Beltinge Ladies Choir

I love the way clubs, groups and societies seem to spring up in Herne Bay, and I’m delighted to be able to tell the world about them. If you want the billion or so internet users around the globe to know about your group, just let me know, and I’ll spread the word!

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The Beltinge Ladies Choir

We sing a variety of songs ranging from modern musical pieces to spirituals, Gaelic lullabies and many seasonal selections.

If you are interested in joining us we are always looking for new members - no auditions and reading music not necessary. Just come along for an enjoyable, relaxing musical afternoon.

We meet on Thursday afternoons, 2pm-4pm at the United Reform Hall, High Street, Herne Bay - next to the Fire Station.

For more information contact Margaret Burns on 01227 369 365, or by email at beltingeladies@gmail.com or you can visit their website for lots more information.

Hopes and plans for the New Year

Terry Gore manages homelessness charity Catching Lives, a self-funding day centre in Canterbury's Station Road East. The service is running on empty and needs to find around £100,000 to fund each year. For more information on Catching Lives or to donate, visit www.catchinglives.org

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

Dropping four stone and giving up smoking.

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

Working for Catching Lives and making sure we ensure we get the funding for this vital service for another year.

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Canterbury resident Ian McQuaibe, 25, was homeless for more than five years and now volunteers at Catching Lives and as a youth worker at Thanington Resource Centre.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

To get a well-paid job and to give up smoking.

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

It just being the New Year. I'll see how it goes. You never know what might happen in the future.

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Margaret Burns is chairman of Herne Bay in Bloom. Herne Bay was the overall winner of the coastal town category in the 2012 Britain In Bloom awards and a silver gilt medal winner in the competition.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

To put more into the community. I was born in Herne Bay and I feel it's our duty to keep uplifting it for residents and visitors.

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

Making Herne Bay even more beautiful. We're very involved in the Queen Elizabeth Coastal Park – the new gardens near the Kings Hall and the clock tower.

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Gerald McCarthy is the founder of the Bay Promo Team, which puts on Herne Bay events such as the Zombie Crawl, which raises money for Kent Air Ambulance.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

To reach more people in Herne Bay so we become more of a hub. We want to bulk out the social calendar. We're trying our best with Halloweek, the Zombie Crawl and Christmas Ball.

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

Putting on more events and promoting other people's. We're looking forward to a big sci-fi event in June with replica Daleks, a 45-foot marshmallow man and superheroes. We're also doing a Titanic-themed ball for the centenary celebrations of the Kings Hall.

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David Birch is chairman and trustee of Herne Bay Historical Records Society. He was born in the Bay, and his granddaughter was the 269th Holness to be baptised in Herne Church.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

I'm 80 years old and I've never made a New Year's Resolution but I'd love to see my youngest granddaughter reach school age.

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

I'd love to see the society, which is a registered charity, have its own income and premises so we have more control over what we own.

We've got a smashing little town, but I think we come third to Canterbury and Whitstable. I'd like to see the town's fortunes improve. We need someone who will push and shove and drive it forward.

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Whitstable artist Carl Stafford, 48, is giving away his paintings – all 100 of them. He hired Whitstable's Horsebridge Centre for an exhibition called Nothing's Free, in which the twist is that the paintings are free.

What are your New Year's Resolutions?

I don't generally make resolutions as they get broken on January 2.

What are you looking forward to in the New Year?

To becoming a multimillionaire. I get a lottery ticket every few weeks. To make a million from my art, I'll have to wait until I'm dead and gone.

HB Times 3rd Jan 2013

Herne Bay triumphs in Britain in Bloom coastal town category

Gardeners were growing for gold in a national competition to find the best blooming places around the country. Herne Bay was the overall winner of the coastal town category in the Britain in Bloom awards, and also harvested a silver gilt medal in the competition.

It follows their success in the South and South East in Bloom awards, and they triumphed over a host of towns, including Bangor, Great Yarmouth and Sidmouth.

Herne Bay in Bloom chairman Margaret Burns attended a ceremony in Guernsey with secretary Colleen Ashwin-Kean and received the award from Countryfile and The One Show presenter Matt Baker.

She said:

"We are over the moon. It is a great tribute to the fantastic support that we have received from our sponsors, local businesses, voluntary and community groups and schools in Herne Bay, and also a wonderful reward for all the hard work of the Herne Bay in Bloom team.

