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Wednesday November 27 | 2019
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College owes money to 300 firms who are unlikely to be paid
Pantiles The
Christmas Markets
By Andy Tong andy@timesoftonbridge.co.uk
Plus
PHOTO: Craig Matthews
For a wide selection of • Food • Gifts • Crafts READY TO GO: Dawn Stanford (left) with other members of the Nourish team outside their warehouse in Tunbridge Wells
Festive • Music • Carols • Choirs
Foodbank in plea for help to feed people following a dip in donations
Starting weekend
THE town’s foodbank is launching its 12 Days of Christmas Campaign this week, but is already behind thanks to lower than average donations over the autumn. Nourish Community Foodbank is teaming up with social action organisation Imago for this year’s campaign to help cope with the busiest week of the year for the charity. But Operations Manager at Nourish, Dawn Stanford, says the foodbank is starting this year’s festive campaign, which begins on Sunday, ‘on the back foot’. She told the Times: “We had the lowest harvest donations – the period in the autumn – we’ve ever had. Normally we get about nine to ten tonnes during the period, but this year we only had just over four tonnes.
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“This is really worrying because we are about to hit our busiest time of the year and we are starting on the back foot.” She continued: “The festive period magnifies how difficult it can be to
‘It’s really worrying because we are about to hit our busiest time of the year’ Dawn Stanford Nourish Operations Manager make ends meet. We really rely on the goodwill of people in our community to make sure our clients have something on their table on Christmas Day. “The difference a donation makes to people is unbelievable. Last year we had a referral for two teenage girls who
HADLOW COLLEGE has debts of £40million and owes money to more than 300 different creditors including many small local companies. The figures have been released by accountants BDO, who are acting as administrators for the financially stricken college. Part of the Hadlow Group, the college was the first in the country to be taken into educational administration in May. Its sister site at West Kent in Brook Street, Tonbridge, has since followed suit - and the BDO Statement of Proposals lodged with Companies House shows it is owed £4million by Hadlow College.
Shocked
were unexpectedly bereaved. They had no extended family and had been surviving for several weeks with limited food. “We were able to step in, fill their cupboards with food essentials and, thanks to offers of help from some of our wonderful long-term supporters, we could make sure they had a Christmas Day meal without having to worry about the cost of buying food.” She said with just under six weeks to go until Christmas, Nourish is asking individuals and local schools, churches and businesses to get involved. As in previous years, the idea behind the 12 Days of Christmas campaign is that people collect an essential foodbag item each day for the first 12 days in December, which is then donated to
Both institutions are now in the process of being sold to North Kent College as recommended by the Further Education Commissioner - BDO are overseeing the transaction. Gilbert & Stamper, an electrical contractor in Tonbridge, is owed £22,762, and its managing director Adrian Cross said the government ought to be ‘doing more’. He was shocked that ‘the college can continue to operate and dump all its debt’. Other debts include £1,331,350 to Marpaul Southern property developers in Hadlow and £66,727 to Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council plus £503 to Queen Alfred Cakes in Wadhurst and £68 to Rent a Cherry Tree in Northiam.
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Continued on page 4