East Malling & Larkfield Parish Council provide a range of local services including -
4 village halls, 3 allotment gardens and various open spaces, complementing the wider range provided by Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and Kent County Council.
East Malling and Larkfield Parish Council is an amalgamation of the two expanding villages, covering 1078 hectares with an estimated population in 2001 of 12,700 / 2018 of 14,506. Situated 8.5km (5.5 miles) from Maidstone.
THE FUNCTION OF THE PARISH COUNCIL
The Parish Council is the lowest tier of local government, being the closest to the residents, it is responsible for running village halls, some street lighting and open spaces within the parish of East Malling and Larkfield.
It should not be confused with a church council which is the Parochial Church Council.
The council consist consist of 17 councillors, 11 from Larkfield, 6 from ... continued >>>
Political Divide!
Confused? With the recent political map changes our Parish comes under 2 Members of Parliament. East Malling now falls under Maidstone with Helen Grant now being their M.P., and Larkfield remaining under Chatham & Aylesford whose M.P. is now Tristan Osborne.
What is happening in our Parish
Summer Litter Pick in Larkfield - Saturday 7th September meeting at the Parish Office at 10:30 a.m.. All welcome, litter pickers & bags provided.
David Thornewell, Parish Chairman, laying wreath on St Georges Day, 2022 at Kings Hill
Digging into our past
Friday 24th January at 7.30pm in St James’ Church
Tickets at £5 from Alan Bramley 01732 846800
The Ukrainian flag flying over East Malling Church
Many will remember that two years ago we had a sell-out evening in church when Fred Birkbeck accompanied Dr James Taylor who spoke about the archaeological dig in the churchyard. Next month Fred will be making a welcome return with other colleagues to tell us, amongst other explorations, about the Roman remains which have been discovered locally, and continue to be unearthed, on the present allotment site next to East Malling’s railway station.
Our speakers that evening: Fred Birkbeck set up Brook Archaeology Limited, having been co-director of Darnley Archaeological Services, a Company which offers a high level of service and commitment to clients needs, communicating with the local planning authorities and Kent County Council on planning requirements; sourcing and supplying equipment and personnel and conducting the fieldwork and report production in the most efficient way. In the past Fred worked as a Senior Researcher for JP Morgan Chase, embarking on a new professional experience for 10 years in Spain running direct marketing teams, eventually moving on to
teach English, progressing to Director of Studies. Since returning to the UK he converted his passion for history, heritage and culture into a first class honours degree in Classical and Archaeological Studies at the University of Kent. Since graduating, Fred worked on the project team of the Lees Court Estate for the Kent Archaeological Society and joined the Council of the KAS as a Trustee in 2019, running their Media and Communications throughout the pandemic, introducing the student membership initiatives, live video discussions and lectures, administering policy and web content as well as writing the strategy on outreach, communications and risk as part of a review at the end of 2021. His fieldwork experience has been working on several volunteer projects before graduating and as an Assistant Archaeologist at ASE from 2017. He also co-directed the summer 2018/2019 community archaeology projects at Lees Court Estate and contributed to the pilot of the Great British dig for Channel 4.
Dana Goodburn-Brown is an internationally renowned conservator and runs Conservation Science Investigations (CSI), Sittingbourne. With 40 years of experience, she specialises in public engagement, sustainable conservation, archive rationalisation and investigative conservation of archaeological artefacts, in the field and in post- excavation and museum contexts. Dana collaborates widely with individuals and institutions, and edited a volume drawing together research on the conservation of coins, Look after the Pennies (Archetype, 1998). Having previously worked for the American Museum of Natural History, Museum of London and the National Trust, she now leads DGB Conservation, a team providing a range of conservation, exhibition design, installation, mounting and research services across the UK and abroad. She and her team work frequently with organisations including Canterbury Archaeological Trust, Oxford Archaeology, Maidstone Museums, and Compton Verney Art Gallery.
Stephen Clifton is a keen archaeologist and is currently the archaeological director of the Maidstone Area Archaeological Group, (MAAG) and he is a trustee of the Kent Archaeological Society (KAS). He also worked from 2003 to 2005 as a field archaeologist for the Trust for Thanet Archaeology. In 2020 Stephen completed an MA in archaeology at the University of Kent, achieving a distinction, and his dissertation was awarded the Thirsk prize. He started his PhD at the end of 2020. His previous career was in communications, working for the BBC, several satellite television companies and New Scotland Yard. He also has degrees in education/radio, film and television as well as fine art. Stephen is also a keen artist and has exhibited in London, Rotterdam and more locally.
