Issues That Will Be Tackled in Princes Park

After nearly 5 months of phone canvassing, door canvassing and the returned surveys that where completed a couple of months ago certain issues were repeatedly raised.

The issues will be on our (Matt Bright and Pat Gulvin) list of things that need to be raised and tackled.

The main issues concerning Princes Park include;

1) Litter

We know there is a problem with litter in Princes Park. I have spoke at length with several residents about this issue and me and Pat are dedicated to try and end this litter problem.

One step in the right direction would be to place litter bins at all the bus stops, because that seems to be where most of the problems occur.

Contact could be made with the local shops which includes the main supermarket in becoming a partner against the litter fight, most of the litter does come from them shops!

Regarding fly-tipping on Heron Way, residents could get involved by contacting the council on 01634 336699 or Kent Crime Stoppers on 0800 555111 if they see any activity.

2) Mini Motorbikes

There seems to be an issue with these noisy motorbikes whizzing up and down Heron Way and Kingfisher Drive. Many residents who have commented know the culprits and I'm sure that me and Pat with help from the local Community Police could seriously tackle this noisy nuisance.

3) Alleyways

From the phone canvassing and the returned surveys some residents mentioned busy alleyways that are used by mothers and children to being overgrown and strewn with rubbish.

If elected, we have promised to contact the residents who raised the issue and try and get the pathways clear and litter free.

4) Pot Holes

There are a collection of certain roads that need attention. Re-surfacing is already being carried out and we will try and keep the roads in a good satisfactory condition.

5) Capstone Valley

This is a real major issue to Princes Park. Capstone is merely a 'stones throw' from certain parts of Princes Park and if built upon would SERIOUSLY affect the lives of residents locally.

Not only would you lose a great piece of natural green belt, the local schools, medical services would be under massive strain. There is also the issue of the water shortage during the warm months. Imagine another 8,000 houses sharing the water locally, meaning hosepipe bans for longer!

Only your local Conservatives are fighting against this house build, click this link to sign our online petition.

Other parties seem to be more concerned with issues outside Princes Park (your Conservative Council are re-opening the fly-over in 4 weeks) and issues outside Princes Park are important BUT me and Pat are putting Princes Park first.

posted by matt bright.

Conservative MP joins the Capstone Campaign

Last week East Surrey MP Peter Ainsworth (right) visited Chatham and was greeted by the Lordswood and Capstone Councillor Alan Jarrett (centre) to add his support to the 'Save Capstone Valley' Campaign.

Peter, who is the Conservative Environment Secretary has been arguing in Westminster against housing developments on greenfield sites like Capstone to ensure that these areas are protected.
It is only the Conservative Party that are fighting the Medway Magna building project in Capstone and a vote for the Conservatives in Princes Park in the local elections is the only sure way we can carry on the fight on your behalf.
It is encouraging to see that MP's from Westminster are taking local issues close to Princes Park seriously and are fighting on our behalf.

posted by matt bright.

New Online Petition - Save Capstone Valley

There is a new online petition to 'Save Capstone Valley. This is a follow up to the Princes Park online petition. It was thought that a Medway Conservative petition would have a greater impact receiving a vast more amount of online signatures.

Click this link to sign.

Although Capstone Valley is on the doorstep of Princes Park it will also directly affect wards in Gillingham and beyond hence it becoming a Medway wide petition.

Remember, only your local Conservatives are fighting this proposal.

It is very important we have enough voices in the Council chamber to fight this on your behalf.

Thursday May 3rd 2007 - Vote Conservative

posted by matt bright

Fly-Over To Re-Open

The fly-over in Chatham's new two way system is going to re-open to traffic. The time frame for the new road lay out is set to take place in approximately 4 weeks.
The Council did originally give the 'closed fly-over' scheme a 6 month trial period with a review to be taken after the time had elapsed.
After reviewing the situation and listening to local residents the Council have acted.
This is a positive move, it will hopefully make the traffic move more freely and it has demonstrated that the Council do listen to local residents views and concerns.

posted by matt bright.

