THE LORD GIVETH - AND THE LORD TAKETH AWAY.

Isn’t it amazing just how the computer has taken charge of our lives. Ten years ago, email and the cyber world was thought to be little more than a useful tool that would assist communication sometime in the future. Only four years ago when we first set up the Residents Association, the ‘useful tool’ label had changed to ‘essential tool’.  And today the computer with all its accessories  and facilities is central to and at the heart of any campaign and it is unthinkable to operate without one. Indeed what misery manifests when something goes wrong and we find ourselves isolated from the cyber world out there!  But while usage of the cyber world has intensified at an amazing rate the number of people who understand how to operate it and how to sort out its problems has not moved quite so fast.

However we in The Sellindge and District Residents Association have been very fortunate. For the moment we realised we needed a computer genius, a computer genius emerged like a longed for prophet and has guided us through storms and gale force winds towards the promised land.  This genius is Dave Motley who not only had to develop our computer communication techniques and establish our web site www.slurry.org.uk but he also had to tolerate people like me who thought a computer was merely an impossible to understand typewriter. Now, not everyone would say Dave is the most patient man on the planet but I would like to say that he has showed over the years not just great reserves of patience but amazing tolerance and incredible fortitude especially when dealing with computer illiterates like me. And at the same time he inspired us to organise our thinking so that our principles remain steady and unalloyed. I owe him much as does the Residents Association and the people of Sellindge.  But as they say, all good things come to an end. We wish Dave well as he now devotes his energy and skills to new and challenging issues.

Fortunately holding sway today is God’s evolution (as distinct from Darwin’s – God’s meets need while Darwin’s does desperate battle with survival). So as one genius retires another  steps forward. Kyle Clark, young and creative, has now taken charge and a new vision is developing which will emphasise why Sellindge is a great place to live. As I watch Kyle at work on the computer I want to kneel in humble adulation. What is important is that he sees his contribution as a development, evolving what was established  before by Dave Motley. And that makes me happy for I am a believer in creating conditions whereby evolution rather than chaotic devolution operates.  Please do make a regular date with the web site – www.slurry.org  We remain dedicated to bringing to your attention together with all who support us, issues and developments that affect the whole area. And good fortune to Dave Motley and Kyle Cark.

Ronald Lello  Sellindge and District Residents Association

RIP-OFF IN SELLINDGE.

It’s recently come to our notice that a gang of tarmac layers are offering their services in carrying out work on householder’s drives.

Needless to say, this gang is targeting the old and vulnerable and ripping them off; not just overcharging by hundreds of pounds, but by thousands.

If you are approached by this gang, have nothing to do with them, but try to get their truck registration number and telephone the police. If you suspect that a friend or neighbour is being targeted by this gang please do the same.

61 Metre Turbine Appeal.

URGENT.

61 Metre Turbine Appeal.

On the 11th December 2012, Shepway Development Control Committee
debated the Single turbine application proposed by Windberry
Operations on Farmer Price's land. The whole committee had no
hesitation in throwing it out. Windberry Operations have now appealed
against the SDC decision. You now have the chance to make further
comments but please be brief, to the point and should be made
before midnight, 4th March, 2013.

Important points to be made should be : The turbine impacts AONB
landscape, both viewing from AONB and into (as backdrop) AONB land.
All members of the Development Control Committee opposed the
application with one Councillor citing Mrs Justice Laing's comments
that 'Wind turbines shouldn't take precedence over natural beauty'.
Comments made should be 'material planning considerations'.

Please go to the planning portal website:
http.//www.pcs.planningportal.gov.uk/pcsportal/ViewCase.asp

The link should work, but if not, put in: www.planningportal.gov.uk
and then follow it through to "search for cases", then put in the
search box the reference 2191109. At the bottom of the page is the
link for making comments. Away you go.

All the best.

Les Barratt, Co Chairman. Sellindge & District Residents Association.

Site Under Construction

Hello my name is Kyle,
Dave and the Sellindge and District Residents Association have kindly left the website in my care.

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to Dave for keeping us all informed with this blog over the years and I look forward to picking up the baton.

Please be patient while both adjustments are made and I learn how to use the site fully.

Any changes made during this period of transition are by no means final.
If you have any special requests please feel free to submit them to the email below.

sellindgeresidents@gmail.com

Kind regards,
Kyle Clark

Interview on Radio Kent - Monday 18th February

If you think your house value won't be affected by Ecotricity's monstrous wind turbines, think again. In a ruling last month by the Advertising Standards Authority, Ecotricity have now had to withdraw the claim made that "Wind Farms have no long term detrimental effect on house prices".

You can hear our interview with Bob Dale on Radio Kent (96.7FM or 104.2FM) on Monday morning, 18th February, at 6.39am and 8.39am. Our representatives are Les Barratt (Initial complainant), Mandy Tragner, Ronald Lello and Richard Smithson.

