Higham Parish Council - Special Announcements and News

A talk by Francine Payne on Joyce Green & the River Hospitals will be given on Friday 10th September 2010 at 7pm in Higham Library. It is the story of the Metropolitan Asylums Board's River Hospitals and the smallpox ships moored in the Thames at Long Reach.

Tickets cost £2.00 each and light refreshments are included. Booking is essential as space is limited. For more information and to book your place please visit Higham Library or call 01474 823822 or email highamlibrary@kent.gov.uk.

The Friends of St Mary's Church, Church Lane, Lower Higham held a successful Tea Party to celebrate the renovation works in the church on Saturday 19 June. The Mayor of Gravesham performed a ribbon cutting ceremony, a flautist played light music inside the church and Copperfield Clog womens morris dancers performed colourful dances outside. See some photographs.

7 August - An atmospheric screening inside the church of the 1946 film Great Expectations.

Christine will be performing a range of songs, both classical and modern, and there will be some refreshments too. The church was designed with singing in mind, and the sound of a trained voice in such a magical setting should be really special. Tickets are £9 each. You can book them by calling 01634 222503. ALL profits will benefit the Friends of St. Mary's, which is an entirely voluntary group, and the Churches Conservation Trust, which is a registered charity. There will be parking and toilet facilities available on the day. We shall also be selling packs of Christmas cards (it's never too early!). These have 3 different designs of the church, made especially for these cards, and will be unveiled at the concert. Again, ALL profits to the FOStM and the CCT.

Lower Higham's Scarecrow Festival for this year will be held and judged on 12 September 2010. For more information and to find out how to enter your scarecrow, please contact Rebecca on 01634 719947.

The Scarecrow Festival'09 occured on Sunday 13th September. To see how it went and some of the entries, click here.

Set in Dreamville, Indiana, in 1955, this hilarious but touching story weaves together the ancient myth of Daedalus & Ikarus and the everyday lives of factory workers in a small American town, whose hopes & ambitions suddenly seem possible when a commercial traveller comes into town with his suitcase full of dreams.

The Rude Mechanical Theatre Company, known as “The Rudes” in this case “Rude” in the sense of simple – few props, a superb portrayal of mime and some magnificent wigs and costumes all combined to give us a very funny and entertaining performance at the RSPB Northward Hill Bird Reserve, Cooling on a warm summer evening in July 2010.

The story was set in small town America in 1955. The play was loosely woven around the boy, Iccarus, who, against his father Daedalus’ (pronounced dead loss)’s advice, flew too near to the sun and the wax holding his wing feathers melted. Daedalus was selling dreams and everyone wants their dreams to come true. Well, they will if only you have self belief. You can ride a motorbike or drive a car too fast – only there weren’t any props, remember, just actors and mime but it was very convincing and the audience laughed uncontrollably at times. Add to the package that all the actors also played Rock and Roll music on guitar, drums, trombone, double bass, French horn etc. and you have some idea of the treat we all enjoyed. Let’s hope they come back again next year.

Kent County Council have published their report into future developments within Kent. One vital aspect considered is transportation and links outside of Kent. The potential future need for another crossing over the River Thames is mentioned.

For more information on both the 21st Century reports and some local views on the impact of a lower Thames Crossing, please click here.

... urgently needs your (adult) help on a Monday evening!! Our very successful and growing Youth Club at the Memorial Hall on Monday evening is exclusively for young people aged 14 years and above. But the Youth Club Leader, Jo Raff, is looking for some help.

Jo says "Unless I can find someone to help on a regular basis I do not feel we can keep the Monday night open - it is obviously impractical and not safe for me to be the only adult. This is a massive shame as we have just increased our numbers (to more than double the amount that were attending). We have 12 regulars now, and later this summer, we're going to get more new members and more transfering from a Wednesday night. Mondays are really a great little crowd."

"Higham is quite a large village - surely there must be someone who can give their time up to help such a great lot of young people?"

To find out more and to offer your help for just a couple of hours, please take a peek at our website – www.highamyouthclub.btik.com or call Jo on 07934 562085. See below here for just some of the fun and activities that the teenagers get up to. And the adult helpers get involved as well...