Childrens Playground and Ball Park

After speaking with several residents within Princes Park it seems people think the new children's playground on Princes Avenue (next to Downlands Walk) is a private playground.
It isn't.
The facilities are open to all young residents within Princes Park, hopefully diverting them from playing ball games on street corners and annoying the neighbours.

posted by matt bright

Local Election Results 2003

I was looking through the Medway Council archives and came across the 2003 election results for Medway which included Princes Park.
As you can see from the link, the voting results were quite tight.
But remember, only your Conservative Councillors can and will fight to stop the proposals to build on Capstone Valley.
We have won once before and we can win again.

SAVE CAPSTONE VALLEY

Also, as explained in an earlier story Medway Labour Councillors voted against to introduce half price bus fares to school children!!
Where's their logic in that vote?
There is always a lower turn out in local elections, but local issues matter more to local people.
On May 3rd, don't take it for granted that someone else will vote and everything will be ok. Every vote counts.
Vote Conservative on May 3rd to let your local Conservatives continue the fight to keep Capstone Valley.
Only the Conservatives are against the destruction of Capstone Valley for another mass house build.

posted by matt bright.

Medway Council Conservative Group

Here is a website that may interest residents of Princes Park. It is based on Medway Conservative Councillors raising local issues within Medway and the positive work that has been carried out.

posted by matt bright.

Half Price Bus Fares

I recently wrote a story on half price bus fares that are being introduced to Medway soon.

Here is the story from the Medway Council Conservative Group website.

It states on the website;

'Unbelievably the Labour Councillors in Medway VOTED AGAINST this policy!

This just proves that the Labour Councillors in Medway seem to be losing the plot on very important and key decisions.

posted by matt bright.

Oh Dear !!

I am currently a very depressed football fan. I have kept my football passions away from this blogsite but after yesterdays 5-0 demolition I feel I have to make some comments.

We are not good travellers this season, we struggled in East London, so Cumbria was always going to be a serious challenge!

The last few seasons, no matter what division we are in we always seem to languish between 15th and 20th.

Just hovering above relegation can make for an exciting end of season, but I would rather just be hovering just outside the play-offs.

We have 2 important weeks coming up, at home to Brentford (23rd in the league), then away to Rotherham (bottom of the league), if we get 4 points from these 2 games then we should be ok.

Hopefully we will avoid 'the drop' this season and look to re-build for next season, but something tells me unless we get the new stadium in place in the near future we will just be hovering around in the lower leagues again for a while.

posted by matt bright

Hilly Start

When Tracey and her friend offered to help deliver leaflets, they didn't realise the extent of the hills and steps in Princes Park.
They had over 650 leaflets presented to them, and a map with several highlighted roads in which had to be completed.
They started at Devon Close, working their way round Heron Way to finally finish up 3 hours later at Freshwater Road.
So if you received an 'In Touch' newsletter on or between them roads you have Tracey and her friend to thank.

posted by matt bright.

Deadline Day

The deadline day to register for a postal vote is 18th April 2007.

If you would like an application form please contact the Conservative Campaign HQ on 01634 853322.

posted by matt bright

Capstone Valley Campaign

Myself (Matt Bright) and Pat have often been asked how much of Capstone Valley will be swallowed up by 9,250 additional houses.

After speaking with Council colleagues, we have been informed that all of it will be gone.

The estate (if built) would be as big as Princes Park, Walderslade and Lordswood combined!

You can only imagine the impact that would have on local life in the surrounding wards if these proposals became reality.

Only your local Conservatives are fighting this on your behalf, and we can only continue to fight this proposal if successful at the local elections on Thursday May 3rd.

posted by matt bright.

More Energy Tips

It appears saving energy is one the top topics to be discussed these days.

Whilst scanning through the Medway Council website I found a page containing the top 10.

Click here to see the full list.

Some of the items on the list are a good idea, some just being common sense.

posted by matt bright.

Clean Kent Campaign

It appears that not only Princes Park suffers from a litter problem, as suggested by some parties.

A website has been created for Kent to tackle the county wide problem.

