Kingston Council forecasts £6.4m overspend on general budget, £7.9m overspend on school’s budget
#30: Parking fines to increase to £160, Thames Water launches appeal for larger bill rise and also faces takeover bid, Kingston Menopause Café, join The Proper Blokes Club for a walk and chat, Hampton Court Palace Feel Good Festival, host your own street party for Kingston 2025 celebrations, most expensive home sold in Kingston in 2024, Kingston Women’s Centre, help shape health and care needs of under-5s, Phil Wang’s ‘comedy crawl’ across Kingston, Stoneleigh and New Malden, Cheeky Fest London 2025 at Ram Jam Records Kingston, enter DanceWest Fest Kington 2025, St Patrick’s Festival 2025 in Trafalgar Square, London Theatre Week, and more.
Hello and Thaaaaaank you! You are now part of a community that’s 1,027 strong (and counting)! Yes, within just eight months we’ve reached a significant milestone of 1,000+ subscribers. Clearly, there’s a huge appetite for hyper local stories. Stories we can relate to. Stories that have an impact on our lives. And stories where we get to play our part as community members. Here’s to the next new member of the Love Kingston community! AH
START WITH A SMILE: Stuff to cheer us up
💚 Uganda farmer grows natural substitute for plastic bottles: You may have seem a grainy video on Youtube of a BBC broadcast on April Fools’ Day 1957 purportedly showing a family in southern Switzerland harvesting spaghetti from a "spaghetti tree". Well, this story about a Ugandan farmer growing natural substitute for plastic bottles is most certainly not an April Fools’ Day joke. It is actually happening. The farmer is growing calabash or bottle gourds as a natural alternative to plastic bottles and by all accounts business is booming.
LOCAL STORIES: Stuff you need to know
📈 Kingston Council forecasts £6.4m overspend on general budget, £7.9m overspend on school’s budget: At the Corporate and Resources Committee meeting on 13 February, Kingston Council presented a bleak picture of its budgetary position for the financial year 2024-25. It’s forecasting overspend of £6.4m against a budget of £178.38m. The council pointed to “sector wide demand pressures in adults and children's social care, as well as temporary accommodation are the most significant factors, alongside the conditions in the wider economy”. The position with its School’s Budget is no less dire – the council is forecasting financial year-end overspend of £7.92m on the School’s Budget, citing “pressures centred on the provision of high needs education”.
💷 Parking fines to increase to £160: Following a request from the capital’s 33 boroughs to hike the cost of penalty charge notices (PCNs), Mayor of London has given the green light for parking fines in London to increase to up to £160, reports The Standard. A consultation conducted by London Councils revealed one of the biggest issues to be the amount of parking on pavements that went unpunished. This is the first increase in fines since 2010 and aims to create more of a deterrent to “anti-social and obstructive parking”. A record 8.3m parking fines were issued in London to motorists in 2023/24.
🚰 Thames Water launches appeal for larger bill rise, faces takeover bid from US investment company: Having secured High Court’s approval for a £3bn rescue loan, the debt-laden utility company is now appealing to overturn Ofwat’s decision to cap water bill rises to 35% over the next five years, reports BBC. Thames Water has argued bills need to rise by 53% over the next five years. In the meantime, City AM reports US investment company KKR has offered £4bn for a majority stake in the water company and should the offer succeed KKR reportedly has no plans to sell assets.
💃 Invitation to host your own street party for Kingston 2025 celebrations: As part of this landmark year celebrating the 1,100 anniversary of the crowning of King Athelstan, the first King of a united England, in the heart of Kingston, local residents are invited to host their own street parties to bring neighbours together and celebrate what makes the borough so special. Ideas for party themes and application form for a street party road closure are available here.
🏡 Most expensive homes sold in every London borough including Kingston in 2024 named: The most expensive homes sold in every single London borough have been named, and some of the prices are eye-watering, reports MyLondon. Not surprisingly, Kensington & Chelsea tops the chart of 33 London boroughs. The price tag for the most expensive property sold here in 2024 was £30 million. What about Kingston you say. Well, our Royal Borough sits right in the middle of the table at position 17 with the most expensive property sold in 2024 fetching a relatively modest £4,997,000. Here’s the full table featuring the most expensive property sold in 2024 in each London borough.
📚 Kingston University project sheds light on forgotten writers and hidden histories of Victorian literature: A new project is set to introduce a wide variety of Victorian writers to audiences around the world. Diversifying Victorian Literature aims to increase awareness of the era's lesser-known works, proving there is more to the writing of the 19th century than Charles Dickins, the Bronte sisters and Thomas Hardy. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the two-year project will focus on recovering work by writers of colour alongside writers from marginalised communities from the 19th and early 20th centuries.
LOCAL DEMOCRACY: Stuff that affects your neighbourhood
🗳️ Surbiton Neighbourhood Committee: The committee will meet on Tuesday 25 to discuss allocating funding:
for the painting of a mural at Berrylands Station
to provide a new viewing point at the top of the haymeadow in Fishponds Park
to support a Broad Oaks Spring Clean
for the provision of new planters at the shopping parade on Alexandra Drive.
More details and how to attend the meeting are available here.
