30% of school children in Kent have missed out on their first choice of secondary school this year, according to a survey of local authorities by The Times. The result compares badly with other local councils, with only 7.7 per cent of children in West Sussex not offered a place at the school they wanted.
"Your Shepway" newspaper has reported today that the pressure is mounting on beleaguered councillor Linda Oliver after she missed a key council meeting.
Shepway Council has announced that the Full Council meeting scheduled for 19 March has been cancelled with the agreement of Council Chair George Bunting due to lack of business.
Over one in five pupils have lost out on their first choice school after a new admissions system based on a lottery system was introduced this year. The figures have been revealed on the day that almost 600,000 children have been sent letters telling them which school they will be allocated in September.
Average hospital waiting times have risen under Labour, figures show. NHS data reveals that in 1997-98 average waits stood at 41 days, but by last year had risen to 49 days.
Last Tuesday, my colleagues and I tabled an amendment in the House of Commons on the Liberal Democrat proposal for a referendum on Britain's membership of the European Union.
Kent County Council (KCC) is running a local board meeting on 4th March and are inviting local residents to hear about the future of adult education in Shepway and ask questions to senior KCC officers and elected members.
Kent Trading Standards are warning users of email to be very wary of an email purporting to be from the Inland Revenue offering a tax refund. The amount offered is around £70. Please be wary of such emails. Do not click on the links and do not give away any personal data - this is a scam email, and the Inland Revenue issue no such real emails.
Shepway Liberal Democrats would like to offer our condolences to Folkestone Town Councillor Richard Theobold and his family on the hugely sad loss of his wife Odette, who died on 27th February. Our thoughts are with them at this time.
The Liberal Democrats have revealed figures showing that the declining value of the Winter Fuel Payment means it only just pays for a quarter of a pensioner's fuel bills. While the amount of the Winter Fuel Payment has been frozen at £200 for five years, fuel bills and the profits of energy companies have both risen.
From the Shepway District council web site: a page describing the etiquette, terms of address and precedence of the Chairman of the Council. The first sentence of the page at www.shepway.gov.uk/content/view/1539/1604/ reads "The Chairman of Shepway District Council is the First Citizen in the District of Shepway, and takes precedence over all others including the Town Mayors of Folkestone, Hythe, New Romney and Lydd."
Following the success of last year's Folkestone Multi-Cultural Festival which attracted thousands of visitors and residents to join in celebrations of the town's many different cultures, a bigger event is planned for 2008 - and the organisers are inviting participation from ethnic and other groups and also from schools which would like to their pupils to be involved.