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The line goes something about " living in interesting times". Oh to be a Parish Councillor over the next few years. Funnily enough, I knew this was coming, and without being silly, it is one of the reasons I became a Councillor in the first place. It's just taken a tad longer than I was expecting.. Ok the 2004 TV series turned out not to be the saving of the Palace that we all hoped. It did do one thing though, it galvanised the parish and surroundings to a single cause. All we have to do now, is do that all over again, and keep it up for the next few years. This is the "Long Haul", there is no quick fix for this project. Unless someone out there knows of someone with the odd 8 or 10 million pounds sitting in a tin under the bed, this is going to be a long , long, and I do mean, very long project.
Somehow I know it will happen, I also know things will change, there will be several and regular downfalls and times when despair takes over. But there will come the day when someone dresses as a King and a banquet takes place in the Great Hall again. How long have I known that?? Don't laugh now, since I was very, very small.
Too many years ago for me to count, my late Father led a wonderful, and for a child, a magical, procession through Charing, on a May fair. He was dressed as King Henry. Later in the day, he sat in the Great Hall, with the children of the
Primary School on the floor around him. He, still in the character of Henry, told magical stories about the hall, it' s history, the events held there, and the people
involved.
To this day, the pictures that my Fathers voice painted in my mind are still
there. I can still see them, the pomp, the ceremony, the dirt and grime, the reality, and the spectacle. All of that can live again, in the future. All it takes is money, an awful lot of it.
We are told on every News broadcast, every radio and TV programme, all of the newspapers even, that the World of money is dead. OK, we cannot rely on the Heritage fund of the Lottery, as virtually all of that money has been taken by the Prime Minister to help pay off some of the, ever growing, debts of the London Olympics. 2014 is the next time the Lottery can help the causes it was designed to help.
OK, instant money isn't there any longer. Money all over is tighter, and far less easy to get hold of. But, it is still out there, somewhere!! All that has to be done, is find it. Maybe it will be in small lots, a few thousand at a time, but it is out there. The Parish Council is not allowed to go out and try and raise that sort of money on it's own bat, what it can do though, is help set up a "Charing Palace Trust", and that Trust CAN go out and look for bags of money. That Trust is going to need skilled members, and that is one thing Charing is very good at, finding the right people, at the right time. If you have a skill, that might just be useful, now, or in the future, be prepared to put your hand up. Your Parish definitely needs you.
Jonathan Ryan. (Vice Chair, Charing Parish Council).
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