Learning Aldi time

Bit confused by this one! Good news that Aldi are opening a new store in Maidstone, but they seem to be a bit hazy about when it's going to open - when exactly is "Winmer"?

Is it somewhere between Winter and Summer? Perhaps Autumn?

Maybe the new store will be so vast that we'll be shopping at one end while they finish building at the other...

Answers on a postcard please...

I wonder if the Marie Celeste felt like this?

August is traditionally taken to be "Member Recess" at County Hall in Maidstone. The time when any self-respecting County Councillor takes their holiday, spends time on the house, in the garden or swapping County Council papers for the latest Tom Clancy or John le Carre.

However, some of us use at least the first half of August to come in and work in peace and quiet, catching up on all the things that we don't quite have time to read, or writing those 'think piece' papers that we never seem to get around to when the Council is at full speed.

And so it is that I find myself coming in to a County Hall largely devoid of elected politicians, an office without piles of papers for 'urgent signature', and officers with more time to discuss issues.

I will be taking some time away, but to be able to work quietly and uninterrupted, clearing the desk for September is almost as good as a break in itself. I wonder if the Marie Celeste felt like this?

Delayed Transfers of Care in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells

Later this afternoon, I travelled to Portcullis House at Westminster, for a meeting with Greg Clark and Sir John Stanley, Members of Parliament for Tunbridge Wells and Tonbridge and Malling respectively.

The meeting had been called to discuss the issue of Delayed Transfers of Care (bed blocking, or DToCs as they're often referred to) from hospitals in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells.

Although punctuated by the division bell calling all Members to the Lobby to vote, it was a productive meeting, and I was able to explain some of the successes of our joint working with both the Primary Care and the Acute Trusts, and some of the outstanding issues which need to be addressed.

Above all, it was great to see our local MPs taking such a keen interest in this issue, which is one of the most critical aspects of the Government's "Our Health, Our Care, Our Say" White Paper last year. If we can't get the joint working right, none of the aspirations can possibly be delivered.