EXTRACTS FROM BI-MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
No 149 August and September 2009.

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SOCIETY EVENTS
FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH
TOWN AND AROUND

PLANNING MATTERS HELP WANTED

SOCIETY EVENTS.

Guided Walks: Those of you who attended this year’s AGM will know that last year was very disappointing, with far fewer walkers than we are used to. So far this season the numbers are down again and it is so disheartening for the guides who turn up only to discover one person, or sometimes no people, to lead around the town.
The walk around Hythe is sheer delight: we have a number of very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guides who do superbly well in passing on their enthusiasm for the subject to all who hear them. If you have not yet joined us, please do, and bring your friends. We guarantee that you will learn something new about Hythe - even if you have lived here for forty years - and all for fifty pence!

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FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH

On Saturday 8th August at 7.30pm Nigel Ogden – of the BBC’s ‘The Organist Entertains’ - will be returning to St Leonard’s Church by popular request to play a programme of light classics and popular music on the organ. The Lees Court Music chamber choir directed by Chris Price will perform a varied programme of choral music on Saturday 19th September at 7.30pm. On Saturday 10th October at 7.30pm Dr David Flood, Organist and Master of the Choristers at Canterbury Cathedral, will give an organ recital in the church.
Tickets will be available from Brandon’s Music Shop, 55 High Street, Hythe or at the church door (admission free for those under 18 in full-time education). Do support these events and encourage your friends to attend also.

For more information about the 2009 concert programme or how to become a member of the Friends of St Leonard’s Church please contact the secretary Mrs Gill Roffey: telephone 01303 263739 or e-mail

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TOWN AND AROUND.

Hythe Venetian Fete - Wednesday 19th August 2009: Fete year is here again and, as usual, the organisers are looking for as many willing helpers as possible to man the gates (taking money and handing out tickets) and as stewards for the enclosures and they need nearly 100 volunteers. It is always a big struggle to fill all the posts so any help will be gratefully received. If you would like to lend a hand please contact Geoffrey Spackman – Treasurer – at Hythe Venetian Fete Society Ltd - 28 Brockhill Road, Hythe, Kent CT214AE or at his work on 01233 626611 during office hours or by e-mail at .

Boyd Garrard, who runs the Advance Booking Office from Blue Shield in Prospect Road, is also looking for volunteers to help in the booking office for an hour or two. If you think you may be able to help please contact him on 01303 269633 or by e-mail at
Fete night is always good fun and I am sure you will enjoy it. Your help means a great deal to us and is a terrific contribution to the success of Hythe's premier event. As we have two "shifts" you should get to see a good part of the Fete as well.

Albert Drury “Bert”, our much respected colleague on the HCS Committee, sadly died on 8th June after a typically stalwart battle against cancer. He was born in Southwark in 1928 and, as our Chairman said at the Memorial Service, “He had an apprenticeship with life that was different to most. This apprenticeship, of growing up in an orphanage, eight years in the Royal Navy, where he trained as a butcher because he did not want to scrub decks and then 30 years in the Ambulance Service taught him to be a survivor and someone who got the best out of life and the team that he worked with.”
Bert and Jean came to live in Hythe in 1983 and he entered public service on Shepway DC where he became Vice Chairman and Hythe TC where he was Chairman of the Plans & Works Committee until 1995. In this role he was an example to all that followed because, before any Committee meeting, he always visited the site in question so that he knew exactly what he was talking about. In 2003 he was re-elected to HTC, serving until 2005.
He loved cricket and worked tirelessly for the RNLI, Age Concern and The Green Preservation Society. He was particularly helpful to HCS through his knowledge of the town and the planning processes of local government.

Age Concern is holding a Boot Fair on The Green on Sunday 30th August from 8.00am until Noon.
Age Concern is also raising funds by running regular drama classes for local children. These include singing and dancing as well as acting and are planned to culminate, towards the end of the year, in a show – or rather a medley of items from various hit shows – at the Leas Cliff Hall. The hall is being put at their disposal as one of SDC’s eight free days which are granted to local community organisations. Any HCS members who would like to assist in the tuition or production should contact Cleo Drury on 01303 269602 for more information.