Clean Kent Campaign has created partners with all the Kent councils, Highways Agency, Environmental Agency and others in order to tackle this problem.

Medway Council, being one of the partners have dedicated phone lines in trying to beat fly-tipping, abandoned cars etc.

On the campaign website, there is a nomination page you can contact if there is an area of Kent that has suffered from rubbish recently.

Hopefully with all the partners, we can try and clean up Princes Park and Kent in general.

posted by matt bright.

More Pictures from the Litter Pick Day

Here are a few more snaps of myself (Matt Bright) and Pat with some of our Conservative colleagues last week at our litter pick in Princes Park.
We managed to fill 12 'black sacks' to the rim, which were later disposed of via the tip.
Us volunteers and the council can only clean and clear so much litter.
It is everyones responsibility locally and beyond to tackle litter. Some people need to be re-educated in how to dispose and recycle rubbish. All the litter we picked up has been thrown there by someone, unfortunately trying to change peoples habits is a lot harder then organising a group of volunteers to clean the hedgerows.

posted by matt bright

Half Price Bus Fares for School Children

Your Conservative Run Council have introduced half price bus fares for the residents of Princes Park.

As well as the popular yellow bus scheme that has already been introduced your Conservative run council will be investing heavily in extending school transport.

This is a ground breaking scheme, being the first of its kind in the whole of Kent. Hopefully if fully utilised by the parents it could help in reducing the traffic in and around Princes Park.

The scheme will be introduced from September.

posted by matt bright.

March 13th 2007 - Medway Council Cabinet Decisions

Here are the latest decisions taken by the Council Cabinet at the meeting held on the 13th March 2007.

There are some interesting points ranging from half price bus fare for children travelling to and from school to a proposed football academy in Beechings Cross playing fields, Gillingham.

Click on this link for the whole report from the Medway Council website.

posted by matt bright.

Litter Clear up in Princes Park !!

A Few Action Shots from the Day

Myself (Matt Bright) and Pat Gulvin were joined today by fellow local Conservatives in helping to clear litter in a small part of Princes Park.

We have listened to local residents about the litter problems, so we decided to do something constructive about the issue.

We were joined by another 6 volunteers who are local Conservative

Councillors and candidates to help clear the rubbish.

We managed to clear a piece of waste land on Swallow Rise between

the bus stop and Maundene school. The rubbish had gathered there

for a while, but now it looks like a piece of natural shrubland again.

The local Conservative Councillors are also looking to place a litter

bin at the bus stop to hopefully try and resolve the problem in that area.
We only managed to clear a small piece of land from rubbish compared to the total size of the Princes Park ward, but we did it voluntary and it took a couple of hours. We have certainly improved that part of the ward, lets hope it stays litter free.

Me and Pat are determined to try and help the ward in anyway we can and are totally commited to the residents of Princes Park.

posted by matt bright.

Community TV Screen heading to Princes Park

Medway Council have announced that Princes Park will be benefitting from a new scheme that supplies public information via a 42" plasma screen.
The screen will be situtated in or around Morrisons.
As well as providing public information the screens can broadcast different information relevant to Princes Park. It can also be used to convey important information in the event of an emergency or provide details about a missing person, for example.
There will be another 11 similar screens located in and around Medway.
Click on this link for the full story.

posted by matt bright.

Water Shortage

I had a interesting email from a local resident concerned about the proposed building venture on Capstone Valley.

The point raised to me was the water shortage we all suffered during last summer and autumn.

If another 9,000 house were built, this would add to the water shortage already here in Princes Park during the warmer months.

The only way we can prevent this mass house build on your doorstep is to vote Conservative.

Your Conservative Councillors are fighting this proposal, we have already won before and there is no reason why we couldn't win again.

But, we can only prevent this if we keep Labour out (who want the house building to go ahead) and to not let the smallar parties reduce the Conservative vote.

Your local Conservatives are also looking to create an online petition, details to follow.

We will fight this on your behalf !

Remember, May 3rd

Vote Conservative!

posted by matt bright