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Times
Wednesday April 10 | 2019
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PHOTO: Craig Matthews
Council stalwarts stepping down at local elections
ROTTEN LUCK: Robert Smith was told his fruit and vegetable stall for Pavilion Flowers is ‘not the sort of thing we have any more’
Greengrocer is told to move stall off the High Street after 25 years By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk ROBERT SMITH, the greengrocer who runs a stall at the High Street entrance to The Pavilion, is having to move after a quarter of a century. The walk-through retail area is owned by the American bank JP Morgan, and Mr Smith says he was told: “It’s not the sort of thing we have any more.” He says he has been ‘coerced’ into moving into one of the vacant shops in the arcade, though he will retain a smaller presence where his flower stall is located on the Angel Centre side. But the pavement vending has to cease because it is now deemed as an insurance risk by the bank’s asset management company Columbia Threadneedle. Although there has never been a problem before, it is believed that one area of
concern was the cabling required to connect the till to mains electricity. Initially the firm was not going to renew his lease, but after a meeting with local MP Tom Tugendhat and the Leader of Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council, Nicolas Heslop, a series of accommodations have been reached.
‘It makes me so sad. I love what I do, and I really love the town’ “I’m a fifth generation greengrocer and it makes me so sad,” Mr Smith said. “They want to sterilise the whole set-up. I love what I do, and I really love the town. I know everyone, they all say hello to me. “Tonbridge is going to go from strength to strength. We want to encourage people to come and shop in the High Street.”
ALL council seats are up for grabs in the town’s wards when the polling stations open for the local elections on May 2. The nominations for candidates were finalised last week and 52 seats are being contested in 23 wards across the borough of Tonbridge & Malling. Only one ward, Down and Mereworth, is not being contested because Conservative councillors Ann Kemp and Piers Montague, who replaces Matthew Balfour, are not being challenged. All current councillors in the town represent the Conservative party. There are four Liberal Democrats in Larkfield and East Malling, while Borough Green and Long Mill ward has two independents.
Service
Columbia Threadneedle declined to answer questions from the Times. Instead they issued a statement: “We have been working with Mr Smith to move him to a suitable unit which he has accepted.” “They tried to hold the old health and safety card up but they didn’t clarify why,” said Mr Smith. “Then they said it was an insurance issue. “JP Morgan have a blanket insurance for all their properties but most of their buildings are up in London. I’ve been here for 25 years without a problem.” The 59-year-old, who lives in Southborough, said: “I work hard, the margins are small but I’m here all the time – my wife complains about it. “We’re here seven days a week and I often have to be up at the markets in London, Covent Garden or Nine Elms in Vauxhall, at 3am.
Among 129 candidates there are 52 Tories, 27 Liberal Democrats, 22 Labour, 14 Greens, 10 independents and four from UKIP. Ten of the Greens are standing in the town, which has 15 Conservatives, eight Lib Dems, seven from Labour, two from UKIP and one independent, Stacey Pilgrim, who is up against the Mayor Pam Bates in Trench ward. Among the notable changes in personnel, former Mayor Owen Baldock is standing down from Castle Ward after 35 years of public service. The 62-year-old attended Ridgeway School in Southborough and grew up in Speldhurst and Hadlow. He worked as an electronics engineer with the Ministry of
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