Look =>=> Due to great demand following last year's residential trip, we are running another trip at the end of September 2010. The young people will be able to take part in lots of great activities, whilst having fun with their friends. We are staying at the same centre as before which had great accommodation, great meals, and great activities run by keen and enthusiastic staff.

photograph of Youth Club members constructing Bird Boxes

Two (above) are from our recent kayaking session which was great fun (despite being rather on the cold side!) and two from a Club night when the young people were making bird boxes at youth club.

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The owner of the Meadows Newsagent in Higham has just raised £342.16 for the club (which is absolutely fantastic and has helped towards the cost of a projector and screen that we will be able to use in many ways). The shop owner, Mr. Hariharan came along to our club to present the cheque on 24th February 2010. We are extremely grateful for this kind donation. Small shops like the Meadows really do serve the needs of local communities, especially in villages such as Higham, and in the present economic climate they are merely trying to survive day by day, therefore to be able to help us in this way is excellent.
photograph of Mr Hariharan presenting the cheque to Joanne Raff, Higham Youth Club Leader

photograph of Mr Hariharan presenting the cheque to Joanne Raff, Higham Youth Club Leader

Higham Youth Club runs on two nights - Mondays for the 14+ age group and Wednesdays for the 10+ age group. Both clubs have very enthusiastic young people enjoying themselves with their friends. We have a number of activities each week and lots of equipment including a pool table, table football, table tennis, basketball, swingball, Nintendo Wii (two consoles plus guitar hero complete band set, snowboarding, wii fit, dance mat and many other games), Playstation 2 (including Singstar), Karaoke, Scalextrics, Keyboard, Circus equipment, Board games..... We also have an iPod docking hi-fi so the young people can bring along their iPods if they want to listen to their own music... Often we run cookery evenings, circus skills, hair and beauty, arts and crafts plus many others..

Recently we have enjoyed a "Midnight to 3am ice skating" event, 10 pin bowling, and next month we are running a watersports (kayaking) session. We always welcome new members in our clubs... You can keep up with what's going on by looking at our website... www.highamyouthclub.btik.com

If anyone in the village would like to give up a couple of hours per week of their time and help us as a volunteer please contact Jo for more information on 07934 562085. All adult helpers are checked through the Criminal Records Bureau, and we do ask for 2 referees.. You will understand that this is purely to safeguard our young members. Working with the young people at these clubs is a very enjoyable experience and also gives you the opportunity to take part in exciting activities too!

Teenagers on the booze? Not always! Jamie, one of the Youth Club members speaks his mind about alcohol in a BBC2 'Revealed' interview. A short clip from the interview can be viewed here. [Opens in a new window]

Higham Youth Club arranged a village tidy up in October 2009. See photographs here.

Elena Benocci, a very talented ten-year-old from Higham, has landed a part in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s touring production of The Sound of Music starring Connie Fisher. With her beautiful voice and outstanding acting and dancing abilities, Elena is entertaining audiences all around the country and is currently performing at the Hippodrome Theatre in Birmingham.

Elena, who has been performing since the age of three, is a member of one of several groups of children taking part in this production of The Sound of Music. Depending on which group of children is doing a particular performance, Elena plays the part of either Marta or Briggita, a challenge which Elena takes in her stride.

Many of you will remember some of Elena's earlier performances in the village as part of her training at the Stage Arts Performing Arts Workshop in the Memorial Hall. Or you might have seen her performing at one of the special functions organised for Cllr. Mrs Pat Oakshott when she was Mayor of Gravesham.

On her way to fame and success, Elena has been in many other stage productions and took part last year in the production of Gravesham Has Talent at the Woodville Halls.

Elena's accomplishments show us just what can be achieved if you really want it! In this photo above, we see Elena in one of her many costumes playing the part of Marta. For more information about Stage Arts performing arts school at Higham, please contact 08456 647469 or e-mail: stagearts@btinternet.com.

To be held in the mornings of 9th May, 12 September, 10 October, 14 November and 12 December at the Memorial Hall, School Lane, Higham. Bookings taken on 01474 822 775 or 824 150.

