Eyesore pub site looks like a slum

I think, regarding the Prince Albert in New Street, Ashford, (Calling time on owner, KE, September 17) the council officers concerned need to get out of their beds, wash their eyes and take a look at the slum entrance to Ashford’s town centre.

Visitors arriving from junction 9 of the M20 motorway must think they have hit hell once they have reached the roundabout after the Catholic church. Not only is the old pub a complete eyesore since the fire, but the opposite corner is a wilderness, and now the windows of the nearby British Volunteer pub are also boarded up.

The town will never receive regular visitors from this end until immediate orders are made to the owners of the properties concerned and are put in place to force them to adapt these buildings to living accommodation without losing the character of the properties, without further delay.

We also need to give them very limited time to complete this.

Further the council must consent to good practicable designs without dilly-dallying. Derek Ingleton Smarden An artist’s impression of the new model railway museum computers than trains.

If a toy train museum is to be built surely it should be in Margate, the home of Hornby. Mick Carr Kingsnorth MEPs who although not local are also representatives of the people of Kent.

These MEPs also come at a cost. With community councils in mind, the KE reported two weeks ago that grounds maintenance was to become an in-house Ashford Borough Council (ABC) service, which in turn could enable “the devolution of responsibility to parish councils”. I am concerned that devolving the responsibility could also devolve the cost and this cost would then be paid by the local community not ABC.

This type of devolution could be just one example of transferring cost to the local precept. In other words change the origin or description of the service and charge locally for it but still leave the general community charge at the same level.

Community Councils will become an additional statutory body at an additional cost, that is why I have voted NO. John Eccleshall Willesborough