Our Man in Westminster

It is a real pleasure to visit the North School and see the progress made over the past 12 months. I spent last Friday morning at the school’s Pupil Parliament and, in a less planned part of the visit, seeing how the school coped with repeated fire alarms. (Very well, and they were, I am pleased to report, false alarms.)

Most of the questions concerned issues that affect the daily lives of people travelling around Ashford – from the difficulties of crossing Hythe Road to a desire for more bus routes and stops around the town.

We had also had a long discussion about Operation Stack, not surprisingly as the memories of the misery caused in July by repeated uses of Stack linger in everyone’s memory.

However, most of our time was spent discussing the leisure facilities that the pupils thought would be good to see in Ashford. Some of them were a little ambitious, including an ice-skating rink and a water park, but there were also a wide range of suggestions – including a trampoline park, a new youth centre in the town centre, and just more sports facilities.

It was a reminder that many young people are really keen to take part in sport on a regular basis.

It was not all about play. I was also quizzed about the issues of litter and dog waste, and about the need for better defences against flooding.

This part of the morning gave me the chance to praise the work of the Town Centre Action Team, which does good work on stopping litter taking over.

Altogether, it was a really good session with penetrating questions from all years at the school, showing how engaged young people are if you give them the chance.