Spreading the love at Christmas

This year Labour councillors in Whitstable were at the centre of community efforts to bring a little bit of sparkle at Christmas – there efforts helped bring the community together and restore a bit of pride and joy in the town following a difficult 2021. Working with local residents Cllr Val Kenny and Chris Cornell:

• set up a Santa Post with the Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre. Cllr Chris Cornell cleaned and set post boxes in two of the red telephone boxes in town. Local volunteers wrote hand written letters to over 190 children who deposited their letters to Santa between the 1st and 18th December
• supported local traders to raise over £13,000 to fund new Christmas lights for Whitstable traders.  Councillors arranged for the ‘Welcome Back’ fund to pay for external electrical points, electricians and brackets down the length of the high street to add to community fundraising. The lights are now owned by local traders and were put up by volunteers in the week before Christmas providing a sustainable solution to the funding of lights which has dogged the local area since 2015.
• arranged for over 80 craft and activity packs to be distributed free to local children through Who Let the Dad’s Out (a local group supporting parents) and the Social Pantry at Whitstable Umbrella Centre. The 25 packs for the Umbrella Centre and Cafe were funded in partnership with Craftworks, a charity based in Southampton
• distributed over 3,000 local Christmas cards to residents with surgery information for the forthcoming year. The cards were designed with the support of local artist Nina Harris.

Ending the year Cllr Val Kenny said “this year has been a difficult one for the town but it is lovely to be able to do something to bring some sparkle back”.

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