Turtleastic - find out what it means to you

Local treasure Karen Simpson has a new exhibition at the Reculver Visitor Centre. Turtleastic looks at the effects of pollution (in this case plastics) on our natural environment.

Ocean litter is increasingly responsible for turtle deaths, autopsies have found alarming amounts of plastic debris in their stomachs especially floating plastic carrier bags which they mistake for their main source of food - jellyfish. These then fill up their stomachs meaning that they often die from malnutrition and starvation as they are unable to take in proper nutritional food. They often also ingest other types of plastic and get tangled up in netting and other floating plastic debris which can result in drowning.

As usual, Karen's work is quirky, eye-catching and thought-provoking... a great combination. You can see more of her work on her website: Shore Is A Load Of Rubbish.

Turtleastic is on at the Reculver Visitor Centre (by Reculver Towers) from 29th July - 30th August, every day except Tuesday and Wednesday, between 11am and 5pm.

Adult Education - what do you think?

The WEA has teamed up with Canterbury Christ Church University to run a research project to find out what the residents of Herne Bay (and other parts of Kent) think about adult education... Here's what they say:

In addition to running classes in the Town through your well-established local WEA Branch, the Workers’ Educational Association and Canterbury Christ Church University are working together on a research project in Herne Bay.

The project was made possible by a local bequest in light of the work of the local WEA Branch. The research will help develop our future programme and how best meet the revealed needs from the findings.

Over the next few months, we would like to talk to residents of Herne Bay to find out more about their views on adult learning and the opportunities they want to see in their community.

If you are interested in taking part please contact Mrs J Mason on Tel: 07710 569685.

Have your say as your views matter!

SNAAP Charity plea

This just in from one of our readers...

Hi, I run local Slimming World groups in Greenhill, Whitstable, Faversham and Canterbury. One of my Greenhill members has been asked to abseil down a building to raise money for S.N.A.A.P. children's charity in Herne Bay on August 25th and had to raise £200 sponsorship.

Tickets can be bought from me at my groups or by calling Sally Devere on 01227 751640 or 07778 068769.

I have organised a 70's night in Boughton Village Hall on 25th August at 7.30pm. It's an American supper and tickets are £5. There is a raffle and fancy dress competition. The whole evening is running on donations. Please can you let your readers know and if any local business want to donate a prize we would be really grateful.

Thank you

---

SNAAP supports families who have children with any additional need or disability living in the Canterbury & Coastal area. We provide good quality information and support to families and carers, to enable them to help themselves and their children. We also provide regular leisure activities and aim to increase mainstream inclusion opportunities for children with disabilities and special needs.

Westgate Jam Fudged

Views on Canterbury's controversial Westgate traffic trial ditched

Thousands of signatures and hundreds of letters about a controversial traffic trial are being swept under the carpet by council bosses. The official public consultation into the scheme to ban traffic from the Westgate Towers in Canterbury started on Friday and all previous comments will not count.

It means the 4,000 people who signed a petition calling for the scheme to be scrapped, and the hundreds who wrote both in favour and against the trial, will have to put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – again.

Read more...

New Courses from the WEA

The splendid people at the WEA (Workers’ Educational Association) have just announced their new season of adult education courses - have a look and see what tickles your fancy.

There's Rachmaninov - Man and Music, E.M. Forster, Faces and Places, Music of the Renaissance, 19th Century ‘Terror’ Literature, and Laureate Poets and their Poetry.

Read more...

Herne Bay on the Rain Scale

The wags over at BBC Radio 4 invited their listeners to invent a new word-scale to describe British rain - like the Beaufort scale for wind, but funnier. I'm delighted to see that it takes the very heaviest kind of rain "siling down" to drive people from Herne Bay's beaches... Praise indeed!

---

Your words for rain
1. Not Raining	Outdoor furniture is erected cautiously in gardens and on balconies. Light to moderate rummaging takes places in rucksacks for cagoules and pac-a-macs.

Read more...

Beach Creative

A new and good thing is happening in Herne Bay.

A group called Beach Creative is taking up residence in Beach House, just off the William Street car park.

They are a new creative community who will be using the space to provide artists' studios, exhibition spaces, meeting rooms and workshops.

They are having an open day on Saturday 7th July from 10am until 8pm, so go along and have a look at what they're up to. These are nice people, doing a good thing, and they would love to see you.

You can click the thumbnail of the poster to download a copy to print and stick in your window.

Read more...

Is a superstore super news?

A huge Sainbury's and petrol station on the edge of Herne Bay - this would be on the ill-fated and currently languishing Altira site.

There's no indication in the press reports as to where exactly, but I assume it would be east of the existing developments at Altira, between the A299 Thanet Way and the railway line.

Big news for a small town, and not all of it good news.

Read more...

Terrace Hill

Sainsbury’s store programme lifts Terrace Hill

Specialist retail developer Terrace Hill said today it was pressing ahead with 600,000 sq ft of new schemes in spite of the supermarket slowdown. Chairman Robert Adair said:

"Whilst there has been some slowdown in the expansion of Tesco we are continuing to receive good interest in our sites from the other major operators. We continue to make good progress with all our committed foodstore development sites and are advancing a number of new opportunities."

Read more...

Deferral on Kingsmead land decision

Excellent news - Kingsmead has won a brief reprieve, thanks to the sheer number of written objections, and the huge support for the online petition.

---

Discussion by Executive members of council proposals to appropriate land at Kingsmead for planning purposes has been deferred until the meeting on Thursday 21 June.

Originally the Executive was due to consider the plan at its meeting on 31st May.

Read more...