PEGWELL & DISTRICT ASSOCIATION AGM

A special Thank You to all those members who helped to make our Harvest Supper and A.G.M. an enjoyable and successful event. 

This is the occasion when members are presented with a report of the year and Committee members are appointed and officers’ posts confirmed. 

This year has marked a time of change in many ways for the Pegwell and District Association marked by the handing on of the baton at several points from one member to another. 

Readers may have heard already with regret that our founder chairman, Mrs Eileen Randall has felt it the right moment to say that she did not wish to offer herself for election again as Chairman, although willing to continue to serve on the Committee, and, you will be pleased to read, as editor and publisher of the regular Newsletter. 

(Needless to say, she was re-elected as a Committee member at the A.G.M. with acclamation!) 

Meanwhile welcome to Mr Richard Kinzler, who everyone is glad to see elected Chairman and grateful that he is willing to undertake the position. 

You will have read Richard’s contributions about the natural history of Pegwell, but more than that, in the local papers recently, because of his appointment as Trustee of the Kent Wildlife Trust. 

This fresh enthusiasm and knowledge will be a great encouragement to us in Pegwell, not least because of our position in the Bay with the internationally important reserves literally in our territory. 

He has shown his conservation colours already and is determined that P.D.A. should continue to lead in that direction, the strength of its membership encouraged by the wide circulation of our newsletter and by regular social gatherings. 

We are more than grateful to Rod Arnold - and Joan, of course - who has looked after our finances for 18 years, he has had to remind us, but more than that receive the subscriptions and bookings, and the money, for all our outings and big meetings, a task needing lots of patience and persistence. 

With Eileen he has organised many of the events and has always been there “at the door” of entry, and to see the winners draw their tickets in the raffles. 

Mr Robert Gilmour has been elected to take his place as Treasurer, with the running of events shared with Mrs Sandra Gerlack, newly appointed “Social Secretary”. 

Dr Michael Houghton has accepted the position of Company Secretary, in place of Mr Frank Roberts, who, unfortunately has not been well for some time and unable to get to meetings. 

We wish him and Jillian well, of course, and thank him for his committee work over the years. 

Dr Houghton has considerable experience in Planning matters and is a valuable asset to the Association. 

We feel sure the concerns and interests of P.D.A. will continue to be upheld and that the future of the Association will continue in capable hands. 

Following the business proceedings, the evening concluded with a hearty supper followed by a Picture Quiz, ably prepared and presented by Margaret Swan. 

Thanks were extended to Christ Church P.C.C. for the use of the church rooms and facilities and to Brian Belsey for arranging this for us. 

Mrs Eileen Randall was presented with a bouquet in appreciation of all she has done and means to us.

From a report prepared by a Committee member.

Reflections of a Committee Member.

The Pegwell and District Association began with a meeting of worried residents in the garden of “Driftwood” in 1987 and has continued ever since, intimately drawn and held together by Eileen Randall’s passion for the good of our neighbourhood and against unsuitable development in our unique environment. 

Mention ‘Pegwell’ in Eileen’s absence and you think immediately of Eileen. Speak of the neighbourhood in her presence and she will tell you about anything that isn’t going quite right and her ideas for helping put it right. 

The major threat that brought us together in the first place was a plan to build a railway across the Bay, with a marshalling yard, to access an ambitiously conceived Sallyport at Ramsgate Harbour for cross-Channel traffic. The railway would have crossed the fields from a junction with the present line and broken through the cliffs in a cutting where the Pegwell Hotel looks over its gardens to the shore. Truly a ‘Big Bang’ - which did not come to anything, but woke us to the need to be ever-vigilant and wary of developers. 

The cliffs and sea-shore are invaluable and the rural quality of the ‘Village Separation Zone’ between us and Cliffsend to be fought for against any threats. 

History will relate how campaigning brought about compromises which resulted in the building of the tunnel under Pegwell for a road for freight lorries along the Western Undercliff. 

Into less contentious times, and the Association has held together with the membership encouraged by the regular programme of social events. 

Driftwood has been our base for Eileen’s major part in correspondence and the Newsletter. Derek - bless him! - has been the printer and folder of the pages and overseen distribution. 

Our Committee has never met anywhere else! – and probably at about half all our coffee and tea parties’ members and guests have been welcomed by the gracious lady herself there. 

No one could count the number of cakes, pies and jars of jam and marmalade she has got ready to sell. 

Weeks away together as a group and coach outings for a day have been brain-children of Eileen’s with a tremendous amount of planning and organising needed to make them suit as many as possible. 

Can we thank her enough? 

We must not begrudge her wish to step back from the major part she has taken in all these activities – but it goes without saying that she will be sadly missed. 

Her health – and Derek’s – have not been one hundred percent lately and, of course we wish them well in that respect. 

What a relief for all concerned that she is willing to be a Committee member still and the Editor and Publisher of the Newsletter!

Richard Kinzler Chairman

Pegwell & District Association is pleased to announce the appointment of Richard Kinzler from Pegwell Bay as the new Chairman following his election at the Associations A.G.M. in Ramsgate, Kent, Thursday 18th October 2012.

American-born Richard Kinzler, whose profession is in the orthopaedic industry as an Orthopaedic Specialist, said: “I moved to the area in the late 70s and have a passion for Pegwell, from Natural History to its fascinating History. I am delighted to join the Pegwell & District Association Board of Trustees as Chairman dedicated to protecting Ramsgate’s Western Undercliff & Pegwell Bay’s natural environment for everyone to enjoy.”

In his spare time, Richard’s interests have focused on wildlife conservation. He took a sabbatical as a Biodiversity Warden for Sandwich & Pegwell Bay Nature Reserve in 2009 but, since 2006, has been performing a variety of volunteering roles for the Trust such as environmental management, field research. He joined the Board of Trustees for Kent Wildlife Trust in 2012.

He is married with two children.