I am extremely proud of everyone who has taken part and am sure that because of our combined efforts even more visitors and residents will come to enjoy the colourful seafront gardens, urban meadow- planted verges, parks and open spaces and everything that our lovely town has to offer."

Herne Bay Times

the BLOOMING BEST: Herne Bay in Bloom secretary Colleen Ashwin-Kean and chairman Margaret Burns receive their award from television presenter Matt Baker.

In Bloom outfit's confidence grows

Blooming lovely: From left, Margaret Burns (HBIB publicity officer), Andrew Babbage (RHS judge), Jean Law (KCC councillor) Colleen Ashwin-Kean (HBIB secretary) Jim Buttress (RHS judge), Derek Sidaway (HBIB chairman) and Chris Sears (Serco representative)It's going to be a long summer for the Herne Bay in Bloom (HBIB) team as they wait to see what judges thought of their colourful campaign. Organisers must keep everything crossed until September, after the judges visited on Thursday. Spokeswoman Margaret Burns said she was cautiously optimistic:

"It's always hard to say, but we got some very good vibes. We all felt very positive about everything. Even if we don't get a gold, I think everyone felt very good about what we'd managed to achieve this year, and we feel the town has been looking really nice."

Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) judges hit the town on Thursday to be shown this year's projects by the team. These included the seafront gardens, town centre planters, Sea Street roundabout, Curtis Wood Park and Goldspot's pond, sensory and community kitchen gardens in the Memorial Park, Herne Infant School, the green burial ground at Herne Bay cemetery, and Eddington Lane allotments.

The Memorial Park was also judged separately under the parks and gardens section of the South and South East in Bloom competition. This was followed by a reception in the community lounge at Richmond Court, where Kent county councillor Jean Law thanked all the committee and contributors to this year's campaign for their hard work.

HBIB secretary Colleen Ashwin-Kean was presented with a bouquet as a recognition of all her hard work on behalf of the committee during the past year. The results of this year's campaign will be announced on September 7. The next event in the Herne Bay in Bloom calendar is the Giant Picnic in the Park on Sunday, August 28.

For more information visit www.HerneBayinBloom.co.uk, e-mail herne_bayinbloom@live.co.uk or call 07549 392916.

HB Times 21st Jul 2011

HBiB Silver Gilt award

HB Gazette 23rd Sep 2010

HBiB Silver Gilt

HB Times 16th Sep 2010

HBiB success, and thanks

HB Gazette 16th September 2010

Programme 2009/2010

Here's the 2009/2010 programme, to give you an idea of the range of topics covered:

2009

1st October: A.G.M. Followed by: "Images from the archives"

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5th November: J & S Wagner: "Phantasmagoria" Magic Lantern Slides

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19th November: Mrs. Ann Winter: "People & Lives of the Railway"

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3rd December: Miss Jennie Burgess: "Smuggling in & around Birchington"

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2010

7th January: Mr. Ian Tittley: "History of the Natural History of North Kent"

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21st January: Lt. Col. M. Martin: "Britain on the Home Front in WW2"

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4th February: Mr. Mike Bundock: "Herne Bay fires floods & freezes"

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18th February: Mrs. Margaret Burns: "The History of Studd Hill"

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4th March: HAROLD GOUGH MEMORIAL LECTURE: Mr. Frank Turner: "The Maunsell Sea Forts of the Thames Estuary"

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18th March: Mrs. Irene Pellett: "Tiles & the Time Team"

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15th April: End of Season Social

To end the season, about 50 members enjoyed a social evening of fun, food and fellowship. John Fishpool and Valerie Millo arranged some quizzes to test our knowledge of history in general and Herne Bay in particular. For example, did you know that the Bun Penny was once the Royal Hotel, and the Herne Bay Windmill was situated on the sea front from 1825-1878 on the site of Sea View Square?

The buffet meal was enjoyed by all, and a vote of thanks was given to all who prepared it or helped in any way to make it a happy occasion. The society's latest publications were on sale: Herne Bay's Hotels and Public Houses and Mills and Milling in the Herne Bay Area. These can be bought at Herne Bay Museum.

Members now look forward to two coach outings during the summer.

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Teas and Coffees are available after the lecture meetings