ABC must learn lessons of Brexit

We have just undergone a momentous referendum, basically because we don’t like being told what to do by unelected and unaccountable officials in Brussels.

Perhaps we should also look nearer home at our elected council.

A borough acting as a London overspill in building huge numbers of houses and impacting the lives of thousands of residents, sucking the life out of the town centre and removing the rural identity of many of our beautiful villages.

We have a council having pinkpaper (secret) meetings, with members apparently sworn to secrecy and not allowed to talk to elected parish councils who represent local people, and a council of officers apparently reluctant to discuss their plans face to face with parish councils.

We should use the Brexit example and fight for a transparent and open council serving the residents who elected them.

Yes, of course, people need somewhere to live, but isn’t it a question of housing quantity and location?

We need more low-cost housing for the young who support our economy, teachers, firefighters, police and nurses, not faceless housing estates eating up prodigious areas of productive farmland.

The council has been slow to use brownfield sites under pressure from developers who can make more profit from building on greenfield. Remember the Prescott Plan of 2000? Development in Ashford should be central and concentric, brownfield and infrastructure first. I never thought I would support his words.

A wise press comment on the aftermath of Brexit was “we can unite Britain only if