Dartford Borough Council News

Dartford Borough Council has launched the Community Grant scheme. With a minimum of £500 and a maximum of £3,000 available, local ‘not for profit’ registered charities and community groups can apply in order to improve their offering to Dartford’s residents.

Eligible projects must fit objectives, aiming to improve Dartford’s sporting provision, or services to young or older people. The Council will support voluntary projects that promote sporting excellence, work towards improving club standards through accreditation or training; or that provide new, (or expand upon existing), services and activities which directly benefit young or older people. Applications will be judged by a panel of councillors and successful applicants will receive their funding before the end of the current financial year.

Cllr Jennifer Rickwood is Chair of the grants approval panel and says, “Dartford Borough Council places great emphasis on empowering residents to improve their own communities. The Community Grant scheme will do just that – and reward innovative and effective local projects and volunteers with funding to continue to improve the services and activities available locally in Dartford. I look forward to seeing the worthy array of projects Dartford has to offer and awarding the grants.”

Further information and an online application form is available at www.dartford.gov.uk/business/DartfordBoroughGrants.htm. Applications must be received by close of business on Wednesday 29 February 2012 and should be sent to grants@dartford.gov.uk with requested supporting documents.

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The second annual Carol Concert in Dartford’s Central Park has been hailed a success with over 400 Dartford residents braving the distinctly chilly weather to enjoy this year’s event on Wednesday 14 December.

The Carol Concert, which was free to Dartford residents, featured Dartford Choral Society, the Salvation Army Band (Dartford Corps) and barbershop quartet Voice Male.

Carols and musical performances were interspersed with readings by the Mayor, Council Members and Officers.

Councillor Jeremy Kite, Leader of the Council, said, “After the success of last year’s Carol Concert, we would’ve been daft not to do it again. Wednesday’s concert was great and it was fantastic to see so many of the Borough’s residents turning out again on such a cold night.”

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The Deep Clean team are coming to an area near you and need your help.

If you lend a hand, you will be working alongside the Deep Clean team to tackle everything from graffiti and litter to overgrown pathways, and make your community sparkle.

You will be provided with all the equipment you need to help the Deep Clean team clean up your area – all you need to do is turn up!

The Deep Clean team are hitting Dartford’s streets on Monday 5 December to clean up the River Darent from Brooklands Lakes to Mill Pond Road. On Tuesday 6 December they will continue to the Burnham Road area for a two-day long intensive cleaning spree. Roads around Dartford Town Centre will be the focus for Thursday 8 & Friday 9 December.

To register your interest in helping clean up your community, call 01322 343353 or email janice.collins@dartford.gov.uk

Councillor Chris Shippam, Cabinet Member for the Town Centre, said, “It will be great to see the local community lending a hand at the Deep Cleans in and around the town centre this week. It’s true that many hands make light work and we can all do our bit in tidying up the town.”

For more information about the initiative and upcoming Deep Clean dates, visit www.dartford.gov.uk/deepclean

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A benefit cheat has been brought to book by Dartford Borough Council after they were found to have illegally claimed more than £4,600 of tax payers’ money.

Following a joint investigation by Dartford Borough Council and the Department for Work & Pensions a benefit claimant from Stone was found to have fraudulently claimed £4,619.90 in benefits.

The investigation established that they had failed to inform the authorities that they has received an inheritance and therefore had capital in excess of the £16,000 capital limit (which precludes people from receiving Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit or Job Seekers Allowance (Income-Based)). Whilst being in receipt of this undeclared capital they incorrectly claimed £2,682.75 Housing Benefit, £414.25 in Council Tax Benefit and £1,522.90 in Job Seekers Allowance.

The claimant pleaded guilty to benefit fraud at Dartford Magistrates Court on 30 November 2011 and was handed a £200 fine and ordered to pay £100 towards the prosecution costs. A £15 victim surcharge was also imposed.

The court took into account the claimant’s willingness to assist fully with the investigation and the fact that all of the overpaid benefit had been promptly paid back to both Dartford Borough Council and the Department for Work & Pensions.

If a member of the public suspects a case of benefit fraud then they can contact the Council’s Anti-Fraud Team, in complete confidence, on 0800 496 3245.

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Dartford Town Centre is getting ready for some festive sparkle as the Big Christmas Switch-On takes place on Saturday 19 November.

