Back from the beach

Published: 29 August 2025

Along with most Town Councillors I’ve returned from the beach, back to work. I hope many of you have enjoyed the summer, and managed to enjoy a break.

Our holiday included a trip to see the Women's Tour de France depart from Brest - at the far end of Brittany. Just as impressive as the race was the efforts being made by Brest and surrounding towns to encourage cycling. The town of Brest runs an e-bike hire / share scheme which allows you to hire an e-bike for about £300 a year - then to buy it for another £350 if you’d like to keep it.

It’s made a real impact as hills in Brittany are as steep as in Sevenoaks. A local business has offered to help sponsor an e-bike scheme in Sevenoaks - based on their good experience as users in other UK towns where they operate. Do you think it would work here? Let us know by emailing [email protected]. 

Thanks to The Drive Methodist Church for inviting me to their reception where they entertain a party of vulnerable people from their ’twinned’ church at Deptford mission. The guests came for lunch, followed by entertainment by 'Skiffle Express' - a Sevenoaks skiffle band set up to give support to musicians - and others - with challenges here. It was a really joyful event, with almost everyone singing or dancing. I was persuaded to join the band - playing a tea chest. If you weren’t around in the 1960s you won’t know what that is - but here’s the photo.

After that, the Children's theatre on the Vine was relatively quiet - but very educational. Fungi Frida’s performance to well over 100 people (mostly young) told us how mushrooms help us look after the planet. The most interesting example was Pseudomonas which eats plastic - along with other varieties which can turn it into food. It looks from the pictures as if this might fit nicely into Sevenoaks District Council’s new plans for wheelie bins!

Cllr Tony Clayton

Mayor of Sevenoaks