I'm hugely honoured to have been elected as Chairman of Sandgate Parish Council. Thank you all for your support: I can only promise to do my best.

Since the formation of the Parish Council in 2004, there have been four Chairman - Joy MacMillan, Jonathan Greenwall, Geoffrey Boot and Robert Bliss.

Robert has been Chairman since 2011 and served longer than all other Chairmen combined. We've known each other since I stood in my first election in the area to Kent County Council in 2005 against him. He won. We've evened up that score since then, and become, possibly unexpectedly for both of us, good friends. I'm really honoured to be taking over from him as Chairman of Sandgate Parish Council.

The Government announced a new loan scheme for small businesses.

Aimed at the UK's smallest firms, the scheme will offer loans of between £2,000 and £50,000.

• Businesses can borrow up to the value of 25% of their turnover up to a maximum of £50,000.

• The Government will provide lenders with a 100% guarantee for the loan and pay any fees and interest for the first 12 months.

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy have released figures on local authority Covid 19 grant payments as of 20 April 2020.

The data for the local authorities in East Kent is as follows:

More than 285,000 businesses have already applied for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme since it went live on Monday 20 April.

To be sure payment comes through to you before the end of the month, you will need to apply today (Wednesday 22‌‌ April).

Accessing the system

HMRC have noticed that some people have had difficulty accessing the system because they do not have an active PAYE enrolment. In order to make claim you will need to:

As the impact of Covid-19 continues to reverberate throughout our community and across the world, we have made the difficult decision to postpone Creative Folkestone Triennial. Our priority lies with ensuring that our team, artists, partners and you remain safe and well. We therefore feel it would be irresponsible for us to continue as planned with Folkestone Triennial in September.