A fun-filled programme* of events is planned, with the action starting at 2.30pm in the High Street.

A range of tribute acts will get the party atmosphere going before this year’s special star guests take to the stage with the Mayor of Dartford – Orchard panto star Ann Widdecombe, Chas Hodges (of Chas & Dave fame), Rory the Lion, and, of course, Father Christmas – ready for the town’s Christmas lights to be switched on at 5.15pm.

Councillor Patsy Thurlow, portfolio holder for leisure & events, said, “The town centre’s Christmas tree and lights bring a big dose of festive spirit and sparkle to Dartford. The Big Christmas Switch-On is always hugely popular and we hope this year’s event will be bigger and better than ever.”

For full details of the Big Christmas Switch-On, visit www.dartford.gov.uk/christmas/christmaslights or call 01322 343352.

*Programme may be subject to change.

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Notes to editors:
Ann Widdecombe stars alongside Craig Revel Horwood in ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ at The Orchard Theatre, Dartford, from 9-13 December. To book, visit www.orchardtheatre.co.uk or call 01322 220000.

Dartford’s town centre fell silent for two minutes yesterday as the town remembered those who died in conflict.

Hundreds of residents joined the Mayor of Dartford, Councillor Eddy Lampkin, to commemorate Remembrance Day with a special service at the War Memorial followed by a March Past and parade by members of local uniformed organisations.

Councillor Lampkin said, “It was moving to see so many people of different ages attending Dartford’s Remembrance Day service yesterday. It shows that those who have died will not be forgotten by each new generation.”

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Dartford Council Leader Jeremy Kite has made a Remembrance journey to the scene of one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the First World War and laid a tribute at the grave of a young Dartford soldier killed in Flanders.

Jeremy spent a day in Ypres, Belgium last week at the invitation of The Dartford Choir who participate annually in the poignant Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate. In the morning, he visited Tyne Cot cemetery, the largest Commonwealth war grave in the world and attended the grave of Lance Serjeant Charles Mackerness, a young fusilier sent to the front near Passchendaele from his home in Fulwich Road Dartford.

Lance Serjeant Mackerness was killed on 25th November 1917 at the age of 26, two years after his own brother had also been killed in action. Like many Dartford soldiers who fell in Flanders his brother’s body was never found but Charles Mackerness has a grave at Tyne Cot and is thought to be the only soldier from the town to rest there. Having heard Charles’ story, Jeremy was determined to visit the grave and place a tribute on behalf of the home town to which he would not return.

Councillor Kite said, “I went to Dartford’s Central Park on the eve of my trip and selected a lovely late Autumn rose to take with me. I also went to see the house in Fulwich Road where the Mackerness family lived and couldn’t help thinking how the young Charles must have walked up and down that hill into town hundreds of times as the threat of war grew around him. When war finally came he found himself in the horror of Flanders and eventually lost his life in one of the most brutal battles the world has ever seen. His terrible journey ended in a tiny patch of Belgium and I was enormously keen to find his grave and let him know that his home town had not forgotten him. Tyne Cot cemetery is one of those places that changes your perspective on things and placing our little Dartford rose at his simple headstone was something I will never forget. If the lad can’t come home to us, it seemed the least I could do to take a little bit of his home to him.”

Later in the day, Jeremy visited the Menin Gate in Ypres and took part in the daily Last Post ceremony, given extra poignancy in Remembrance week, and laid a wreath on behalf of the town.

Councillor Kite said, “The Dartford Choir attend the ceremony regularly and do a wonderful job for our town. I am so grateful to Margaret Apsley and her choir for the invitation to join them this year and I found it one of the most sad and moving, but strangely uplifting experiences I have ever had. Among the tens of thousands of names of missing soldiers carved on the Menin Gate there are many from Dartford and it was overwhelming to be there and place a wreath to remember them. Ypres and the villages around it were virtually destroyed by shelling and left a wasteland of rubble, mud and the bodies of horses and men. To see those villages today, quiet and ordinary but still surrounded by battlefields now gently undulating and grown over is a remarkably touching thing. We are capable of great folly and inhumanity but it is perhaps our weakness that makes the peace all the more valuable. These young men, from Dartford and elsewhere, are the ones that made all things possible for us today and there are still remarkable young men and women willing to put themselves in danger today. It is truly humbling.”

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