UK renewables (Umberella group for the wind farm industry) will have the right to reply at 7.39am.

Please tune in and listen and let us know your feelings at sellindgeresidents@gmail.com

Kind regards
Les Barratt

Updates for 9th December 2012 to 17th February 2013

The website has all the latest information on the main issues facing Sellindge. If you have any information, news or comments you would like to share, please email Sellindge Residents Association sellindgeresidents@gmail.com or write (our letter box is in Potten Farm shop). 

The older (pre-March 2012) information have been moved further down the right-hand column (see the 9 Sections beginning 'old'). Please also note, there is a new numbering system starting from '99' and going down with each new piece of information per Section - this will help keep the new information at the top of each Section.  

The new posts (information) added to the right-hand Sections of the website from 9th December 2012 to 17th February 2013, denoted by '* New and then the number below', are:

Section 2 - Harringe Brooks (Ecotricity) Wind farm
92) Somerfield Court Wind Turbine Appeal
93) Claims in wind farm ad were 'misleading'
94)) ASA ruling on Ecotricity and Property values
95) Safety fears grow after 80ft wind turbine collapses in gale.

Section 3 - Otterpool Waste
94) Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan

Section 4 - Barrow Hill Wind Turbine - Single Wind Turbine on land adjoining Somerfield Court Farm, Barrow Hill
94) Message of thanks to the Councillors from Anthony Bosley, Chairman - SALVATION
95) Shepway decision regarding Barrow Hill Turbine
96) Barrow Hill Turbine Rejected
97) Wind turbine bid is thrown out by district Council

Section 5 - Lorry Park
No new Information

Section 6 - Shepway Housing
92) Decision on revised 1 Swan Lane planning Application
93) Decision on revised Bernhurst Planning Application

Section 7 - other important information
96) An Epilogue..... by Ronald Lello

Section 8 - Correspondence including replies from KCC
No new information

An Epilogue........

Goodbye - all that - and a bit more besides!

One evening some four years ago, I found myself among a small group of people outside the Sellindge Community Hall. We had just heard a KCC politician singing the virtues of Sellindge as a recipient of a lorry park, a waste treatment dump (at the invitation of Mr John Champneys) and a substantial composting centre processing fetid material from all over the county. This small group of people were very talented and each had expertise in particular areas. I had little if any expertise – so they made me Chairman and the Sellindge and District Residents Association, known as SANDRA, was born. Over the past years it has fought to ensure that no Lorry Park is built, no Waste Treatment plant is established, no wind turbines are constructed and no gargantuan housing estate is developed in or on our borders without any obvious concern for the best interests of the village. On the other hand we did conceive the notion of bringing back a Sellindge Village Green with some new houses surrounding it, a village green and common that disappeared early in the 19th Century when the Reverend Richard Champneys and others enclosed the land for their own benefit while depriving the poor of the parish of their meagre existence. A village green would give Sellindge back it’s centre. Many improvements would flow from it. Shepway DC so liked the idea that they got £50,000 from the government to give to some consultants who said it was a good idea to have a village green. Such is life.

Anyway, four years on and not quite so robust as once I was, I find I cannot keep my house and land as I would wish to do. Resisting the temptation to construct a wind turbine in my back yard so as to make enough money to pay others to look after things, I have decided it is time to go. Land is very special. None of us should own or control land that we cannot make proper use of. Anyway, it is not reasonable for me to remain as Chairman with my house on the market. I go reluctantly to join the ranks of the Residents committee. Leading the Residents team has been a real privilege and meeting such well-motivated people has delivered me into the realms of honour. And it has been a real honour to be with such people. The Chair is now carried jointly by Bob Edden and Les Barratt. All of the SANDRA team either work or are already committed to other projects, family – duties of every kind, yet all have given time, time and again. Sellindgers and other local villagers have also provided a huge amount of support. It is true to say that Sellindge has developed a ‘reputation’ in Planning circles. It is vital this fearsome reputation is not lost. That means each of us making some effort. For the few moaning minnies of Sellindge (oh yes we know who you are and the poison you spread!) who insist that nothing can be achieved are wrong. A village united is indeed a powerful image.