Open Spaces not up for Development!
The latest documents issued by the borough council list amongst the sites
being potentially put forward for development Gighill Green and Marlowe Green open spaces.
These parish council owned sites were NOT put forward by the parish council and it was not consulted before they appeared.
Indeed the council in recent years registered them as official village greens specifically to protect them.
That register is held by KCC and the parish council has responded to Borough Planning officers making the position clear.
The two sites are not up for developers to grab.
Accessibility Statement
Accessibility Statement for East Malling & Larkfield Parish Council
This accessibility statement applies to East Malling & Larkfield Parish Council (known as “the Council”)
This website is run by East Malling & Larkfield Parish Council. We want as many people as possible to use this website. For example that means you should be able to:
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Change colours, contract levels and fonts
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Zoom in up to 300% without text spilling off the screen
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Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
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Navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
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Listen to most of the website using a screen reader
We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.
How accessible this website is
We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible
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most older PDF documents are not fully accessible to screen reader software
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live video streams do not have captions
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you may not be able to skip to the main content when using a screen reader
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documents supplied by third parties that the Council has no control over
Accessibility of the Council website relies on the following technologies to work with the particular combination of web browser and any assistive technologies or plug ins installed on your computer:
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HTML
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CSS
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JavaScript
These technologies are relied upon for conformance with the accessibility standards used and we cannot guarantee that the site will work fully on older versions of assistive technology
Feedback and contact information
We welcome your feedback on the accessibility of the Council website. Please let us know if you encounter accessibility barriers on the Council website:
Phone: 07712 445260
E-mail: office@emandlpc.co.uk
Postal address: Church Farm, 198 New Hythe Lane, Larkfield, Kent ME20 5ST
We try to respond to feedback within 7 business days
Reporting accessibility problems with this website
We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Council Clerk via the contact form http://emandlpc.co.uk/ or phone –
Enforcement procedure-
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (websites and Mobile Applications) (No2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you are not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS), (https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/).
Technical Information about this website’s accessibility
East Malling and Larkfield Parish Council is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.
Compliance status
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) defines requirements for designers and developers to improve accessibility for people with disabilities. It defines three levels of conformance: Level A, Level AA, and Level AAA. The Council website is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 level AA. Partially conformant means that some parts of the content do not fully conform to the accessibility standard (detailed below).
Non Accessible Content
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility of the Council website, there may be some limitations. Below is a description of known limitations, and potential solutions. Please contact us if you observe an issue not listed below.
Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations
The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.
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Uploaded images may not have text alternatives because we cannot ensure the quality of contributions.
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Some older PDFs may not comply.
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Some of our online forms might be difficult to navigate using just a keyboard
Disproportionate burden
At the present time, we have not identified any specific issues that would be of disproportionate burden.
Navigation and accessing information
We believe most tools should work with this site, but this maybe dependant on the version you are using.
Content not within the Scope of the accessibility regulations
The following is exempt from the Accessibility regulations
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pre-recorded audio and video published before 23 September 2020
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live audio and video
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heritage collections such as scanned manuscripts
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PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 – unless needed to use a service.
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maps – information maybe available in address format
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third party content under someone else’s control (such as Hall booking systems)
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third party content under someone else’s control (such Annual Audit information)
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content on intranets or extranets published before 23 September 2019
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archived websites if not needed for services and they are not updated
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Documents, including PDF’s, relating to the Annual Governance and Accountability Return (AGAR) are provided by an external source and are outside the control of the Council. These documents are not covered by the regulations (Part 1 – Section 4(2)(e)).These items may contain interactive forms and scanned images and may not work with screen readers. We will continue to request that these documents are made accessible, even though they are from a third party.
Preparation of this accessibility statement
This statement was prepared on 12th August 2021. It was last reviewed on 12th August 2021. This website was last tested on 12th August 2021. The test was carried out by the Clerk to the Council on a self evaluation basis.
We test a number of pages within the site, and test those documents most likely to be used by visitors to the website such as Agendas and Minutes.