Truly heartwarming is how community pride in Deal has been described.

Deal Town Team was overwhelmed by the wholehearted and widespread support for the Deal Portas Pilot Bid.

Letters flooded in following an appeal in the Mercury for written backing to corroborate the bid, prior to its submission.

Team leader Robin Green said: "On behalf of the Deal Town Team I want to thank everybody who sent in letters of support for the town’s bid for £100,000 of Mary Portas Pilot money to regenerate our High Street. The letters have come from councils, business people, community groups as well as individuals.

"The letters have been truly heart warming, showing the enormous pride that the people of this town take in their town centre. But they have also illustrated the measures we still need to take to make this town the best that it can possibly be.

"Now we can only wait. We expect to hear the results of the bid in midsummer. Whatever the outcome, the Deal Town team is here to stay."

Townsfolk were surprised to see what was possibly Deal’s biggest ever knickerbocker glory at Deal market.

It was one of the town team’s more unusual preparations in their bid for Portas Pilot money, for which a three minute video also had to be made and submitted.

The ice cream was symbolic of the variety of ingredients needed to make the Portas bid successful, including enthusiastic community backing.

A town meeting will be staged soon to share with the community the thoughts and ideas in the bid.

See this week's East Kent Mercury for the full story.