Community moves offer hope for better days in future

WE’RE still in lockdown, the pubs are shut, we can’t get our hair cut and we’re still unable to spend time with our loved ones. Even the weather’s taken a turn for the worse.

But while there’s a lot to be down about, there’s also some big positives on the way for Ashbourne.

Not only are we in a county that’s leading the way in the race to vaccinate the population, but we’ve got some exciting developments to look forward to.

The community pavilion build is well under way, and progress can be seen on a daily basis up on the recreation ground.

And the district council have treated our park to a bit of a touch-up – which they tell us is just the start of a dose of some much-needed TLC.

And this week we’ve also started hearing what the public would like to see in place of the Elderly Persons’ Rest Room. We really should have seen the inevitable calls for moving the Shrovetide Hug sculpture coming.

It seems to become a hot topic at least once or twice a year. But the reality seems to be that it can’t be moved from Mayfield Road.

Hopefully, one day, that area will become the sporting hub we have always hoped for, and the sculpture will finally feel like it’s been well-placed.

One development we can now look forward to, though, is the transformation of Shrovetide Walk. This really is long overdue and looks very exciting.

An injection of £100,000 into the town centre is of course to be welcomed – and as it comes on top of £70,000 earmarked for transforming the park, and of course the hundreds of thousands being poured into the pavilion project, we have got quite an exciting year to come.

Let’s just hope we can shake off the pandemic sooner rather than later, so that we’ll be able to get out there and enjoy all these welcome changes.