Wednesday October 18 | 2017
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Town bucks national trend as house prices over the last decade rocket in real terms
‘We’re not anti-progress, we just want the council to be accountable, transparent, competent and honest’
By Katie Harris HOUSE prices in Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge are higher in real terms than a decade ago, running against the national trend of falling property prices. Research released yesterday [Tuesday] shows that homes in The Pantiles and St Mark’s ward in Tunbridge Wells have more than doubled in cost since 2007, increasing by 54 per cent to an average price of £640,000 in 2017.
INSIDE
PUPPETRY IN MOTION Thousands flock to town’s popular arts festival Page 3
TW Alliance
THE WINNERS ARE…
The Civic Society celebrates best of Tunbridge Wells Page 4
No surprise Not far behind is St John’s where house prices rose by 47 per cent to £410,000. A local estate agent said the hike in property prices in the area is ‘no surprise’. In Culverden the cost of houses jumped by 35 per cent to £363,500 and in Sherwood by 29 per cent to £300,000. Southborough North and Benenden and Cranbrook were the only two wards in Tunbridge Wells to see a fall in prices. In Tonbridge, the cost of property in Cage Green has grown by 38 per cent to an average of almost half a million pounds. Houses in the Vauxhall and Judd wards have risen in price by 33 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. The cost of residential properties has also increased in other key areas including Pembury, Paddock Wood and Hildenborough.
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THE LINE UP: TW Alliance members: (Back row L-R) Robert Chris (retired accountant), Ben Chapelard (Liberal Democrat councillor), Unnamed, Ben Van Grutten (event producer) and James Tansley (civil servant). (Front row L-R) Nicholas Pope (Friends of Calverley Grounds), Ellen Kent (who works in advertising) Chris Gedge (economist and Save Our Park member), Unnamed.
New action group plans to mount legal challenge over Civic Complex Exclusive by William Mata will@timesoftunbridgewells.co.uk
CAMPAIGNERS have launched a Crowdfunding initiative to help pay for a law firm to investigate Tunbridge Wells Borough Council over the handling of their £72million Civic Complex proposal. TW Alliance, a new group of ‘town planners, architects, event producers and theatre designers’, will today [Wednesday, October 18] publicly announce its intentions to scrutinise the ‘legality of the process’ undertaken by the council.
Leaders of the council are hoping their plan for a replacement civic centre and theatre to be built on land adjoining Calverley Grounds will be passed at a meeting in December.
‘This group of people have been against the project from the start’ Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
TW Alliance claim that if this happens the borough’s services would be under threat because of poor financial planning. Alliance chairman Robert Chris said senior council staff had ‘admitted in a meeting’
that there has been no formal business plan produced for the proposal. He said: “The repayment of the loan and subsidies will result in an annual deficit of more than £2million which will be funded in the main by cuts to public services.” TWBC claimed the figures and statements made by the group were ‘inaccurate’. TW Alliance has set up a bank account, constitution and a website with £3,000 already being raised towards legal costs and ‘inevitable expenses’. Other members include Liberal Democrat
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NIGHT TO REMEMBER Your guide to the area’s mustsee firework displays Page 10
GRAPE EXPECTATIONS Fromage & French launches a new tasting service Page 70