I am happy that I resign as Chairman at a time of good news. The proposal to construct a wind turbine on land owned by Mr Richard Price has been unanimously rejected by the planning committee at Shepway DC. Mr Price has been very foolish. We offered to meet with him way back last Spring to discuss and resolve various issues positively but he ignored our letter. Instead, he continued to sanction a proposal to build a monstrosity, 61 metres high – higher than a twenty storey office block as one councillor pointed out – in the middle of the countryside and adjacent to our villages. It seems that Mr Price and family are quite indifferent to the dreadful effect this structure would have upon local residents – the same residents who would be paying extra money on their electricity bills to fund the subsidy payments that would end up benefiting him and his family. What has he and his family got that the other residents have not got. Well . . .land of course – he’s got the land. At the same time these resident’s houses would also be losing considerable value causing much misery and suffering. Mr Price even admitted in the Sellindge Village News last February that wind turbines ‘blighted the countryside’. They certainly do – and to what purpose? No one has ever been able to demonstrate that land based wind turbines, here or elsewhere in Europe, lessen the use of power stations powered by coal or oil or gas. Conventional power stations have to remain operating in case the wind drops below the operational level. We cannot blame Mr Price and others like him, for taking advantage of the incredible ignorance of Government and European departments or the ‘chancers’ who operate the companies who benefit from such ignorance but we can do everything possible to restrict them.

There are plenty of them about. Besides the Price application, Ecotricity are intending to apply for six turbines and they have found some willing partners. Take for example Farmer Jo Butcher who has been offered one turbine on her land nearby the landing strip of the aero club. I cannot write about the disgraceful tactics of Jo Butcher to find her way on this windfall but one day somebody will.

Then there is Mr John Champneys who seeks to welcome onto his land as many as five of the Ecotricity wind turbines each measuring 125 metres high. The ‘20 storey high building’ wind turbine sought by farmer Richard Price is dwarfed by farmer John Champneys ambition. His dream and our nightmare are for the biggest - five turbines whose individual height is just short of the Euston Tower in London – a building with 36 floors. Just think here in Sellindge, Lympne and Court-at-Street a total of six turbines whose individual height will be equivalent to a 36 storey office block. I am well aware of the ecological arguments offered in support of wind turbines. And certainly we all need to look at the profligate way we all use electricity and energy in general. But no one should be subjected to such huge machines towering over the places where they live.

That brings me on my list of ‘farewells’, to Sellindge Parish Council. Ah yes, Sellindge Parish Council. For some reason, SPC has made serious and untrue statements about me and by implication the Residents Association. So I went along to a PC meeting and found myself next to Susan Carey our KCC councillor – no one else was there – all three of the regulars were at Folkestone I suppose. When the opportunity came to speak I stood up ready to deliver a vitriolic salvos of invective. But I couldn’t. First I could sense that Susan Carey was wafting sentiments of ‘peace and goodwill to all mankind’ in my direction. Secondly, as I looked at the gathered Parish Councillors sat around their tables, hardly a fulsome or edifying sight, I suddenly realised that they were here at work at 8 15 pm in the evening and not sat at home, dozing in front of their televisions or computers. They were all out on a cold, unpleasant night fulfilling their roles as Parish Councillors and giving their time and efforts for the sake of the community. Could one really be angry with such people? Dear Sellindgers it takes quite a lot to fulfil such duties on a cold and unpleasant night. It is so much easier to criticise people than to make the effort to do something for others. Our Parish Council deserves criticism but surely some of us should consider whether each of us might make more effort for the general well-being.

One of the things the PC has accused me of is negativity so I want to end this indulgence, if you are still reading it, on a positive note. The original inspiration that founded SANDRA was a vision that Justice might rule over selfishness so as to provide sufficient space for everyone in our village to enjoy a quiet life of well-being. At this time of Christmas one might add that it takes very little effort for each of us to offer thoughts of peace and goodwill. Next year is likely to be critical for those of us who want Sellindge and our other local villages to remain rural. All kinds of industrial proposals are surfacing that will affect us greatly. If we act with goodwill as a united village we can achieve a huge amount for our families and those who will follow us. Please remember Edmund Burke’s dictum ‘ All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing’. It is as true today as it was in the 18th century. Merry Christmas and a very happy new year.

Ronald Lello

Updates for mid-November to 8th December 2012

The website has all the latest information on the main issues facing Sellindge. If you have any information which you would like to share, please email it to dave@davemotley.co.uk . Please let Sellindge Residents' Association have your news and comments about what is happening in the area by emailing sellindgeresidents@gmail.com or write (our letter box is in Potten Farm shop).

The new posts (information) added to the right-hand Sections of the website from Mid-November to the 8th December, denoted by '* New and then the number below', are:

Section 2 - Harringe Brooks Wind Farm
No new information

Section 3 - Otterpool Waste
01)Waste firm fined over illegal dumping of 'soil'
02)Illegal waste operations result in £233,670 for Kent firms and director

Section 4 - Other Wind Farm Information - Single Wind Turbine on land adjoining Somerfield Court Farm, Barrow Hill
01) 11th Dec is D-Day - Hearing and Decision by Shepway Planners whether to approve the first single Turbine at Sellindge will be made on Tuesday 11th December
02) A copy of the 'objection Document' being presented to members of Shepway Planning Control Committee by the SALVATION Action Group
03) The Officer's Report for the Single Wind Turbine Y12/0241/SH has been published
04) A copy of the Flyer re Single Wind Turbine Planning Application Y12/0241/SH to be heard on 11th December - don't leave it to others

