Fix the holes before building new roads

With the substantial improvements and widening of Chart Road announced last week, many will remember the turmoil previous works to upgrade the town’s network of narrow and sometimes worn out streets caused. Much of this work started at the beginning of the 1970s and lasted well into them. While you can’t argue with the need to sort out the road system of our fast-growing town, it’s often what was lost and sacrificed to go ahead with such plans that’s the worry.

While the plans to resolve the bottleneck at Chart Road are a necessity, one fails to be amused at the state of our current road network and the number of dangerous potholes there are in Ashford – let alone the whole county. Before such massive projects are tackled, road chiefs need to repair and tackle the disgraceful and considerably dangerous road surfaces first. Some question their current protocols about things such as size and depth of potholes, which often see them waiting for already bad potholes to worsen – before forgetting about them, and then someone damaging their vehicles or seriously hurting themselves as I did in recent years.

There were of course the road schemes attached to the impending Ringway such as the alterations in 1973 at New Street/Magazine Road and the top of the aforementioned Chart Road that saw a number of dwellings near to the former Prince Albert/Prince of Orange, demolished for a new roundabout. With this being a main arterial route from the A20 into town, it was decided that the original set-up was too dangerous and the focus concentrated particularly on the Chart Road junction which was said to be a notable accident blackspot. Perhaps our existing worn out roads will become accident blackspots if the authorities don’t fix them soon – and that includes the side roads too.

This week, Remember When looks back at the top of New Street in the early 1970s during preparations for the new road scheme. Many thanks once again to Edwin Bartlett of Ashford for donating this week’s images.

Do you have any photographs or slides that you would be willing to lend me, to be scanned and featured in the Express?

Write to me, Steve Salter, Kentish Express Remember When, 34-36 North Street, Ashford TN24 8JR, email me at rememberwhen_kmash@ hotmail.co.uk or follow me on Twitter @SteveKMAshford

You can also leave a phone message for me with brief details by calling 01233 623232.