Today, Dia and her team hit the road to Maidstone, Kent to continue the War on Waste Campaign. After a train journey where we went through some pretty towns, we arrived at the historic town of Maidstone. Greeted by cloudy skies, it looked as if the heavens were about to open, but, after a quick bite to eat and a briefing on the recent activities of Kent County Council, the rain clouds seemed to have moved on!
We made our way to the Jubilee Square, in the centre of which was The Queen Victoria Monument. It was here, where we made our base. So much so that we took it upon ourselves to decorate the Monument in TPA signs – All the more beautiful!
We decided to all stay relatively close to the Square, in hope that we might catch as many people as possible in a small radius. Our aim was to inform Maidstone local residents about just how much of their tax money goes to waste. Our leaflet highlighted some prominent cases of waste:
- £4 million has been spent by the County Council on a street light switch off scheme that will not save any money.
- £700,000 on compensation to school pupils (over the past 5 years)
- £420,000 payoff to former KCC Chief Exec Katherine Kerswell - on top of her £140K salary
All in all we had a great few hours meeting and greeting the local residents, all whom had their own stories to inform us about. Consequently, we left Maidstone with more ammunition to fight the war on waste!
