Wednesday February 28 | 2018
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OF TONBRIDGE
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Council faces £1million shortfall as government funding plunges
TEA FOR TWO...
Lions lay on treat for elderly and lonely Page 2
By Jonathan Banks THE borough council is planning for a deficit of £1million for the forthcoming financial year after seeing its grant from central government reduced by almost a quarter. Its annual budget revealed that the authority’s Settlement Funding Assessment from London for 2018-19 stands at £2.2million, a decrease of 23.6 per cent compared to the previous 12 months. Since the coalition government took office in 2010, Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council [TMBC] has seen its core funding decrease by 67 per cent – down from £6.6million to £2.2million.
Lowest By the year 2020 that figure will have fallen to £1.3million. In order to address the funding gap, the council has set savings targets of £350,000 for the following two years and £300,000 in the third year. In its latest budget, which was agreed this month, it states: “It is worth noting that, of the 12 district councils in Kent, TMBC continues to receive one of the lowest, if not the lowest, Settlement Funding Assessment both in total and per head each year over the multi-year settlement period 2016-17 to 2019-20.” Total expenditure, including a contribution of £433,400 to the revenue reserve, will reach
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SUFFRAGETTE CITY
Town marks centenary of suffragette movement Pages 4-5
WINTER WONDERLAND: A snow-blanketed Tonbridge is glimpsed through the trees on the Sportsground, as captured by photographer Emma Stokes, who is exhibiting some of her work at the Tonbridge Creates arts festival’s pop-up shop on Angel Walk. Turn to page 2
Patients at new super-surgery can ‘get a lift from a relative or a taxi’ By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk LACK of parking space at the new threestorey medical centre to be built on the site of the Teen and Twenty Club means patients may have to use taxis or public transport to visit the doctor. That was the warning from Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council’s Area 1 planning committee last week [February 22] when it granted permission for the demolition of the club and the construction of a surgery and pharmacy on the site. Members gave the go-ahead to the controversial development despite concerns about the parking provision, flood risk,
surface water drainage, air quality and the felling of a mature chestnut tree. Only Judd Councillors Peter Bolt and David Cure spoke and voted against the development, questioning the committee’s independence on the basis that the council was selling its own property.
‘The opportunities for obtaining a lift or getting a taxi will need to be brought into play’ The centre will be run by Tonbridge Medical Group [TMG], replacing its existing surgeries on Higham Lane and Pem-
bury Road. It plans to cater for 225 appointments per day whereas the two other facilities were only able to offer 150 between them. The developer, Assura, who will build the centre, was sold the land at below market value by the council and will continue to own it, with TMG renting it out. Head of Planning Louise Reid noted that 16 spaces for patients was not ‘sufficient to meet demand’ – ‘the opportunities for using other town centre car parks, obtaining a lift from a relative or getting a taxi will need to be brought into play’. She added that the six spaces set aside
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RUNNING THE SHOW Men’s team hang on to national title Page 78
MOTHER’S DAY
See our pick of pampering presents for March 11 Page 72