Section 5 - Lorry Park
01) Application for an alternative to the proposed junction 10A, including a slip road linking A2070 to A20

Section 6 - Shepway Housing
01) Lympne Airfield Developers accused of 'Bamboozling' villagers

Section 7 - Sellindge Converter Station
No new information

Section 8 - other important information
No new information

Section 9 - Correspondence including replies from KCC
01) Microlight Aircraft Runway - Concern

Updates for October to mid-November

The website has all the latest information on the main issues facing Sellindge. If you have any information which you would like to share, please email it to dave@davemotley.co.uk

In the 'Letters' Section, page 2, of The Bugler, it says 'Sellindge Residents' Association would love to hear from you. Please let us have your news and comments about what is happening in the area. You can write (our letter box is in Potten Farm shop) or please email sellindgeresidents@gmail.com '
______________________________________________________________

The new posts (information) added to the website between October and mid-November, to the right-hand sections, denoted by '* New and then the number below', are.

Section 2 - Harringe Brooks Wind Farm
1) Job Done on Wind Farms says John Hayes
2) Minister Signals the End of the Wind Farm
3) George Osborne's CO2 tax will double UK electricity bills
4) Why the £250bn wind power industry could be the greatest scam of our age - and here are the 3 lies that prove it.
5) Villagers spell out turbine opposition
6) Wind farms given £34m to switch off in bad weather. Households stung by secretive payments

Section 3 - Otterpool Waste - since 2012
No new information

Section 4 - Other Wind Farm Information - since March 2012
1) Additional information received re Single Wind Turbine on land adjoining Somerfield Court Farm Planning Application - Ref Y12/0241/SH - Comments by 22nd November

Section 5 - Lorry Park
1) UK vignette could help pay for lorry park at Aldington

Section 6 - Shepway Housing
1) Bernhurst revised Proposed development Planning Application Y12/1013/SH for Erection of 5 detached two-storey dwellings - Comments by 29th November
2) Revised Planning Application for 1 Swan Lane Y12/0293/SH for Erection of 4 linked dwellings following demolition of existing buildings - Comments by 23rd November
3) New Lympne Consultation for 250 Houses - Monday 19th (Lympne School) & Tuesday 20th (Village Hall) November
4) Shepway Core Strategy Local Plan - Proposed Modifications Autumn 2012 available to view and comments by 10th December    
5) Racecourse rescue bid sustains further blow - Housing proposals excluded from district strategic plan

Section 7 – Sellindge Converter Station

No new information

Section 8 - other important information

No new information

Section 9 - Correspondence from locals
1) Wind Farms by Andrew Gilligan in the Sunday Telegraph - 4th November
2) Wind Turbines - Ice build up on the turbine blade mitigation measures - 7th November
3) Parking on the M20 once ina while ...... seems a very economic proposition - 13th October

Updates for August and September 2012

The website has all the latest information on the main issues facing Sellindge. If you have any information which you would like to share, please email it to dave@davemotley.co.uk
 
In the 'Letters' Section, page 2, of The Bugler, it says 'Sellindge Residents' Association would love to hear from you. Please let us have your news and comments about what is happening in the area. You can write (our letter box is in Potten Farm shop) or please email sellindgeresidents@gmail.com '
______________________________________________________________

The new posts (information) added to the website in August and September, to the right-hand sections, denoted by '* New and then the number below', are.

Section 2 - Harringe Brooks Wind Farm
1) Air photos of the Wind Turbine Demonstration and a height comparison diagram of a wind turbine to day to day buildings such as house, church, pylon and the London Eye - 29th September
2 BBC Radio Kent Interview with Ronald Lello - 29th September
3) BBC News Kent - Sellindge wind farm protesters create 'human turbine' - 29th September
4) Message from Ronald Lello - 28th September
5) Germany's wind chaos is a warning to us - 23rd September
6) The 2 speeches that were going to be read at the demonstration - 29 September
7) Wind farm developers using 'tricks' to make turbines look smaller - 22 August
8) Ad watchdog to examine wind farm leaflet protest - 1st August

Section 3 - Otterpool Waste - since 2012
No new information

Section 4 - Other Wind Farm Information - since March 2012
No new information

Section 5 - Lorry Park
1) Foreign hauliers to pay for using roads in the UK - 27 September
2) Tax on foreign HGV's could pay for Operation Stack lorry park - 20th September

Section 6 - Shepway Housing

1) Axe held over 60 jobs as racecourse set to close - 4th August
2) Folkestone racecourse to close at end of the season - 4th August

Section 8 - other important information
1) MP sees work progress at £12m wastewater plant, and hears about £2.3M investment at Sellindge wastewater treatment works- 20th September

Section 9 - Correspondence including replies from KCC
No new information