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"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" is an expression that has been around for nearly two hundred years, and longer than that in sentiment. As Village News comes up to its fifteenth birthday, originally as "Chislehurst Village News" in print only, for the last year as an online News, What's On and Business Directory, and plenty more besides, and, more recently, extending to cover Petts Wood and Bickley, we are delighted to have had well over 60,000 hits with the number increasing weekly as we put more and more local information onto the website. The recently launched Village Card has been enthusiatically received, and over the summer we will be adding more shops and businesses to the thirty-five existing ones.

Several readers have said that they like the front cover from 2004 that's on our Home page, but have asked what we were writing about ten years ago. Well now you can find out. Click on the "Chislehurst Village News" cover that you will find on the Home page down the left hand side to see who and what we were reporting on.

Of course, such success breeds imatators and so we are now obliged to put a copyright symbol at the end of each article just to make sure that the imatators are in no doubt that they're being watched - by you! Not that we're too bothered with the imatators - just flattered, but when no fewer than six readers recently pointed out the similarities in a Village News report on 29th April and a News Shopper report dated 7th May, we felt it perfectly reasonable to give it greater publicity. What do you think?

From Chislehurst, Petts Wood & Bickley Village News, 29th April 2014

From News Shopper, 7th May 2014

The Conservatives currently hold 53 of the 60 seats on Bromley Council, up from 49 in 2006. They are fielding 60 candidates.

In the previous election in 2010, the Conservative party won 53 of the 60 seats on Bromley Council, up from 49 in 2006. This year they are fielding 60 candidates.

Labour currently hold 3 seats, down from 4 in 2006. They are fielding 60 candidates.

Labour currently hold three seats, down from four in 2006, and are also fielding 60 candidates.

Liberal Democrats currently hold 4 seats, down from 7 in 2006... for 2014 the Liberal Democrats are only contesting 47 seats, whereas in 2006 they contested all 60, and 59 in 2010.

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats, who currently hold four seats (down from seven in 2006) are only contesting 47 seats - in 2010 they contested 59, in 2006 they contested 60.

In 2006 UKIP contested just 1 seat, in 2010 they contested 10. Next month they will be contesting 35 seats in all of the wards, presumably hoping to do well on the back of the European elections being held the same day.

The big story is the huge increase in the number of seats the UK Independence Party (UKIP) intend to run for. In 2006 the controversial party fielded just one candidate, in 2010 they fielded 10. On May 22 they will be contesting 35 seats, presumably hoping to do well on the back of the European elections being held the same day. 

The Greens are fielding 22 candidates. In 2010 they fielded 15 and in 2006 just 10.

The Greens are fielding 22 candidates (they fielded 15 in 2010 and 10 in 2006)...

We have emailed the News Shopper journalist for a response. When we get one, we'll let you know what he said. "Sorry," we hope.

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