News

There are currently a huge range of FREE adult training and learning courses available to Folkestone and Hythe residents.

Folkestone and Hythe and Kent County Council are a part of the Government funded UK Community Renewal Fund. As a part of this, FREE face-to-face and online learning courses are available to local residents.

You can see the huge range of FREE adult courses available both online and at venues across Kent below. Join in any of those courses from just 1 day per week.

Folkestone Free Adult Training Courses Brochure

Ashford Free Adult Training Courses Brochure

Canterbury Brochure

Sheppey Brochure

You can attend the free adult training courses of your choice at any venue, not just Folkestone.

You may also be able to get help with travel costs, childcare, or even a digital device.

The scheme is designed to help you find your way back into education. Support does not just include the courses, but can even help with housing and debt issues or even the opportunity to learn some key skills to further your education or start your own business.

There is no criteria need to take part in the fully funded taster courses. They have been set up to gain the core skills needed to carry on to further qualified education in the chosen courses.

Courses

In person (6 week, 1 day a week) taster courses across the four colleges include:

• Beauty Treatments
• Bricklaying
• Construction
• Criminology
• Digital Users (Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced)
• Early Years
• Electrical
• Hairdressing
• Health & Social Care
• Media Makeup & Beauty
• Nail Technician
• Nail Treatments
• Painting & Decorating
• Plumbing
• Politics
• Psychology

EKC WorkHigher, Children & Families, Future Coders and EKC DigitalLearn offer online courses in:

• Baby Massage
• Budget Management
• Building Relationships
• Business Efficiency
• CV Writing
• Coaching & Mentoring
• Coding Design Principles
• Customer Conflict
• Customer Service
• Cyber Security
• Data Management
• Digital Users (Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced)
• Employability
• Introducing GDPR
• Leadership Skills
• Managing Change
• Operational Plans
• Parenting Course
• Performance Management
• Presentation Skills
• Project Management
• Recruitment Skills
• Resource Management
• SEO for Business
• Sales Skills
• Social Media for Business
• Solihull Antenatal & Postnatal
• Stress Management
• Time Management
• Working with Data

These are FREE adult training courses. You may also be able to get help with travel costs, childcare, or even a digital device.

Take the Next Step – FREE

To get involved, contact Chris McNamara or Alex Conyers – details below.

They will talk to you and work out what steps they can offer to move forward and get enrolled onto one of the free courses, and any other support they can offer.

Christopher McNamara
Community Development Officer
Christopher.McNamara@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
07593 101081

Alex Conyers
Community Development Officer
Alex.Conyers@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk
075931 01080

Alternatively contact Sandgate Parish Council and we can put you in touch.

The range of help and assistance they can look at to help you take steps back into education includes:

• Guidance on how to get housing or accommodation.
• Guidance on Debt or Money issues.
• Advice on how to get in to further/higher education and the steps available.
• Advice on careers and work prospects.
• Emotional and wellbeing support.
• Education learning support.
• Childcare support to allow access to the courses.
• For Families with financial restrictions or digitally poor there is a scheme in place to provide laptops and internet connectivity.
• After care program in place for all adult students.
• Full support network provided throughout the whole process.

Notice of Variation of Parking Charges for On & Off Street Parking.

The Notices are scheduled to appear in the KM papers on Friday 4^th March 2022. The new charges will apply from 1^st April 2022.

Additionally, they are proposing introducting new parking charges in West Hythe Car Park, and for changes to restrictions in various car parks. The below Notice is scheduled to appear in the KM papers on Friday 4th March 2022. Copies of this Notice will also be erected in all car parks.

Letters of support or objections to the proposed Order will need to be received by 5pm on Friday 25th March 2022 and addressed to Parking Services, Civic Centre, Folkestone & Hythe District Council, Folkestone, Kent CT20 2QY or by email to traffic.orders@folkestone-hythe.gov.uk

From emails 24/2/2022 & 25/2/2022 from Folkestone and Hythe District Council, republished by Sandgate Parish Council.

Most people in Kent are recycling plastic bottles, pots, tubs and trays. Below is a handy guide to help you get your plastics recycling right.

Why recycle?

People in Kent recycle because it is a worthwhile way to help the environment and the community:

• Recycling keeps plastic out of our natural environment;
• Using recycled plastic to make products uses 75% less energy than using virgin materials, reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

To find out more about plastics recycling please visit www.pledge2recycle.co.uk/kent or visit folkestone-hythe.gov.uk.

If you have issues locally, including recycling collections being missed, you can find how to report those issues at https://sandgatepc.org.uk/report-problems/

My Community Voice is a messaging service from Kent Police. It helps residents, businesses, and community groups to keep in touch with their local policing teams.

The service sends updates about your local area directly from the police officers themselves.

You can sign up at https://www.mycommunityvoicekent.co.uk/

My Community Voice is more than just a messaging service. It allows you to reply to the alerts sent, share information and tell us about the issues affecting you.

Kent Police are committed to engaging with communities to increase trust and confidence and to help protect people from harm. Police, partners and the public working together can build resilient and safe communities, and both reduce and prevent crime.

