Kentish Express Ashford & District
Some light relief in the world of politics
Heated, stuffy, tense. The atmosphere inside the Ashford council chamber can sometimes be cut with a knife and never more so than at the planning committee.
Hundreds pack in to the public seating areas in the chamber, with those in attendance ranging from fierce village campaigners and schoolchildren to housing developers fearing the mob.
During the summer, the chamber can get quite hot, to the point that not even a few open windows can really help.
It’s with relief that councillors in these meetings have developed something of a sense of humour in their own rituals and routines to punctuate the proceedings and give light relief to our weary reporters on the press bench.
A recent meeting saw councillors discuss plans for new industrial units in the hamlet of Smarden Bell and Cllr Geraldine Dyer was among those to put her case against the application.
She listed her concerns about the blind bend, the danger to cyclists and walkers, the overbearing nature of the building and more.
Eventually committee chairman Cllr Michael Burgess asked Cllr Dyer to sum up her arguments, understanding that we had all grasped the gist of her concerns.
“I wasn’t aware that members are restricted to three minutes,” she began to say, half protesting. “You’ve had a lot longer than three minutes,” was the reply from Cllr Burgess.
Later in the proceedings and perhaps conscious of the time, councillors were asked to approve a motion. In their haste to do so, Cllr Paul Bartlett, Cllr Graham Galpin, and Cllr Brad Bradford all raced to either propose or second the motion.
As it was, Cllr Bartlett proposed, Cllr Galpin immediately seconded but not to be undone, Cllr Bradford added: “Thirded.”
Cllr Bradford was a little more bullish on an application about site security, where objectors raised concerns about the location of a temporary caravan to house a security guard, fearing it would be used for a residence.
It got short shrift from Cllr Bradford, an ex-police officer for even the most able of politicians but candidates in Ashford’s election have had to manage a more tricky obstacle first.
Reporter Aidan Barlow has interviewed Damian Green and the four challengers lining up against him on Thursday, June 8.
Each candidate was invited to the Kentish Express office in the Park Mall Shopping Centre, where we sat back and watched as one by one they struggled to open the front door.
It is a little heavy and doesn’t seem to open with ease, so we’ve been up and out of our and security consultant, who seats regularly to help other stepped in to put the matter to visitors to come in to speak to bed. us.
“Everyone’s an expert on But, because we’re a bit security. This one’s mine. curmudgeonly, we decided The applicant has confirmed not to lend a hand to the five there is a need for security and candidates and instead watch you don’t put security at the them as they try to work out front, because the site is more whether to push or pull the vulnerable from the rear.” door. Bish, bash, bosh, job done. Thankfully for us they all managed it and thankfully for them, we didn’t film some of their attempts. Navigating the corridors of power can be tricky business