Hythe in Bloom: After several rather colourless years since the profligacy with the weed killer(!) the Hythe in Bloom partnership has decided to try to re-establish the hollyhocks in Church Hill. We hope not everyone has forgotten, but not so long ago Church Hill - between Dental Street and North Road - was a glorious Technicolor picture of magnificent hollyhocks, their majestic stems arching over the pathway. We miss the colour and, with your help over the next couple of years, we hope to bring it back. If you have hollyhocks in your garden, please save the seed heads – or the whole stem if you prefer – and, in September, walk down (down for obvious reasons!) Church Hill shaking out the seeds along the wall as you go. With any luck we shall have seedlings next year and flowers in 2011 – fingers crossed! SDC is as keen as we are to restore the path to its former glory and they have agreed not to spray weed killer in this area from now onwards. We plan to hand-weed the area along the wall, until the plants get established, and would be pleased to hear from willing volunteers (01303 266118).
The hanging baskets in the High Street and the railing troughs on Stade Street Bridge and in Prospect Road are looking fabulous now and we hope, will give many more months of colour for our enjoyment. So many people have commented this year on how wonderful everything looks and we hope that you agree:

We have to thank lots of people - as you know we have saved a lot of money this year by asking for volunteers to water the plants in the High Street, so many thanks to the HIB team plus Judy Green, Alan Joyce, Lynne Tomson and Tim Lawrence, who have kindly given of their time and most of whom will have got drenched while watering the hanging baskets at the Town Hall! It was worth it! Thanks also to our sponsors: Waitrose, Gopak, Charlier Construction and Lawrence and Co – through their generosity we have sufficient funding for winter planting and beyond – and thanks, too, to the High Street traders who are doing a great job looking after their hanging baskets. If you are in the mood to volunteer for next year, please contact us: all volunteers are invited to the Civic Society Christmas party – too good to miss!

Hythe Townswomen’s Guild was recently disbanded and we are grateful to Esther Lynes for passing on to us for safe-keeping their scrapbooks. Countrywide this organisation has 50,000 members, in 1,300 Guilds and 111 Federations, but sadly no longer one in Hythe, though ours was founded as early as 1932. They have played their part in history, promoting ideas and worthy campaigns, especially the cause of women’s education, the war effort, national events and good causes – and as the faded pictures and newspaper cuttings in the scrapbooks show, having a lot of fun along the way. They had speakers, a monthly competition, and three shows a year: for cookery, needlework and gardening; winners were awarded a Cup, and the three Cups are now in the Oaklands archive.

Boating on the Canal: The Canal within the town area has looked lovely this Spring once the weather improved. Those able will also enjoy exploring eastwards and westwards of Hythe. The stretch from the Light Railway Station to West Hythe is particularly interesting, attractive and rich in wildlife, and can be enjoyed on foot, by bicycle, or from the water. Alan Upward has the Canal Boating franchise again this year, and has re-opened for the season at Ladies Walk Bridge. In addition to rowing boats he has an ambition to introduce punting – the setting would be perfect but the bed is probably far too thick with mud and we predict some comical upsets. Take a look this year at the Boathouse itself: it has grown a pagoda on the roof! He made it himself, and it has turned an ordinary log cabin into a charming feature.

While by the canal make sure that you look at the much improved shrubbery that screens the area from Prospect Road. Shepway Parks & Open Spaces have made an excellent job of re-furbishing the beds and it is another credit to the generally very high standard of open space maintenance that we enjoy in Hythe

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PLANNING MATTERS

Sainsbury’s Hythe: Most of you will now know that Sainsbury’s has submitted an application to build a supermarket on the Military Road site formerly occupied by Portex. Your Committee believes that some major commercial development on this site is inevitable and therefore, seeking to minimise the probable disadvantages we have written to Sainsbury’s, SDC & HTC expressing some doubt as to whether Hythe can support four supermarkets; suggesting improved screening from the road; asking for a similar parking regime to Waitrose (and no change to the present free parking in Military Road); and for enforceable restraint from adding further competition to the small High Street newspaper and clothes shops, cafes and restaurants.
HTC met on 16th July and their application was discussed. There were about 35 members of the general public in attendance six of whom were allowed to speak and all these were against approval. The letter from the Civic Society was read out (It is also on our website). Council members were split on whether to approve or disapprove. Cllrs. Ewart-James & Deardon both spoke eloquently about the negative effect the superstore could have on the shops on the High Street. Piddock & Mathews were in favour after having surveyed their constituents. Carroll was also in favour.
Sainsbury's representative stated that 63% of 1000 people questioned in Dymchurch, Folkestone and Hythe said they shopped outside of Hythe. They also said the new store would be 35,000 sq. ft. or 7/10ths. size of the Park Farm store. It would be open 8am - 10pm, 80% of floor space would be for food and the other 20% for magazines, electricals and other goods..
Many councillors commented on the box like structure - warehouse was mentioned several times. Calls were made for more screening by trees. Concerns were raised about traffic congestion and about the effect on the houses on Military Terrace. According to Shepway Enviroment & Community Network the Government very recently, brought the observance of carbon targets into law, and developments such as that proposed by Sainsbury mean that the figures won't add up.
An independent study into the impact of the development is to be undertaken by consultants employed by SDC and the Council decided to defer a decision until it had seen their report.

