | 2019
COPY
Page
Page
PHOTOS: David Couldridge
GP appointments still available in West Malling but ‘only for very few’
DOUBLE DELIGHT: Tonbridge Angels manager Steve McKimm (left) and club chairman Dave Netherstreet receive the Isthmian League Premier Division trophy and Fair Play award at Brighton’s Metropole to round off a hugely successful 70th anniversary campaign
MP issues warning to Johnson: No 10 job is ‘really not a game’ By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk THE MP for Tonbridge & Malling, Tom Tugendhat, has warned the next Prime Minister that the job ‘is not a game’ – in an apparent sideswipe at Boris Johnson. Mr Tugendhat had backed Michael Gove in the Conservative Party leadership contest, which will also decide the next occupant of No 10 Downing Street. Mr Johnson polled 160 votes among his fellow MPs last week, while Jeremy Hunt picked up 77, edging out Mr Gove on 75 for the final showdown. In his role as chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Tugendhat had already crossed swords with Mr Johnson in his days as Foreign Secretary.
Mr Tugendhat, who has himself been tipped for the top job, worked as a military assistant to the Chief of Defence Staff before he was elected in the borough in 2015.
‘There is nobody, literally nobody, to second-guess you. The decision stops with you’ A veteran of campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was also an intelligence officer attached to the Royal Marines. In a Huffington Post Commons podcast he recalled the decisions he had had to ask the Prime Minister to make. “A number of times we’d go over to
THERE will continue to be GP provision in West Malling despite work having begun to move the practice to Kings Hill. But there are concerns that the service will be limited to a small number of people – with only one doctor and one nurse available. Most of the patients will be seen at the new site unless they are unable to make the journey. The old surgery has 20,300 people on its books. Last year, West Malling Group Practice tried to sell the current site at Milverton on the High Street. It has housed the surgery for more than 70 years, but was deemed to be no longer fit for purpose.
Renovation
No 10 with a brief and it was an urgent decision as to whether or not to launch a helicopter with 12 men in it to go and rescue a hostage,” he said. “If you make the wrong call there, you may not only be leading to the death of a single hostage, you may be killing all those 12 men and the two pilots because you’re not over the detail. “This is not a game, this is really not a game when you take over in No 10. “There is nobody, literally nobody, to second-guess you. The decision stops with you. There isn’t an appeals process, there isn’t a further decision.” In reference to his previous support for the Environment Minister Mr Gove, he said: “That’s why I went for someone
However, residents secured an assurance that face-to-face appointments would still be available for ‘many years’. The practice has now announced that renovation has begun on the Kings Hill surgery, which was described as ‘half-empty’ but in a ‘good state of repair’ with lifts. And a building situated behind Milverton, called The Hollies, will now provide two consulting rooms from Monday to Friday. The old building is partly listed, which means the large amount of repair work required would have cost more money than for an unlisted building. The West Malling Medical Group said: “Renovation work has commenced at Kings Hill surgery as a first step towards the changes at West Malling. It is scheduled to finish towards the end of July.”
Continued on page 2
Continued on page 2