Current position

On 1st September 2009, I went to Kent County Council HQ in Maidstone and lodged an application to register The Downs in Herne Bay as a new Town Green. At the time we had 569 witness statements supporting the application - we now have 1,119. KCC are the "registering authority" for village and town greens - it's down to them to decide whether to accept the application, to assess any objections, and to determine how to proceed.

KCC accepted the application (now known as VGA614), and it has been sitting in the queue, quietly waiting its turn for the last 6 months. KCC advertised the application on 1st April (!) in the Kentish Gazette, starting a 6 week consultation process.



What we need, and what we've got

The relevant piece of law is The Commons Act 2006. This allows for applications to be made to register land as a new village green, provided that the land in question has been used:

• for a period of at least 20 years
• for the purposes of lawful sports and pastimes
• 'as of right' (i.e. without force, secrecy or permission)
• by the inhabitants of a locality, or a neighbourhood within a locality.

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The Save Our Downs campaign collected 1,119 'witness statements' with 1,181 signatures - my thanks to all of you. These witness statements are formal, signed declarations supporting the village green application, from people who use The Downs.

• they cover an unbroken period of more than 85 years (over 27,000 years of use in total!)
• they paint a clear picture of harmless and lawful enjoyment of The Downs by the people of Herne Bay: Football, Dog walking, Cricket, Bird watching, Walking for pleasure, Drawing and painting, Picnicking, Sitting to watch the view, Kite flying, Team games, Running, Picking blackberries, Watching fireworks, Bicycle riding, Tobogganing, Sports training and many others (including the delightful addition of "Courting").
• nobody has had to force their way on to The Downs, or used The Downs secretly, or sought permission from anyone
• more than 95% came from people who live in the CT6 post code area, i.e. Herne Bay

Beach: cleaner

A motley crew of hardy local volunteers scoured the shoreline by The Downs last Sunday in a regular beach clean and rubbish survey. It was pure happenstance that we weren't out the previous week, when we would have been drenched and frozen in a howling north-easterly. As it was, we had a lovely bright morning - "brilliant blue sunshine" as my Gran would say.

Unsurprisingly, picking up all this crap changes (or perhaps just hardens) my opinion of rubbish and rubbishers. Crisp bags are evil. Ever wondered how it is that crisps can stay crunchy for months in the bag, but soggify within hours of exposure to real life? The answer, my friend, is blowing along our beaches. Crisp bags are made of some kind of micro-engineered multi-layer laminate that (a) would put NASA to shame, and (b) is as impervious to the forces of Nature as an artefact from an alien civilisation. If you seek immortality, just print your name on a bloody crisp bag.

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Cotton buds: bastard little things. For reasons that escape me, some people automatically flush their used cotton buds down the loo. The filtering systems in the sewage works are, of course, designed with turds and turdlets in mind. The cotton buds fly like miniature safety javelins through the grills and meshes, and down the pipes to the open sea. The cottony ends obligingly disintegrate, but the little plastic sticks just bob around forever. There's millions of them all round the British coast, simply because people don't have the wit to bin them rather than flushing them. If there are bio-degradable cotton buds with wooden or cardboard sticks, they should be compulsory.

Apparently, ships sailing out of Tilbury are major culprits for littering the sea, and not just with cotton buds and crisp bags - I'm guessing the plastic cutlery is theirs. I am reliably informed by wise seadogs that it's standard practice for ships in port to use a large oil drum or two as an all-purpose rubbish bin, and then empty the lot overboard as they leave the estuary for the open sea. Scumbags.

It's like pulling hen's teeth

Apologies for the mixed metaphor, but getting a straight answer out of CCC is slow and painful, and results are few and far between. Here's a case in point: the forces of Mordor (aka Canterbury City Council) have fixed their beady little eyes on a slice of The Downs, with a view to turning a fast buck. Before they can start developing it, they had to strip it of its Public Open Space status, even though it's in a ward which their own Open Spaces analysis describes as having a dearth of recreational open space. What they overlooked in their unseemly dash for cash was national Planning Policy Guideline 17 (PPG17), which requires them to identify and supply suitable replacement land.