Mike Umbers reminds us that we have been here before - It is not so long ago that Hythe was served by one small Gateway Store (later Somerfield, on what is now the Aldi site). We turned up the yellowing files of HCS Newsletters to remind ourselves of the arguments put forward when Somerfield applied to build a new store on Prospect Road. HCS devoted 2 pages to the topic in NL69/70 and also invited the architect (Nigel Thorpe) and the developer to explain the project to the AGM in May 1996. It was a contentious application partly because it was known that discussions had been taking place behind closed doors, there had been no public meeting and we were not at all sure our interests were being protected; the High Street was suffering from the foolish decision to reverse the traffic flow and the daily traffic-free period was not regarded as helpful. It was also becoming clear that many small specialist shops could not survive modern shopping habits (remember Hardy’s, the Family Grocer in Douglas Avenue?) and that they would go under, new Supermarket or no. The argument which convinced was that a store of 20,000 square feet with free parking would ambush the Marsh shoppers on their way to Cheriton and Folkestone as well as attract the local trade, and that many would cross the road at the promised Request Crossing and spend money in the High Street as well.
In a Q and A session suspicions were expressed, but our questions were generally felt to have been satisfactorily answered: the car park would remain free for two hours, there would be no sale of newspapers, or birthday etc cards and household goods, because these were not part of company policy, and above all, there would be NO coffee shop in store. When, shortly after, a new application was submitted to introduce a coffee shop, the NL erupted in anger and spoke of bad faith and broken promises; in the event the company did include one, but within the footprint originally agreed, and it has also sold papers and other goods which we did not expect. Nevertheless, viewed calmly 12 years on, we do not think the High Street’s present troubles can be put down to the presence of the supermarkets, and Hythe now has THREE which between them cover the social range. We must hope that Sainsburys, if they do come here, will add to the mix, and help provide competition to our benefit. Indeed, as the snobbish joke has it, some will welcome them to keep the riff-raff out of Waitrose!
Other questions were asked in the Town Hall that night twelve years ago: Do several houses have to be demolished? A: Yes, to provide enough parking. Do the poplars have to be felled? A: Yes, they are diseased anyway. (An assertion which few believed.) Will there be a Crossing with lights, and public toilets both outside and in-store?. A: Yes, (and so it came to pass…..)
We now have on our still most attractive High Street a tattoo parlour, a beauty therapist, and a mobile phone shop, which would all have surprised our forebears! We still have a number of newsagents and near-antique shops, two butchers, a baker, an excellent book shop, art supplies, three chemists, hardware, drapers, an off-licence and a regular Farmers’ Market, and….. and so much more, in short, a variety of which we can be proud. Even charity shops have their uses. True there are too many closed shops and the economic downturn is hitting hard and there may be more sad closures before we come through. We said in 1996: ‘To survive we must share Hythe with more people. We have so much to offer, in such pleasant surroundings. Tell them all, ‘You’ll like Hythe’. This bears repeating in 2009!

The Imperial Hotel development project is still under consideration by SDC who has also postponed consideration of the Lydd Airport applications until September.

The appeal in respect of the proposed flats at 102, North Road, was rejected by the Government Inspector.

Members’ pleas for more parking in the High Street continue, possibly with a shorter waiting period of 20 or 30 minutes to facilitate access to the Post Office by more residents.

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HELP WANTED

We are still in urgent need of someone with some experience of local government planning procedures to help the Committee, either as a co-opted member or on an ad hoc basis. Any reasonable expenses would be reimbursed.

Many apologies from the editor to Mrs Audrey Green who kindly volunteered to create an index of the Newsletter and was incorrectly named as Mrs. Wood in NL148. Excellent progress has already been made!

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Annual subscription for HCS membership is £8 per household.
We are on the Web : www.hythe-tourism.com/civic
You can e-mail us at:

Secretary	Treasurer	Editor	Membership & NL Distribution
Mrs. Mary Hunter 47, Harpswood Lane, Hythe, CT21 4BH 01303268423	Alan Joyce, 6, London Road, Hythe, CT21 4DF 01303267085	Christopher Melchers Lucy's, Lucy's Hill, Hythe, CT21 5ES 01303267073	Mrs. Anne Woodward 67, Seabrook Road, Hythe, CT21 5QW 01303 268109

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SOCIETY EVENTS	FRIENDS OF ST. LEONARDS CHURCH	TOWN AND AROUND
PLANNING MATTERS		HELP WANTED