The Mayor's January highlights

Published: 30 January 2026

Happy New Year! I meant to send New Year wishes earlier - but January was busier than I expected!

Among the highlights have been:

• A very generous donation of £1000 to the Mayor’s charities from sales of Bob Ogley’s book 'The Story of Knole Park'. Copies are on sale from Sevenoaks Town Council (call 01732 459953) and Bob has offered to give more for Citizens Advice and Sevenoaks Area Youth Trust as soon as he’s paid the printers. It’s a great read!

• A demo of the Citizens Advice Hub at Bat & Ball Community Centre - where you can get personal advice from a trained advisor on just about anything. The big issues CA are helping with right now are cost of living pressures, debt, housing and benefits, but if you need help with legal, employment our consumer issues they have all the know how. On Wednesday mornings there’s an advisor on hand to help with the technology and find the right person to talk to, but the terminal and screen to talk through your issues is there most days

• The Cadets’ rifle completion at Argyle Road - between Army and Sea cadets this year. Friendly rivalry between the services helps keep things interesting, and the individual top scorer - from Sevenoaks - is a national champion. It’s great that our town has so many talented young people. After the action I got to look down the range looking through the gunsights. Things have changed a lot since I was a cadet!

• The Year 2 children from Seal Primary on The Vine yesterday, as they read out their stories from the Great Storm of 1987. They were commemorating the event - when a million trees were blown down in Sevenoaks including six of the seven oaks. I had to confess that I slept through the whole night! The trees we see today were replanted by children from each of the local primary schools, including our son and daughter and a pupil who is now a teacher at Seal. They did a great job as some of the new oaks are now almost as tall as the surviving ‘King Oak’

Looking forward, there’s time to show off your knowledge at Sevenoaks biggest quiz of the year on Friday 7th February at Bat & Ball Centre.

Then there’s the Mayor’s Charity Concert at Stag Theatre on the last day of winter. We’ll ‘Swing into Spring' with Kent Youth Jazz Orchestra and two brilliant choirs - Sevenoaks Sings and Green Street Blues. Book on the Stag website. See you there!

 

Cllr Tony Clayton

Mayor of Sevenoaks