Kentish Express Ashford & District
Stop moaning at the council about everything
Why is it every week we see letters constantly blaming Ashford Borough Council for everything.
Very often the letters blame ABC for the number of new housing developments and houses being built – ABC does not build houses, nor are they responsible for them being built. In 2003, the then Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, designated Ashford as a growth area, wanting 50,000 to be built by 2030 - but ABC negotiated that down to around 30,000 – so a reduction of 40%.
ABC also has little say in the type of housing that developers want to build and decisions to refuse most be supported by planning legislation (again rules from central government), if everything was turned down then the developer would just appeal, possibly would win then we would have to pay the huge costs involved defending an appeal!
Also, this week ABC were slated for the Newtown Road layout, again this has little or nothing to do with the borough council, the design and layout and the work is the responsibility of KCC Highways.
Like us ABC has to put up with what Highways design and build.
No! ABC is not perfect; but there again is any borough council?
Show me a council that is perfect and I bet they do nothing to make their community any better.
Having dealt with ABC for over
20 years via a parish council, I can honestly say in most areas we get great co-operation and assistance from ABC, far more than 20 years ago.
After all we can all solve the issue of not liking living in Ashford if we want to, try to make our town a better place by volunteering.
There are many organisations that do a great work who will need your help or we can simply move away. Personally, I like the area I live in, so please, if you are going to moan, direct the moan to the appropriate organisation!
Ian McClintock
Great Chart
What do you think? Write to us at kentishexpress@thekmgroup.co.uk
Kennington residents were not surprised to see that Ashford Hockey Club managers are seeking to appeal a council decision preventing them from building houses on their Ball Lane playing fields.
In 2012, the Hockey Club sought to build a 650 unit housing estate complete with major link road on their magnificent Ball Lane site. At that time, the fast-growing club claimed it had outgrown its site and urgently needed more space to grow.
Today we are told that the fast-growing club urgently needs to shrink its land to build nine houses to pay for a new hockey pitch.
It just doesn’t add up.
The land in question is currently used by the Kennington Juniors Football Club.
Under the plans, the Juniors will be forced to play on alternative pitches that lie 400m from the clubhouse without changing rooms or toilets in the middle of a major flood zone on a lease that can be cancelled at any time.
Seeing all the various pictures of times gone by got me thinking about public conveniences that have completely disappeared.
One I remember was under the old fire station in Middle Row.
The buildings are now converted into shops and offices, so presumably the loos have changed to basements for these.
Another one was at the junction of Bank Street and Elwick Road.
It was near the entrance to the Market and by the entrance to Great Mills (remember that?), it was below what is now roughly where the Travelodge has been built.
A third one was to the left hand side of the Station Road entrance to the Memorial Gardens, also below ground. Were these last two filled in to allow building over them?
Because these three were down steps they would not be allowed now because there was no disabled access.
That problem didn’t matter because there were several others that were at ground level.
It would be interesting to know if any of your readers’ memories are as long as mine and can they come up with any more that have disappeared.
I don’t mean the loos in Vicarage Lane car park, they are far too recent.
Jean Rolfe
Kingsnorth Road, Ashford