The Partners and Community Together (PACT) Panel for Higham is a range of local people plus representatives from Parish Council, the Kent Police and the Community Warden. We meet quarterly to discuss any concerns about the quality of life or community safely issues within the village. Regular reports and liaison with the Parish Council, Police, Community Warden and other key partners allow free and frank examination of things that may be of concern. At our past meetings we have had officials from Gravesham Borough Council and Kent Highways who advised us and assisted in discovering solutions to local issues.

If you have a concern about your local neighbourhood or have ideas that would improve your quality of life in Higham then do either come to a PACT Panel meeting or a Parish Council meeting to speak your mind. For more information, please visit our new website at www.higham-pact-panel.btck.co.uk.

The Thames Estuary Partnership (TEP) is a forum for local authorities, national agencies, industry, voluntary bodies and local communities to work together for the good of the Thames Estuary. The Partnership is a charity which co-ordinates projects and holds events and workshops to provide information and to gather feedback.

The threat of climate change and increased flood risk is an ever present feature of the Estuary, yet many local people are not aware that plans are already being developed to help those responsible to adapt to these threats. More detailed information can be found on the TEP website, www.thamesweb.com

Viewable Thames Estuary & North Kent flood risk map - click here.

format, needs

The Parish Council is sponsoring the new Walking Bus at Higham Primary School which launched after Easter 2008. This new initiative is to get children to and from school and to reduce the amount of traffic congestion on the village roads in the vicinity

The Walking Bus is an organised column of children who are escorted to and from school along a set route. All involved wear high-visibility tabards for safety and routes are approved by council traffic engineers.

To find out more about this initiative or to become a volunteer helper on the Walking Bus please contact Higham Primary School.

Hi Kent is the country of Kent's deaf and hard of hearing registered charity, established in 1986 and last year we were the only Kent organisation to win the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. We provide free advice on how to cope with hearing loss and can provide a wide range of assistive equipment to help deaf and hard of hearing people.

In Higham we run a monthly hearing aid aftercare clinic at Highcliffe Medical Practice in Hermitage Road on the second Tuesday of each month from 2.30 to 3.30pm, where people can come along to get their hearing aids cleaned and retubed, and pick up free replacement batteries.

Volunteers Sought for Higham Youth Club

The Club is appealing for voluntary helpers to offer a couple of hours on a Wednesday evening (between 7.30 and 9.30) to enable it to expand for the village youngsters to have a dedicated place to meet and enjoy organised activities.

You do not have to have experience or a degree in 'youth work' just a respect for young people (dependent on an Enhanced Criminal Records Bureau Disclosure).

Maybe you have skill or hobby that you would like to share with them? All offers of time, help and skills will be greatly appreciated.

Please speak to or telephone Jo 07934 562 085, HYC Leader. Website, click here. Email, click here.

kentcarshare is a free, simple, secure, internet-based service that enables you to register your car journey on-line and match drivers and passengers with those who do similar journeys, sharing driving costs and reducing congestion.

Over 1,750 are now members of kentcarshare since the launch by Kent County Council in September 2005 and more and more people are discovering the benefits of carsharing. New members join by registering for free on the site www.kentcarshare.com and record their journeys. The system matches those traveling similar journeys and members then make the arrangements to start car sharing.

More than 1700 people countywide have already joined the scheme. As a result they have reduced the number of miles traveled on Kent's roads by over a million miles a year. Kent has one of the largest road networks in the country and the volume of traffic creates a high demand for road maintenance.

Every user who signs up to the scheme will be entered into a free prize draw for a year's car tax.

To find out more, or register visit www.kentcarshare.com

Allotments are small plots of land set aside for local people to rent and grow plants, vegetables, fruit, etc. Allotment size can vary or be divided up to provide variety of produce for your own requirements. Click here to go to the informative BBC allotment web page.

Last season the Parish Allotments showed an increase in the number of plots rented for cultivation. This was most encouraging and the Parish Council decided to undertake a survey of the condition of all the plots. The survey was completed in November 2004 and showed that there were a number of overgrown plots. The Parish Council has cleared the top vegetation from some of these plots which are now available for cultivation.

Water stand-pipes are within reach of all the allotments, so if you are interested in finding out more, please contact the Higham Parish Clerk on 01474 822642 or email enquiries@higham-kent-pc.gov.uk.

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