Thanet Community News: Round up from Ramsgate Town Council, Business Watch and call for volunteers

Ramsgate Town Council staff have been installing planters on Harbour Parade Photo Eleanor Marriott

Ramsgate Town Council

Murder Of Samuel Paty

Ramsgate Town Council, led by the Mayor, Cllr Raushan Ara, is expressing its shock and deepest sympathy to the family and friends of Samuel Paty, the teacher who was murdered in France this month. The Mayor is conveying our solidarity with our friends in Conflans-St Honorine in defending the virtues of liberty, fraternity and equality.  We cannot allow acts of barbarism to stop free speech and impose censorship on the transmission of learning.

Planters in Harbour Parade

Photo Eleanor Marriott

Ramsgate Town Council has fabricated, delivered and planted 33 planters on behalf of Thanet District Council to replace the red and white plastic barriers placed there a few weeks ago. This is a small joint project between RTC and TDC which has been carried, swiftly, efficiently and at low cost.

After the planters are no longer needed in Harbour Parade, they will be reused in other parts of the town to enhance areas which benefit from their presence.

The town council team was helped with installation by Chatham based Klair Group. The crew had been working in Minster and offered their services for free. They delivered all the hard core and top soil, making four trips in total. Boss Jason Buckingham comes to Broadstairs every year for a holiday and loves to visit Ramsgate and says he is looking forward to seeing the planters in full bloom.

New fencing fitted at Albion Gardens

Following an incident in which a car destroyed the barrier surrounding the waterfall in Albion Gardens, Thanet District Council, contracted with a local Ramsgate firm, Climagate to fabricate and install a new steel barrier fence to replace the original structure.

It is intended that Ramsgate Town Council will be shortly taking over the ownership and responsibility for Albion Gardens and its waterfall and the replacement of the barrier is one of the actions that were needed to complete the formalities.

The transfer of ownership to RTC, will mark a return to immediate local control of the gardens after a period of nearly 4 decades.

Academy FM Thanet

107.8 Academy FM, Thanet’s local station, is launching Business Watch on Monday (October 26) to support fims on the isle.

Ine these challenging times Thanet businesses need all the help and support they can get. Academy FM Thanet’s Business Watch will enhance their profile in the community and encourage residents to use local businesses.

107.8 Business Watch is free to any business in Thanet. It will give businesses a regular shout out on air and will have a business of the week nominated by customers, who will win one month of advertising on the station. Businesses will receive posters for their windows and sales areas and postcards to give to customers.

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Royal Voluntary Service

Royal Voluntary Service – the charity partnered with NHS England to deliver the NHS Volunteer Responders programme is looking for more volunteers in Thanet to support the NHS and the community through the winter as virus cases rise.

NHS Volunteer Responders was launched in April to help communities and the NHS through the Covid-19 pandemic. Volunteers support people to self-isolate by carrying out non-clinical tasks such as, delivering shopping or medication, providing transport to medical appointments and providing a telephone chat service to help combat loneliness and isolation. They also support local hospitals and GP practices with deliveries.

The initial response from residents of Thanet has been phenomenal.  So far there are 717 active volunteers in Thanet who have completed 4,512 tasks while across the country more than 900,000 tasks have been completed by a total of 360,000 active volunteers.

But as people have returned to work, some of the original volunteers are no longer able to give as much of their time. Meanwhile, requests for our support are rising. We need more people to sign up.

Broadcaster, Phillip Schofield  is backing the campaign along with  Felicity Kendal, Elaine Paige and Wayne Sleep.

Members of the public can apply at nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk.

Volunteers can help in the community or volunteer from home and when choosing which to do, should always keep in mind their own level of risk, and follow guidance on volunteering safely.  The public can explore a range of volunteering opportunities by visiting the ‘Hour of Need’ campaign on the Royal Voluntary Service website: hourofneed.org.uk

As well as supporting the community and the NHS, volunteering has benefits for volunteers themselves. Royal Voluntary Service research has highlighted how it supports happiness, reduces stress, fosters social connections, builds skills and offers a valuable sense of purpose.

Royal Voluntary Service is one of Britain’s largest volunteering charities with volunteers supporting the NHS and thousands of vulnerable people in the community. During the crisis the charity has delivered the NHS Volunteer Responders programme for NHS England enabled by the GoodSAM app with 360,000 active volunteers responding to over 900,000 requests for support so far.  The charity has also worked in local communities through the crisis running home libraries, companionship support, home from hospital services and patient transport.  Its new Virtual Village Hall provides live classes and tutorials on Facebook to promote well-being and keep people active and occupied through the pandemic.

Adams Gas

Margate bottled gas supplier, Adams Gas, have seen a huge spike in demand for gas products over the last few months, with order totals soaring when compared to this time last year.

The company, which has distributed gas across Kent and the UK for the last 25 years, has had the busiest period in its history thanks to a surge in sales across all  gas products, including the likes of MIG and TIG welding gas, beer, cellar and BBQ gases.

Speaking of the rise in demand, Managing Director at Adams Gas, Steve Adams said: “We expected an upturn in demand for gas when lockdown was announced, but it’s safe to say that the sales have surpassed our expectations.

“We put measures in place to prepare for the demand early, so we were able to comfortably deal with the increased levels of sales with relative ease.”

Adams Gas provide a whole host of bottled gas products to their extensive stockist network, giving clients across the country access to their large selection of products.

During the last few months Adams Gas have seen record numbers of visitors to their website, which has resulted in an influx of sales across their product line.

Steve added: “It’s easy to see why sales of all of our gas products have gone up, with good weather and the country on lockdown for a significant period of time. A large proportion of the country had some spare time on their hands, and they made the most of it using our products.”

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1 Comment

  1. Ramsgate is looking so much better since RTC took over the management. I love seeing their posts on FB. The team seem to be so much more proactive. Well done all.

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