Social enterprise to be launched in Canterbury

Canterbury HM Prison has used the services of many volunteers from both University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University. Now MBE Paul Marsh, coordinator of the volunteering programme, is setting up a social enterprise designed to employ those who would otherwise volunteer.

The organisation will soon be launched and it will have in place programmes some of which will involve working with offenders in order to help reoffending.

Mr Marsh says: “I strongly believe this social enterprise will benefit the community. It will be of great help to the prison as well as providing paid opportunities for the volunteers.”

Mr Marsh was recently awarded the prize ‘local legend’ from the organisation ‘Canterbury People’. The award will help increase the chances of receiving even more funding for the enterprise.

Watch the video to find out more

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Local Legend is chosen

Canterbury people have spoken up and decided on their local legend. While it wasn’t an easy fight against Orlando Bloom and the archibishop of Canterbury, MBE Paul Marsh got the prize.

Retired last year, Paul Marsh was awarded MBE at the Queen’s birthday last year in return for his services to HM prison. A year before that he and the Multifaith team in HM Canterlbury prison won the Butler’s Trust award. With so much success and recognition, it should come as no surprise that Canterbury residents wanted him as their local legend.

The prize was given by the online organisation ‘Canterbury People’ and Mr Marsh has become the face of Canterbury People. You will be able to see him on billboards around town. Based on a public vote, three finalist were chosen. A panel of judges looked at each case and after analysing the votes and the finalists’ profiles.

The panel included managing director of Northcliffe Digital, Roland Bryan, and Lisa Buckingham, the editor of the Financial Mail on Sunday, who was recently awarded an OBE for services to journalism and women's issues.

A representative of the judges said: “In Paul, we found someone who demonstrated a real passion for their work and commitment to their town. It was for this reason that we felt Paul really deserved the title 'Local Legend'.

Watch the video below to find out more about Paul Marsh

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Kent Police uses Facebook

The police take an active role in the community and encourage the public to call and report any crimes. More than this they are actively using Facebook to inform residents of any meetings and services available as well as warn them of any possible dangers.

On the 27^th of March they asked to the community for help in regards to two suspicious incidents in the Thanet Area. The case in questions involved a man who invited a five-year-old girl to sit in his car and talked to another three-year-old boy in his back garden.

Detective Sergeant John Cooper said: “Clearly these incidents are concerning and we are keen to hear from anyone who has any information that will help us with our investigations.”

Kent Police car in Ramsgate harbour

People flooded their Facebook page asking for details in their investigation hoping to hear good news.

Kent Police in Ramsgate said: ‘We want to hear from anyone who may have information about these, or similar incidents, to come forward. We are fortunate to benefit from a close knit community in Thanet and I am confident that local residents will play an important role to ensuring the safety of our children.’’

A Kent Police analysis shows crime rates have decreased with almost 5% in Kent.

In the Sittingbourne area the crime figures have gone down with a record of 13.7%. The average number of crimes in Kent has decreased from 9222.7 to 8816.7 (4.4%) the smallest being in Dover

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