Welcome to Digital Kent

View Synopsis AMANDA FISHER, DIGITAL KENT, REPORTING:
Trosley Country Park has 170 acres of mixed woods and chalk grasslands to explore. High on the North Downs between Meopham and Wrotham, it provides a glorious natural welcome to more than 140,000 people who visit each year. Now they can enjoy a rest with refreshments at the newly constructed BlueBell Cafe and amenity centre serving the site. It boasts ecologically sound credentials as green as the glade in which it sits. Built using locally grown timber, its roofs are insulated by thousands of succulent sedum plants, while its toilets are flushed by recycled rainwater.

ANDY GORMAN, Head Ranger, Trosley Country Park: Having a building like this is absolutely fantastic. The old building that we had was rather tired and it was trying to be a visitor centre, a classroom and a cafe, and not very successfully, whereas this building it's massively improved. It's light, it's airy, and the best thing for me that I really get a buzz from is the sustainable aspect of it, with the chestnut coming locally, rainwater harvesting and the living roof, that is the thing that really sort of makes it special.

AMANDA FISHER: Funded by Kent County Council, built by Larkfield construction company King and Johnson, and its name chosen by residents, this is very much a community project, inspired by local people, with its eco-friendly facilities available to everyone exploring this beautiful part of the county.

MIKE HILL OBE, KCC Cabinet Member, Communities: I think it will actually help not only to get people into the park but also to help with our income generation, and that's a very big part of the operation. We actually require our country parks to as far as possible find their own income and this they do extremely well, and they find over 60 per cent of their money directly and not funded by KCC, and that creates to about 50 pence per head per year of the population of Kent. A very small amount of money for a very useful facility. Clearly it's a very big education facility. A lot of use will be by school parties that come to explore the countryside and learn about the countryside. It's also about recreation. It's also about people getting outdoors, getting out of their houses, getting off their sofas, finding out the joys of actually getting out into the country and this will actually help people do it.

AMANDA FISHER: Trosley Country Park is popular with walkers, cyclists, orienteers and horse riders. It's beloved by those who just want to sit and watch the natural world go by in peaceful surroundings. Best of all, the Bluebell Cafe - with its spacious balcony - provides the ideal setting for visitors to enjoy a full menu of dishes hand-made from best quality local produce.

AMANDA HONEY, Managing Director, KCC Communities: Well people locally are enormously passionate about this facility, and to have now a sustainable building that fits so well into its landscape, that can be a base for local people to come, you know, I think is great, and I know that they will get enormous pleasure from it. KCC is very keen to support local businesses. Chatting to Laura who's taken over the lease of the cafe, she's incredibly excited, she's a local person and she really wants to provide an excellent offer for local people as well as people from further afield. I've been talking to some of the volunteers here today, and there are many, many people who volunteer everyday of the year - I think that the only day this is shut is Christmas Day - and they were saying the benefits that they get from it, the social benefit, the sense of achievement, you know, to be able to come and enjoy the natural environment I think is wonderful.


BETTY, Volunteer, Trosley County Park: I'm Betty, and I'm helping in all sorts of aspects really. You know, anything they do we help. Help to clear it up, help make hedge-laying, all sorts of things, path-clearing. Well, I'm 91 now, and I must have been doing it nearly 20 years now and I've really enjoyed every minute of that. It's something to look forward to every Wednesday. Even the cold weather, you know, you soon get warm working, yes. When I think of the ice and the snow, picnicking all the year round, you don't know what you're missing by not doing it.

View Synopsis Six new community tool kits are now available across Kent for anyone who would like to borrow some tools for practical community based tasks.

Stored at your local Kent Countryside Management Partnership Office, the tool kits are available to borrow at no cost, and each contains a range of tools for you to complete your countryside tasks.

So if you want to clear some scrub around a village green or churchyard for example; create a school wildlife garden, clear a public footpath or install a gate, all the tools you need are available from the tool kits.

Each kit comes complete with health and safety information including example risk assessments, first aid kits and an instructional DVD on how to prepare for your task and use the tools safely so that you and your colleagues get the most out of your day.

The Community Tool Kits are free of charge for any group carrying out a project that will benefit their local area and are available from six locations across Kent.
To borrow one, simply contact your local Countryside Management Partnership or go to the website www.kentcountryside.org.uk for further details.