An inquisitive local resident wrote to Cllr Vickery-Jones, who is the portfolio holder for foreshore, beaches and beach huts:

When will the Council (finally) start addressing its responsibility to provide a suitable and matching replacement for the land it stripped of Public Open Space designation over a year ago? (A duty under PPG17.)

And this is what came back:

This question is interesting as it raises issues such as proportionality. To explain that I must tell you that in my view Councillors have a duty to act without regard for the ballot box, of course they carry an obligation to listen to all residents but they also have a duty to look at the needs of other residents who do not normally raise their voices until the opportunity is lost. I do not and will not ever let people down because I have not been robust in exploring any and all opportunities to improve the ability of Herne Bay to thrive again, even though I am criticised for it. How anyone can ever take the view that this proposal is anything but good for our town, frankly is beyond me.

Our town where 70p in every £1 is spent elsewhere, where our kids can't stay because there is little work and where the average wage is £11,000. Who can possibly live on that? My daughter is 14, you may well have young people in your family, where is their future?  I have a duty to provide for their needs as well, as best I can.

I am aware that there are quite a few people who have signed a petition against this proposal, however I am also aware that there has been many scare stories circulated which did not provide the full picture. The Downs have never been under threat from this proposal, no one has ever played cricket or football on the area in question nor has any one flown a kite or even walked their dog unless they suffered being torn to bits by the brambles, the cliff is subject to movement which is the reason that very large rain water drains are installed in that particular area. In all this area is totally unsuitable for any of the activities claimed and would only sustain temporary and light structures such as Beach Huts.

Lib Dem Rob Bright stood shoulder to shoulder with me in the local paper because this matter was never 'Political' it was always about what was perceived as being the best for all of Herne Bay. We have the same passion for Herne Bay as you obviously do, we only differ in that you can afford to be very 'local' whereas we councillors cannot, simply because we have to take a 'broader' view, such as what is good for the whole town.

You state that you are an independent individual which gives me some hope that you may take an objective view and with that some better understanding of the issues.

These are entirely my personal views and should be considered in that light, they give a true and accurate of the way I see the matter. if I can assist you further please do not hesitate to contact me, my only request is that you do not ask the same questions as I have answered these, using the sum total of my knowledge.

Load of cock, if you ask me.

Rover has a drink

We spotted this car bobbing about in the sea when we were about half way round the first ever Bounds of The Downs, mid-winter 2009. When the coastguard found there was nobody (or no body) inside, they lost interest. I would have thought they would be concerned about the hazard to small boats...

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Mystery surrounds how this silver Rover ended up taking a dip in the sea. It made a splash with 15 hikers who spotted it while taking a Sunday morning stroll. One witness said:

"I've heard of a car wash but this was ridiculous. It will end up a costly mistake for someone."

Initially it was believed the car had been left on the beach below the Downs at Herne Bay near Reculver Drive by its owner who failed to retrieve it before the tide came in. But police spokesman Jane Walker said:

"When we called the owner she said she had parked it in the town and thinks it was stolen and dumped on the beach."

The owner is footing the bill to get the car fished out of the sea. The alarm was raised by Phil Rose of Beacon Hill who called the coastguard at 10.50am on Sunday. He said:

"We had been walking and came across the car bobbing about in the sea and slowly drifting to the east. The Whitstable lifeboat arrived 15 minutes later."

Thames Coastguard spokesman Walter Holliday said:

"When the lifeboat arrived all the crew could see was the car's aerial sticking out of the water. Their first priority was to check there was no one trapped inside. Fortunately it was empty."

After reporting the precise position of the car to coastguards the lifeboat crew returned to base at Whitstable Harbour. It was their 74th call of the year.

HB Times 2009-12-22