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Bins still not being collected one month into the new service By Richard Williams LIGHT UP THE NIGHT: The Round Table fireworks were held on the Racecourse Sportsground this year, featuring a laser lightshow and raising money for Rett UK and Reverse Rett charities. Photos by Kerry Barton, who is selling Christmas cards featuring Tonbridge fireworks displays – visit studio23photography. weebly.com
Europe dominates election – but Brexit Party candidate has quit By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk THE general election campaign in the Tonbridge & Malling constituency witnessed an early casualty when the Brexit Party candidate announced he was standing down on Monday [November 4]. Stephen Peddie decided not to run for Parliament in protest at Mr Farage’s opposition to the leaving the EU with a deal. He said: “We have a Brexit only because of Farage. That doesn’t make it his to destroy along with our country. “I’ve quit as a PPC [Prospective Parliamentary Candidate] in exasperation. I suspect I’m far from alone.” Mr Farage had launched his 600
candidates earlier in the day insisting that the only way to achieve Brexit now was to make a ‘clean break’ from the EU without a deal. Tonbridge & Malling voted to leave in the 2016 referendum, with 55.7 per cent in favour out of a turnout of almost 80 per cent. With the government having failed to
“We have a Brexit only because of Farage” deliver Brexit after two deadlines expired, there are fears that the Brexit Party could steal votes off the Conservatives. Following the last general election in 2017, the Tories were dependent on the DUP in Northern Ireland to give them a
working majority but even that no longer exists. Two years ago the Conservative candidate Tom Tugendhat was returned to the seat he first won in 2015, with 64 per cent of the vote. Labour came second with 22 per cent, but as the paper went to press they had still not announced their candidate for the election on December 12. In 2015 it was UKIP, campaigning to leave Europe, who were in second place with 15 per cent of the vote, though that was reduced to just 3 per cent after the referendum result was secured. Mr Tugendhat was in favour of remaining in the EU in 2016 – his wife Anissia Morel is a supreme court judge in France.
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FOUR weeks after the rollout of the waste services contract and around one in 40 bins, around 1,000, are still being missed during kerbside collections which Urbaser claims is ‘usual’ with the launch of any new scheme. The company took over bin collections for both Tonbridge & Malling and Tunbridge Wells borough councils earlier this year in a joint deal worth around £3million. Tonbridge & Malling say the ‘roll-out has not delivered the services expected’. Urbaser has struggled with the new recycling arrangements introduced by both local authorities.
Transition From September 30, residents have been able to recycle glass and food waste as well as opt for a paid-for garden waste collection service. This has involved the distribution of new bins while Urbaser has had to come up with new routes for the kerbside collections. The Councils provided a six month transition period for the new waste services contract, which they said was to allow Urbaser to finalise the new arrangements. But one month on, and residents have been complaining that bins are still getting missed, with some people saying they have had neither waste nor recycling collected. Kerry Ward, who lives in an apartment block on Calverley Street, right in the middle of Tunbridge Wells
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