Stalking development’s mysterious stags

You may not be aware of it but Ashford is at the centre of a wild stag mystery. In last week’s paper we reported how councillors were expected to approve a development for 660 new homes, shared public spaces and a cafe near the town centre – on the former Powergen site.

The article was illustrated by an artist’s impression from developers U+I and Quinn Estates, who have submitted plans for a mix of flats and houses on currently vacant land off Victoria Road.

But only the most observant among you will have spotted the magnificent – but tiny – stag in that artist’s impression.

So when we checked other artist’s impressions also sent to us by the developers we were delighted to discover the stag was in all of those too.

He’s in four of the impressions and is even given a wonderful gold coat in one of them.

We haven’t been able to ascertain whether the idea is to have a big stag sculpture as a feature of the development or whether whoever created the artist’s impressions was just having a bit of fun.

A call to the developers was greeted with amusement by the person who answered the phone but as yet we haven’t been able to discover why the stag is in the computergenerated drawings.

So in effect it’s a bit of a stag do but once we unravel the mystery rest assured you will be the first to know. Ashford is set to bloom this summer after scores of colourful flower planters have again been dotted around the town centre to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday.

As part of the celebrations, Ashford Borough Council has doubled the number of planters filled with petunias, alyssums and verbenas.

For this year only, a total of 60 planters have been scattered around the town, compared to the usual 30 to 40. The planters, which are being rented by the council from Amethyst Horticulture, contain purple, red and orange flowers which will brighten up the town centre throughout the summer months and into the beginning of autumn.

The weather may have been pretty rubbish for the past few weeks but brace yourself for a “scorchio” next month.

Research (oh how Nuts and Bolts loves a bit of research) shows that Sunday, July 17, is set to be the hottest day of the year in the South East, with temperatures predicted to reach 31°C.

And despite predictions that this summer was going to be one of the hottest for years 61% of Brits don’t believe it will be a scorcher.

And, apparently, two-thirds of us prefer cooler summers.

Weathermen say this summer is set to be our hottest for a hundred years, with a blistering “heat surge” winging its way over from the Continent to bring us heatwaves and nonstop sunshine.

Outdoor heating specialists Glowing Embers has pinpointed which day of the year is statistically the hottest, after painstakingly going back through 30 years of average temperatures.

And they reckon that July 17 is going to be the sizzler to end all sizzlers this year.

We hope so too, but will be believe it when it happens.

Meanwhile Richard Fewings, director of Glowing Embers, said: “If there’s one thing we can rely on it is that we can never really rely on the weather! But we’re going to keep everything crossed that this year, we do have a Great British Summer.”

And if 2016 is a hot one, look forward to all the “phew, wot a scorcher” headlines.

Ashford Borough Council has doubled the number of planters in the town centre