Sounds of Bel Canto ring out at church
Music lovers were treated to a variety show by an eclectic trio.
Bel Canto delighted an audience at St Nicholas’ Church in Poplar Grove, Maidstone with a broad range of pieces including favourites Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins and Where is Love? from Oliver.
The group consists of soprano Kathryn Norman: a soloist of 20 years, bass-baritone Brian White: a biologist who has carried out research into voice science, and Richard Kemp on piano: a chartered electrical engineer with a passion for performing.
The concert, entitled Music for a Summer Afternoon, was based around the theme of ‘children, young people and their dreams.’
“There was a large, enthusiastic audience, who enjoyed a cream tea after the concert, and £300 was raised for the church’s ‘Loos and Lights’ campaign,” said Mr White. There are a number of schools in the area who will doubtless have had children and possibly staff arriving late.
Could this work have been done when the schools had broken up? No, says the voice at the end of the SGN customer service line, because, it’s an emergency - and this is where my frustration and anger comes out - the work should be done around the clock like they would do in countries such as Germany. Intake of breath at other end of the phone - “oh, we don’t do that here”.
The working day for the men - and perhaps women too, who are working on these sights, is considerably shorter than 9 to 5. Kent County Council and SGN would say that it would be too costly to work around the clock to get the work completed as quickly as possible. Well let’s balance that against the cost to businesses by the substantial time lost.here is a restaurant - the Plough at this particular location, Five Wents. They might as well have closed for two weeks. They will certainly have lost most if not all of their business.
In my mind the only way to help the situation is to introduce round the clock repair work. Residents in Kent deserve better.
Lesley Flint,
High Street, Sutton Valence