GO FOLKESTONE NEWS 4th October 2023

AND URGENT APPEAL FOR A NINTH PERSON FOR A RECYCLING PROJECT VISIT TO SWEEEP RECYCLING DEPOT NEXT MONDAY.

PHONE 01303 277567 BY SUNDAY.

There is a sudden vacancy for one extra person (we could do two) to attend the Go Folkestone visit to Sweeep at Sittingbourne on Monday 9th October. Sweeep are the people with whom we are running the Go Folkestone recycling post in Central Folkestone in the New Year. We will provide a lift and coffee, and Sweep will provide lunch at their recycling facility. Home by 4pm hopefully. This is an interesting way to see how recycling really happens. It is also meant to help counter or in some cases just modify some of the more pessimistic views of recycling that may be put to volunteers during their Saturday morning stints in the New Year. Individuals from other friendly groups such as Incredible Edible and the New Folkestone Society are welcome to put themselves forward, and this won’t be the only visit. Do something useful for recycling and learn a bit.

We are doing Ok. It is only the enthusiastic Mayor, Belinda Walker, who has dropped out due to a double booking. She, the Green Council Leader Jim Martin at a recent meeting, and Tory Kent County Councillors have all expressed support. Please ask to go on the WhatsApp LIST or phone 01303 277567 direct to keep updated or to actually come along on Monday 9th October.

We reproduce the original MAGAZINE article by Penny Shepherd for more information. It is an interesting visit with no obligation to volunteer later, but if the planet isn’t saved, you don’t want to say that you did nothing except vote and moan.

INCIDENTALLY THE MAGAZINE DEADLINE IS 20 OCTOBER AND WE WILL ALWAYS INCLUDE OR RESERVE INTERESTING LATE ARTICLES AND STORIES.PHONE 01303 254263 WITH YOUR IDEA

Volunteers against Waste I: Electrical Recycling Volunteers wanted

Hythe Environmental Community Group (HECG) has run an electrical waste recycling project outside 101 High St, Hythe every Saturday since last December.

The project collects broken or out of date small electricals (anything that uses a plug or batteries and is small enough to fit in a wheelie bin) to enable the materials in them to be recycled. Volunteers talk to the public about the project and accept items for recycling and move them to a commercial-sized wheelie bin for collection. They also help to take resaleable working electricals to a charity shop that can accept them and provide advice on recycling other items using the HECG guide. The wheelie bin is then emptied by a contractor paid for by the WEEE levy on electrical manufacturers and taken to SWEEEP Kuusakoski at Sittingbourne. The project was set up following a HECG visit to SWEEEP last summer where we were told that only about 30% of waste electricals are currently recycled. It has already collected about 5 tonnes of waste electricals, an average of nearly a quarter of a tonne per week.

We would like to start a similar project in central Folkestone, Cheriton and/or elsewhere in the district but need volunteers to do this. While we haven’t yet approached venues (as volunteers rather than venues are the critical resource), the Bouverie Place shopping centre could be an excellent collection site subject to their approval or Cheriton High Street might be an option. Hythe volunteers typically do a three-hour shift once a month, volunteering for the time slots that suit them using an online rota. If we ran a new project from 10am-1pm, it would need two volunteers each week and so 8-10 people in total. HECG is also looking for a few more regular volunteers in Hythe.

If you are willing to volunteer at one of these sites or want to find out more, please contact Gemma for Hythe or Penny for Folkestone at recycling@hytheenvironmental.community.

Meanwhile, you can recycle waste small electricals at the Hythe project or at Currys in Park Farm or the Ross Way Household Waste Centre. But the Hythe project demonstrates that people in Folkestone will need more convenient solutions if all of the useful raw materials in old or broken equipment gathering dust in our homes is to be reused. Please help us make this new project happen.

Penny Shepherd

. o 0 o .

Re The Seafront we continue to make representations to Sir Roger De Haan to make the development better. We particularly focus on making the harbour car park buildings less overweening, helping car parking and cycling, pressing re sewage solutions, and giving the Victorian Harbour Railway Station more respect. We expect Sir Roger will speak to us within the month, albeit the immediate subject is the historic Princess Royal former pub, which we would like to see renovated for housing or community.

As far as volunteering is concerned, you can join the following manual and WhatsApp groups via info@gofolkestone.org.uk

  • a watering subgroup for the planters originally set up by Incredible Edible in Cheriton, for trees at Three Hills and anything else needing water, even a distressed street tree.
  • an electrical recycling subgroup which should hopefully be collecting and recycling small electricals (up to Hoover or hedge-clipper size) in the town centre – more detail soon
  • Litter Picks
  • White Cliffs Countryside Partnership green volunteering. We hope to support the following days with shared cars if you prefer: Shorncliffe Military Cemetery for a gardening style task; Folkestone Warren, grazing area gate, for scrub clearance;  Barrow and Pillbox work, meet at Castle Hill bollards. Holywell for pond reed clearance. Contact us to explore car sharing options. The detailed September sheet is on our site already or on WCCP website.

VICTORIA PIER

We have had considerable success with the renovation of the 1887 vintage 2ft x 42 in x 2ft granite Victoria Pier Foundation Stone. Go Folkestone has had the Stone’s original Victorian inscription picked out again, from a start of near invisibility by Neil Scrivener Ltd. Tony Hill has led for Go Folkestone. We still need more money for the project. We have about £400 in general donations, a potential £400 from another historically minded society, and a generous individual has guaranteed more, but would prefer to have their money still in the kitty for additional works such as possible planning permission costs.

Please mark Foundation Stone and send to Go Folkestone acct 02359029; Sort 30 93 34

We are talking to the generous owner, Six Mile Excavators, to Sir Roger De Haan, to Folkestone and Hythe District Council and to The Folkestone Estate. All the indications are that one way or another, Go Folkestone will soon get the Stone down to the seafront, near where the Pier originally should, and hopefully but more uncertainly, with some extra [expensive] history and context, such as granite seats, a big Triennial mural of seaside history placed on the rendered wall where the Pier originally was affixed, a Town Council heritage board etc.

AT THE GO FOLKESTONE AGM IN NOVEMBER THE MAIN TALK WILL BE ABOUT THE FOUNDATION STONE PROJECT AND THE HISTORY OF THE VICTORIA PIER BY OUR OWN TONY HILL, AND MARTIN EASDOWN THE LEADING HISTORIAN OF PIERS IN THE SOUTHEAST. IT WILL BE A REFINEMENT OF A TALK GIVEN ONCE BEFORE AT FLHS IN OCTOBER BUT WILL ALSO GIVE THE LATEST ON THE PROJECT TO ACTUALLY MOVE THE STONE. WE HOPE IT WILL BE PART OF A VIEWING PLATFORM ADJOINING THE COASTAL PARK CAR PARK. GO AND HAVE A LOOK. YOU CAN SEE THE UNMADE STRIP THAT GO FOLKESTONE WANT TO ADAPT TO A PUBLIC SEATING PLATFORM ON TOP OF WHERE THE VICTORIA PIER WAS ATTACHED!!!

Pictures of Foundation Stone:

BEFORE RENOVATION

AFTER RENOVATION

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