You will be able to play an active part in police appeals as well as keeping updated in what is happening in your local area.

To start getting alerts, register your details, tell Kent Police how you would like to be contacted and the issues that matter to you. The alerts will come to you via email, text or voice note. If you have any information about an appeal, then you can message back through the alert.

Clicking on the ‘reply’ link within a message will send your reply to the person that sent the message and your local policing team. All emails are read and actioned.

Please note: This service should not be used to report any crime or incident to the police. In an emergency, if a crime is in progress or life is in danger, call 999.

An invitation to community organisations operating in Folkestone & Hythe District to join the 8th in a series of Community Networking Forum events in partnership with Red Zebra:

F&HDC Community Networking Forum ‘All About Volunteers and Volunteering‘

• Thursday 16^th March February 2022. Start 1.30 pm.

• Folkestone Nepalese Community Centre, CT19 4NN

If you are interested in this topic and/or looking to make links with other organisations and to find out what is going on locally, then please join this Community Networking event.

On the agenda are presentations from Kerry Smith CEO of Kent Coast Volunteering, and from Young Lives Foundation who have been awarded the Queens Award for Voluntary Service for their volunteer programme.  You will have an opportunity to ask questions, update the rest of the group on your projects and network.

Please RSVP by e-mail to Sarah Thomas at  sarah.thomas@redzebra.org.uk to book your place by midday on Thursday 10^th March.

Sandgate Parish Council currently holds a long lease for the public library and parish office premises in Sandgate High Street. We are issuing this invitation to tender for internal building works to the library.

Improvement of access to the building for all is important to the Parish Council. This is not just making it easier to get into and use the library in opening hours, but also to extend the use of the premises for more community activities and events.

We have a number of issues currently we wish to resolve:

Library Entrance

Currently the building’s entrance doorway is unwelcoming and difficult to use for those in and with buggies, prams, wheelchairs and mobility issues. We want to improve that by repositioning and replacing the front door, lighting and door opening mechanism.

Toilet

The only toilet in the building is currently not for public use and is inaccessible for those with mobility issues. We want the toilet, and its access, remodelled to make it accessible to all.

Storage

We have limited storage in the library. To fix this, we’re proposing a large built in secure storage area is built at the rear of the library. This would extend along the back wall with shelving and sliding doors.

Invitation to Tender

Sandgate Parish Council would be pleased to receive quotations for these works from local suppliers. We’d prefer quotations for all 3 of the works above, but are happy to consider options with a variety of local contractors working together.

We recommend making an appointment to see the library and discuss the proposed works before tending a quotation. Also, contractors will have to have relevant insurances and references for similar works.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Gaye Thomas

Parish Clerk and Librarian

clerk@sandgatepc.org.uk

01303 248563

Mon-Tues 9am-1pm

Thurs-Fri 9am-1pm

Folkestone & Hythe District Council has teamed up with Kent County Council for Solar Together Kent, a group-buying initiative for solar panels and battery storage.

Residents looking to save on energy bills and reduce their carbon emissions are being invited to take part in the innovative new scheme.

It is being rolled out in Kent following its success across the country in the past few years. This has seen 3,700 installations of high-quality solar photovoltaic (PV) panels and 61,000 tonnes of avoided lifetime carbon emissions.

It is free to register with Solar Together Kent, and there is no obligation to proceed to installation. Working with iChoosr, independent experts in group buying, homeowners will be helped through the process and kept informed.

How to take part

Anyone interested in the scheme should register before 15 March, providing details about their roof. The more people registered, the better the deal should be for each household.

On 15 March, Solar Together Kent’s approved installers will bid for the work in a reverse ‘auction’. The most competitive offer from these pre-vetted installers will win the auction.

From 4 April, applicants will be emailed a personal recommendation for their home, based on their registration details. This will include costs and specifications of their solar panels and battery storage system.

They can then decide whether to accept the recommendation. There is no obligation to continue and applicants have until 13 May to decide. Telephone and email support will be available throughout the process, which, together with information sessions, will allow households to make an informed decision.

If an applicant decides to go ahead, the winning installer will carry out a roof survey and set an installation date. All installations are planned to be completed by the end of October 2022.

Anyone who already has solar panels installed can register to have battery storage added.

Reducing carbon emissions

Cllr Lesley Whybrow, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said:

“Reducing carbon emissions is a priority for Folkestone & Hythe District Council: as well as being committed to reduce our own carbon emission to net zero by 2030, we want to help the local community do the same.

“Solar Together Kent will go some way in trying to achieve this. It should make the switch to clean energy as cost effective and hassle-free as possible. I hope that many homeowners will take part in this community-led initiative.”

For detailed information about likely costs and the amount of energy that is expected to be generated and to register, go to https://solartogether.co.uk/folkestone-and-hythe/home

iChoosr was founded in 2008 and is privately owned by two co-founders. Before it entered the UK energy market in 2012, it focused on group-buying schemes in the Netherlands and Belgium. They now work with community leaders helping households select energy and solar power suppliers.

Press release 8/2/2022 from Folkestone and Hythe District Council, republished by Sandgate Parish Council.