Local News

Pictured left to right: Kevin Hawkins (Regional Commercial Director, Arriva Southern Counties), Councillor John Wright (Cabinet Member for Regeneration, Swale Borough Council) and Tom Pierpoint (Public Transport Team Leader, Kent County Council).

Local bus operator Arriva has invested almost half a million pounds in four brand-new buses for its services in the Sittingbourne and Faversham areas.

Three of the buses are for use on the route that links Oare, Faversham, Teynham and Sittingbourne with Maidstone. whilst the fourth is a smaller midibus that is now bringing new standards of comfort on the local service between Sittingbourne town centre, Murston and Great Easthall.

Built in Yorkshire by the Optare company, one of the UK's leading bus builders, all are of the easy-access design with a low-level entrance and no steps in the front half inside. Arriva's Regional Managing Director, Heath Williams, told SFM News that he was "delighted that we have been able to invest in new, fully-accessible and environmentally-friendly buses for our services in the Swale area. We are members of the Swale Quality Bus Partnership which aims to improve the quality of bus travel in the area and the new buses will give a more comfortable ride to our customers on Services 333 and 349 while helping to bring about improved air quality across the Borough. In spite of the economic climate we have so far this year invested nearly £8million in forty-seven new buses for our services in Kent and across the Thames Estuary in South Essex, this being a testament to our confidence in the future of public transport in the area."

Speaking on behalf of Swale Borough Council, Cllr John Wright, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and member of the Quality Bus Partnership, told SFM News "I and, most importantly, the travelling public welcome the investment by Arriva in their four new buses. New buses will help to encourage more people to use these services as an eco-friendly and cost effective way of travelling. I welcome this commitment by Arriva and look forward to continuing to work with them to improve services and infrastructure for buses throughout the borough for the benefit of Swale residents."

Full details of the times of Arriva's buses serving Swale can be found online at www.arrivabus.co.uk/south-east or by calling 0844 800 4411.

Timetable leaflets are available from local outlet,s such as libraries, council offices etc, or by calling the above number.

Kent Police are warning bird keepers to remain vigilant after thefts from aviaries on Sheppey and Newington during the past week.

Officers were called to Well Road in Rushenden last Thursday (9th May) after it was reported that 19 birds were missing from an aviary at the rear of the property. The alleged theft of 14 mixed colour canaries, 4 red and gold rosella parakeets and a white cockatiel is believed to have taken place between 8pm on 8th May and 4.45am the following day.

Local officers are also investigating the theft of 34 birds from an aviary on High Street in Newington. During that incident 7 canaries, 13 finches, 6 cockatiels and 8 budgies were reported missing to police on 9th May, although the theft is believed to have been on Friday 12th April.

Investigating officer, PC Preston Frost, told SFM News "bird owners should be mindful of security measures available to them and to be vigilant at all times. You should invest in additional security measures such as sensor lighting or CCTV, which may deter these offenders, who are predominantly acting in the hours of darkness. I would also appeal for information about any of the crimes which have taken place, as where animals are concerned, it can be very distressing for their owners to lose them".

Anyone with any information can call PC Frost on 101, quoting reference XY/14125/13 for the Rushenden incident and XY/14427/13 for Newington. Alternatively they can contact Kent Crimestoppers free (from any landline) and anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Three men have been jailed for their part in an attempted burglary at a shop in Sittingbourne in the early hours of last Thursday (18th April) morning.

Kent Police were called at 2.40am to reports of a burglary in progress at the rear of the CEX store in The Forum Shopping Centre. The offenders were tracked on CCTV and police arrested three men in the High Street.

Jason Bowers, 41, of Pear Tree Walk in Newington and John Crittenden, 35, of Laburnum Place in Sittingbourne, were detained by officers, while Sean Reed, 40, also of Laburnum Place, was found hiding in a bin at the rear of a shop in the town.

All three men were arrested and charged with attempted burglary with intent to steal.

No items were stolen from the shop but damage was caused to a door at the back of the store.

Bowers, Crittenden and Reed all pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court on Friday (19th April) and were each sentenced to 120 days in prison.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Kathryn Lumsden-Earle, told SFM News "thanks to a joint effort between CCTV and response officers, we were able to locate and detain the offenders within minutes of the offence being reported. Your local Kent Police will continue to take a robust approach in order to protect property and businesses and will do everything in our power to arrest offenders and put them before the courts".

After its recent announcement that its full-year pre-tax profit had more than halved - the worst performance in the company's history following £2.4bn of writedowns following its decision to exit the US and its UK-driven profit warning last year - Tesco has confirmed that it is to cancel its proposed 100 store expansion across the UK including the new Tesco Extra development for Milton Creek here in Sittingbourne.

Tesco confirmed that it had taken the UK charge as a direct result of its decision to "move away from building big stores" and that the company will "now concentrate on [its] online and convenience shop businesses". This resulted in the company identifying more than 100 sites - the majority bought between the last 5 to 10 years - that it would no longer develop.

The decision has had a mixed reaction locally but Tesco's withdrawal from the proposed regeneration on land north of the railway line means that the following plans will no longer be going ahead:-

• 11 new retail stores and a cafe - that we seen as being key to attract a wide range of new shops to the town.
• A new state-of-the-art and energy-efficient Tesco Extra.
• A new parking area with 1,188 spaces - serving both the Tesco store and the town centre generally.
• The opportunity for new homes to be built on the site in the future.

Tony Weaver will be discussing how this may or may not have an effect on Sittingbourne's Regeneration Plans on "In The Bourne" all this week - Mon-Fri 11am-3pm on 106.9 SFM.