View Synopsis VO1: As pressures to the economy continue, Kent County Council are offering a wide range of practical skills in the form of festivals and apprenticeships in new full-time facilities. This aims to give students an insight into a range of careers available and ultimately build up employment.
VO2: More then 600 students from Romney Marsh, Ashford and Shepway enjoyed the opportunity to discover the wealth of career opportunities on their doorsteps on 6th and 7th May when they visited the Romney Marsh Skills Festival.
Robert Alston: The aim is to help young people and their parents who have to make decisions about their futures, to help them to identify skills areas that they might want to consider and the educational pathways to them, apprenticeships, colleges and so on. We chose six sectors, we have IT, maritime, the rural economy, fashion and engineering, to enable them to talk to people in the profession, to sample the kind of activities involved and to have a chance to get information about how they could follow up if they have an interest.
VO3: A skills event also took place at the Rare Breeds Centre for people with learning difficulties with interactive workshops that enable the young people to have hands on experience of what they might expect if they progress either to a college course or supported employment.
Instructor: "When you're ready, off you go guys start climbing."
John Tranter: My names John Tranter, I'm with the education business partnership today. I'm the event co-ordinator with a number of other event co-ordinators who have come together in partnership with Kent County Council to put on a day called Special Choices. We're hoping the day is going to raise the aspirations and provide some kind of future career progression for these students who are coming to a stage in their life when they're going to be looking towards the future and thinking about what it is they can do. We're hoping that with the employers, the exhibits and the help of the colleges today we're going to give them some kind of idea of what it is they can do. There's a whole wealth of things for the students to do today. They're interactive, they're fun but they've also got a message and the message is that, there's plenty for you to do in the future, there's a bright future out there and we want you to speak to these people and find out what it is.
Student: "That is what it is, it's wicked!"
VO4: MP John Hayes, Minister of State for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning has opened new state-of-the-art facilities at the Swale Skills Centre in Sittingbourne and launched a new Wind Turbine Technician Apprenticeship scheme. He expressed his views on the importance of vocational skills education.
John Hayes: Our only chance to be competitive, our only chance for future prosperity, lies in those parts of the economy where we can make a significant difference through skills and technical competences, and that's why this centre, this initiative and indeed this government is so committed to driving up those skills.
Sarah Hohler: KCC are a great supporter of apprenticeships and particularly in this field of wind turbines and renewable energy. It's a fantastic day for the young people of Swale because its not only giving them the skills and the education but a great interest in engineering and its also qualifying them for the future, so that not only getting a good education, but they hopefully will be able to find jobs in the future, so we're really thrilled to be here today with the Minister.

View Synopsis VO1: Only one year till the Olympic flame starts its journey across the UK.
VO2: The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games have revealed the dates and locations for the 2012 Olympic Torch relay across the South East. The announcement took place at the Dover Sea Sports Centre, where Ashley Jackson from Team GB Hockey attended.
Ashley Jackson: Well the venues for the London 2012 Torch Relay have been released for the South East. There are quite a number of locations, such as Dover. This time next year, the torch will arrive in Dover and there will be a festival kind of atmosphere I would have thought. It basically means that many people can be involved in the Olympics. There will be a nomination process for people to become a torch bearer, so today I've nominated my brother who's been very influential in my career to be of the torch bearers. I think there will be 8000 of them dotted all over the country who will have the chance to carry the Olympic flame, which is a once in a lifetime experience.
VO3: 'Pass the Passion,' in partnership with 52 schools across Dover, Deal and Sandwich, is the young people's element of Kent's Campaign for the Olympic Torch to arrive into the UK at Dover.
Song: "Pass the Passion and light the flames, we're all off the Olympic Games, Pass the Passion and bring it through Dover..."
Vox Pox: We've done a few activities with Pass the Passion. We went to Sandwich Tech, the peer and we've done something up the castle.
VO4: Mike Hill, KCC's Cabinet Member for Communities, Customer Services & Improvement expressed his thoughts on the Olympic torch arrival.
Mike Hill: I think it's very important. We've had a big Olympic campaign, we've tried to get much excitement in the county about the Olympics coming to London next year and I think a big part of that would be the arrival of the torch in the county where people will be able to focus on it and I hope it would excite and inspire them.