COMMUNITY, CULTURE & EVENTS: Stuff to do, experience and enjoy
🧘 Hampton Court Palace Feel Good Festival: Enjoy a variety of wellness workshops, inspiring talks, shopping and food at The Feel Good Festival at Hampton Court Palace. Taking place over the weekend of 16-18 May, the festival brings together the mind, body and soul within the serene gardens and grounds of the palace. Through hands on workshops, guided practices, drop-in clinics and, of course, food, drink and shopping, it’s a perfect opportunity to ditch the dull and experience the best version of yourselves.
👋 Kingston Menopause Café – for people navigating the same journey: Whether you think you might be perimenopausal or feeling overwhelmed, join a friendly, supportive gathering at Kingston Menopause Café at All Saints Church for a chat with people navigating the same journey. The next meeting is on Friday 19 April – details available here.
👋 Menopause Awareness Webinar: New Malden and Worcester Park Primary Care Network is hosting Menopause Awareness Webinar on Tuesday 4 March. Aimed at individuals, partners, families and healthcare professionals of all ages, the webinar will explore common symptoms, hormonal changes, self-care strategies and how to support others during this natural life transition. Register to attend online here.
👋 Join The Proper Blokes Club for a walk and chat in Surbiton and Chessington: With a mission to break the stigma on men’s mental health and start talking openly about it, The Proper Blokes Club is a walk and talk community project for men. Set up by Scott in 2020 during the pandemic, it has now grown to over 15 walks across London. And there are two walks here in the Royal Borough of Kingston – Surbiton and Chessington. Both taking place on Tuesdays with the next walk on Tuesday 25 February.
🫶 Kingston Women’s Centre: Since 1982, Kingston Women’s Centre has supported thousands of women with their mental well-being, providing counselling for women of all backgrounds within the local community within a safe, non-judgemental and caring environment. Their counselling helps manage difficult feelings, find new ways of relating to yourself and others, and support women through life crises or life changes. More information about their services and contact details are available here.
👶 Help shape health and care needs of under-5s and their families across Kingston: Healthwatch Kingston upon Thames would like your help to better understand the health and care needs of children under-5 and their families in Kingston. A local health and social care champion, Healthwatch Kingston upon Thames is working collaboratively with Kingston Voluntary Action to deliver 'Early years: Health and care needs of under-5s and their families' community engagement. By completing their Early Years survey, you’ll be entered into a participation draw, where you may be one of three people to win a £50 participation voucher.
🤣 Phil Wang’s ‘comedy crawl’ across Kingston, Stoneleigh and New Malden: Fresh from selling out The London Palladium the brilliant Phil Wang is doing a ‘comedy crawl’ on 4 March. He’s doing three shows on the same evening kicking off at 7pm in Kingston, hopping over to Stoneleigh for 7.45pm and finishing up at 8.30 in New Malden. You could get tickets for all three gigs and join him on the ‘comedy crawl’!
🎸 Cheeky Fest London 2025 at Ram Jam Records Kingston: Cheeky Fest London 2025 is back at Ram Jam Records, Richmond Road, Kingston, on 10 April. Enjoy an evening of music and poetry with Jessie Morrell, Eleanor Collides, Mumnonymous, Dead Blood Cells and Paradise Taxi. Tickets are available here.
💃🏻🕺 DanceWest Fest Kington 2025: Ballet or bhangra, ballroom or breakdance, modern or folk. Whatever dance style you’re into, here’s your chance to enter the Dancewest Fest and be part of the celebration for Kingston 2025 and take to the stage at the Rose Theatre. The event is open to all community dance groups including school, youth group, inclusive dance company, or older adults' groups to share their passion for dance. Applications are open now and available here. Hurry, deadline for entries is only a week away!
SPORTS DAY: Stuff about enjoying your local teams
⚽ Chelsea Women: Another week. Another game against Everton Women. This time in the WSL and three points secured to keep Manchester United Women seven points away in second place. Yes, a 2-1 victory over the Toffees last weekend means 40 points from 14 games for the Blues. Following the international break, the Blues next travel to Brighton on Sunday 2 March.
⚽ Kingstonian FC: Last Saturday saw the Ks drop points with a 1-1 draw against Hayes and Yeading United. This disappointment was compounded with the league leaders Farnham Town’s 1-5 victory at Southall, stretching the gap at the top to six points. Things got a lot worse midweek when the Ks hosted the league leaders and suffered a 0-4 defeat, one of their biggest loss of the season, pushing the gap at the top to nine points. While the battle for the title may now be all but over, promotion through the payoffs is very much still on. The Ks need to dust themselves off as they visit relegation-battling Sutton Common Rovers on Saturday 22 Feb.
LONDON CALLING: Stuff to do, experience and enjoy in the big smoke
☘️ St Patrick’s Festival 2025 in Trafalgar Square: The Mayor of London’s St Patrick’s Festival is back on Sunday 16 March 2025. This annual event is one of the highlight of London’s cultural calendar, celebrating the many contributions the Irish community have made to the capital. A spectacular parade with exciting floats, marching bands, dance troupes and pageantry will wind its way from Hyde Park, past Trafalgar Square and onto Whitehall. Back in Trafalgar Square the main stage will feature plenty of live music and dance.
WHAT ELSE? Stuff we couldn’t quite fit anywhere else but still like
🎭 London Theatre Week is back! It’s London Theatre Week and it means you can watch one of 75 incredible West End shows from as little as £15 this February. Here’s a full list of shows and availability courtesy of Time Out.
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Thank you for including Cheeky Fest.