Issue 122 - the Pembury Village Website

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PEMBURY ONLINE COMMUNITY FORUMPEMBURY HAS had an online email group since March 2001, it was created following acomment at the Annual Parish meeting that year. It has had its ups and downs over theyears. Some months there have been lots of messages, other months hardly anything at all.The group has had one failing in that some of the topics have been a turn off for somepeople. Any message sent to the group ended up in everyone’s inbox whether the subjectinterested them or not.Enter the new Pembury Online Community Forum. This is similar to the email group inthat people can register on the Forum and view the messages and reply to the messages.But it is different in that the messages are not sent out as email into your inbox, so whenyou visit the forum you can choose which messages to read and which ones to ignore.If you are looking for a comparison, listening to the news on the radio is like the emailgroup, to get to the story that interested you; you have to listen to all of the stories. Whereas with, say, a newspaper or the Pembury Village News you can pick out the stories thatinterest you, which is like our new Forum.There is a link to the Forum on the Pembury Village News website www.pembury.org Onceon the forum, click on the Register icon, it will then present you with a form to fill in, theminimum information required is a username, password and your email address. Your emailaddress is not made public. There are also fields for details about yourself, but filling thesein is optional. Use of the Forum is free, and is open to everybody.Once you log in you will be able to see the topics that we have set up to start off with.These have been created based on subjects that have been discussed over the years on thePembury email group. New topics are being added all the time and there is a specific areafor requesting and discussing new topics. Andvirtually anything goes as far as subject matteris concerned ... as long as it’s legal, of course!At the time of writing there are about 24people registered on the forum and thenumber of articles posted to the forum is about240 but increasing on a daily/weekly basis,with a spread of subjects across all topics.The new forum has encouraged new peoplein the village to join in, people that were notpreviously on the email group.Jody Lloyd, one of the new forum members,said “This forum is achieving opencommunications for the whole communityboth informative information for all to shareand the added ability to feel activelyinvolved”.If you would like more details then contact meSteve Morton – stevemorton@pembury.org20
PEMBURY PEOPLE – BETTY HOWELLBETTY HOWELL, long-time resident ofPembury and Chief Executive of thePembury-based charity – Compaid Trust.Many of us in the village are aware of theexcellent work undertaken by our many localcharities. The Compaid Trust,based at Pembury Hospital, isone such charitableorganization and it is theirChief Executive, BettyHowell, whom I have featuredas this edition’s PemburyPerson. I recently had theopportunity to visit theheadquarters of the Trust and,apart from recognizing manyfamiliar faces, I wasastonished to see the breadthof inclusive computer-basedactivity being facilitated byBetty’s devoted team.Everything from computerbasedlearning programmes tofull scale production ofmaterials such as celebratory cards is provided.Betty began her working life as a tracer but herabilities were soon recognised and she becameone of the first female draughtsmen in thecountry, working for the GPO and later forHunting’s at Bedford. “In those days”, recountsBetty, “women did not wear trousers to work and Iwas not allowed on the GPO tower constructionsite.” Later, a suggestion by Betty led to allutility vehicles and operators in the UK beingidentified with Day-Glo yellow paint. Bettyadded “They tried pink but the men refused towear the jackets!”.Betty with her late husband, Eric, moved intothe house in Pembury she still lives in today as aresult of Eric’s company being relocated toTunbridge Wells in 1972. Betty, who wasbrought up in Essex, remembers how quietPembury seemed in the early 1970s eventhough the A21 ran through the village andthere were no traffic lights. Despite beingdiagnosed as having progressive rheumatoidarthritis in 1974, Betty began volunteering forlocal charities such as Meals on Wheels and theWRVS Luncheon Club. “I got told off by my GPwhen he discovered I was carrying the heavy boxescontaining the hot meals”, says Betty. “He saidthat most of the elderly people I was serving werefitter than me!” In addition to this considerableworkload she also helped run the local Pemburyvillage Cubs and still gets recognised bymembers of her old pack.Betty first met LornaRidgway, the founder ofCOMPAID Trust, at theSeven Springs LeonardCheshire Home in thelate1970s and in 1986 foundherself ‘promoted’ to beingbook-keeper for the newcharity. As Betty states:“I’m a quick learner and Lornacertainly kept us on our toes”.COMPAID Trust, which nowhelps disabled adults throughthe use of computers fortherapy, education andrecreation, began as an advicecentre but quickly changedwhen it was realised what a powerful toolcomputers can be in helping disabled peopledevelop new skills.When Lorna Ridgway died in 1994 Betty tookon the responsibility of running COMPAIDTrust, by then based in two temporary buildingsin the grounds of Pembury Hospital. Betty adds“We now have a fleet of nine special needs-adaptedvehicles that we use to bring clients to our DayCentre and we run a dial-a-ride service takingelderly and disabled people to shops and amenities”.Not content with one ‘social enterprise’, Bettyand her staff have developed the highlysuccessful Office Bureau service, offering shortrun,specialist printing for weddings, specialoccasions, etc. The Office Bureau is responsiblefor COMPAID’s unique range of greetingscards, using artwork created in the Day Centre.The distinctive cards provide additional incomeand also promote the charity. I am sure that allof us in Pembury accord with Betty when sheconcludes that “I’m proud of what COMPAIDTrust has been able to achieve and the support thelocal community gives us”. So say all of us!Paul Barrington-King21
Page 1: PEMBURY VILLAGENEWSISSUE 122SUMMER
Page 5: BRUCE BALLANTINE 1942-2005HIGHLY RE
Page 8 and 9: Interior - ExteriorPainting & Decor
Page 10 and 11: THE HEALING ART OFREFLEXOLOGYReflex
Page 12 and 13: WALRONDFULLERMemorials, Restoration
Page 14 and 15: Peter WillardConservatory Specialis
Page 16 and 17: FOUR MORE YEARS - THANK YOU PEMBURY
Page 18 and 19: “Buy One and Get One Free!”(Lim
Page 23 and 24: BENTINCKS FARM AND THE CASE OF THEP
Page 25 and 26: PEMBURY VILLAGE TREASURE HUNTSUNDAY
Page 27 and 28: THE PLIGHT OF THE MAIDSTONE & TUNBR
Page 29 and 30: PEMBURYDENTAL SURGERYNelis du Pless
Page 32 and 33: ● Specialist in cutting and creat
Page 34 and 35: RECIPESSUMMER IS the time to get ou
Page 36 and 37: CRIME IN PEMBURYIN THE LAST issue o
Page 38 and 39: YOUR REPRESENTATIVESCOUNTY COUNCILM

Issue 122 - the Pembury Village Website

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