Absurd to be closing our last public toilets

As I wandered through Ashford, I began seriously to resent the way that estate agents have monopolized pretty well all of the most attractive premises in the town centre.

Premises that once would once have been home to all the shops that made Ashford the fascinating town it once was.

Am I alone in thinking it completely absurd that, having removed the majority of public toilets, the council now should be party to the early closing of the two antediluvian toilets left in the town (apart, that is, from the facilities privately owned by County Square?) Are we to assume that our council may now turn a blind eye to anyone forced to use the streets or alleyways in the town when matters become pressing.

How appalling it is that a pensioner should perhaps be forced, possibly, to make such a decision. They use the excuses of ‘vandalism’ and the cost of an attendant to keep an eye open. County Square toilets remain pristine all day long. They are, of course, bright and airy – circumstances which have been proved to increase good behaviour elsewhere. We all know that vandalism and bad behaviour thrive in the gloom and darkness which characterize local public lavatories.

Mrs B was on a bus the other day, travelling along Vicarage Lane. A woman sitting nearby commented on the extraordinary cost of the Cornish floral steam engine. The woman’s nine or 10-year-old lad said something to the effect that they could surely have found better things to spend the money on (out of the mouths of babes...)

We have to wonder, don’t we, why so much emphasis is being placed on ‘Ashford’s railway heritage’? This to the extent that the out of place bandstand canopy had a few wheels incorporated in its design, supposed, apparently, to galvanize population and visitors alike to understand that the town owes its existence to a now-defunct local industry.

I suspect that there is, within the council, a prime mover obsessed by trains. Stalwarts protest that the money comes out of the government’s bribe (sorry, ‘incentive’) to allow building on geenfield sites. I, surely, am not alone in thinking such windfalls should be used to benefit the citizenry at large rather than allowing individuals to pursue their dreams.

‘I suspect that there is, within the council, a prime mover obsessed by trains’