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Wednesday November 20 | 2019
PHOTO: David Bartholomew
Former Lib Dem Mayor is backing Tory Greg Clark to keep his seat
BIRTHDAY GIRL: Polly Taylor emerged from a giant cake to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Pickering Cancer Drop in Centre. See pg 6-7
Hub finally gets underway with community hall and new theatre By Richard Williams A PROJECT beset with delays, political infighting, scaling down of the original plans and an eleventh hour threat from NHS bosses that it would withdraw funding, has finally gone ahead. Work began on the Southborough Hub yesterday afternoon [Tuesday], when the various stakeholders on the project, including Southborough Town Council, Kent County Council, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, Tunbridge Wells Youth FC and St Andrew’s Medical Centre, were all on hand to see a start being made. The Hub, which is being constructed on London Road on the site of the old Southborough Town Council offices and Royal Victoria Hall, will be a mixed use development incorporating a community hall, theatre, library, football pavilion as well as a new medical centre. However, the £10million project, that
should take just over a year, has had a difficult genesis. Since plans for the Hub were first drafted in 2015, the development has been scaled down from its original £30million design to cut costs.
‘The Town Council is delighted to see that we are finally seeing real progress’ Cllr Nick Blackwell Southborough Town Council, which has spearheaded the project, has also been beset with political infighting over the development. Control of the council also switched to Labour this year, with many blaming the Conservatives’ handling of the Hub project as the cause for their defeat. In August, NHS bosses threatened to
pull £4.2million of funding for the project just one day before contracts were meant to be signed over a dispute about liabilities for the building. Greg Clark, MP at the time, managed to broker an eleventh hour deal, and the £10million contract with builders Baxall was finally signed last month. Leader of Southborough Town Council, Nick Blackwell, said: “The Town Council is delighted to see that we are finally seeing real progress with our new town centre and very pleased to be working with local company Baxall of Paddock Wood.” He added that the Council has ‘responded to the previous lack of public engagement by convening an independent Hub Advisory Group’ to respond to any concerns raised as they finalise the details of the Hub development.
Continued on page 4
A FORMER Liberal Democrat Mayor for Tunbridge Wells has come out in support of Conservative candidate Greg Clark at the General Election. Cllr David Neve, who has represented St James’ ward on the borough council for the last 33 years – making him the longest serving councillor in the borough – quit the Liberal Democrats earlier this year. At the time he said he was sick of all the infighting with local politics, and announced his intention to sit as an independent councillor on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.
Campaign Now Cllr Neve, who was Mayor in 2016 - 2017, has completely shunned his former Lib Dem council colleague, Ben Chapelard who is standing as the party’s parliamentary candidate for the General Election, and thrown his weight behind Conservative rival Greg Clark who has held the seat since 2005. The former mayor even appears on the prospective MP’s campaign literature, which is being dropped through people’s letterboxes this week. In it, he says: “Greg is a highly respected constituency MP. He fights for our area, he is immersed in our community and he gets things done for us.” COUNCILLOR David Neve