Tour de France Sunday 8th July 2007
Tenterden High Street (A28) was closed from 9am to after 3pm and in town car parks were inaccessible during this time. Tenterden Lions provided car parking at 2 locations which were able to be reached at any time. One 10 minute walk from Tenterden High Street in the Smallhythe Road and the other 20 minutes away in the Appledore Road.
Thanks to a local farmer and Homewood School for allowing Lions to provide these facilities. This enabled 500 cars to park for the Tour de France whilst at the same time raising monies for local charities. A big thank you to all who used the car parking. The money raised will go to support some very worthwhile causes.
Thanks also to the Army cadets who helped with manning the facilities.
There were also lots of activities in the High Street and on the Recreation Ground providing entertainment both before and after the race. Lions & their ladies had a stall with lucky dip & a cuddly lion tombola. Quiz sheets were on sale as well. Again all monies that were raised will go to good causes. If you would like to know more about Lions and see the sort of good causes we support , please click here
Report From Our 2007 Fund Raising Chairman - Roger Nixon
The Tour de France visits Tenterden
When the Tenterden Lions Club learned that the Tour de France was to pass through our Town, and that Tenterden was to be a sprint stage, it was obvious that this was a fund raising opportunity not to be missed.
A minimum amount of thought brought forth the idea that the one thing we could do which would both raise funds and supply a public service was to operate some temporary car parks.
We worked together with the Town Traders, who were preparing the Town for the great event, and took on the car parking responsibilities. A local farmer friend allowed us the use of a "set-aside" field within a short distance from the centre of the Town and the local school agreed for us to use their playing field on the edge of the Town.
We formed a close link with the Kent Police and the Kent Highways Authority and gained their support for our scheme which included a fairly comprehensive set of directional signs pointing motorists to our car parks.
Man power was always going to be an issue as we also planned a stall on the Recreation Ground where many amusements and events were arranged to entertain the crowds. Here we sold Quiz Sheets and ran a Cuddly Lions Tombola. To address the man power issue we co-opted the Kent Army Cadet Force who proved to know a whole lot more about car parking than we did and whose assistance was invaluable.
There were a few very tense periods when we inspected the large "set-aside" field on the Wednesday before the great event when it gave a very good impression of Dartmoor on a bad day. However, the sun shone and wind blew and the field dried out to a point that we only had two cars stuck in the mud on the day. These were swiftly extricated with the help of the farmer and his tractor.
On the day we parked over 500 cars and received both monetary award and verbal praise from the happy motorists who used our car parks. Tenterden really laid on a good day for our visitors which engendered a very positive and cheerful atmosphere and there is no doubt that the Tenterden Lions Club contributed to that massive and successful effort.
Man power was always going to be an issue as we also planned a stall on the Recreation Ground where many amusements and events were arranged to entertain the crowds. Here we sold Quiz Sheets and ran a Cuddly Lions Tombola. To address the man power issue we co-opted the Kent Army Cadet Force who proved to know a whole lot more about car parking than we did and whose assistance was invaluable.
