Disease of apathy still has town in its grip

Last Saturday we saw some of the best and worst of Ashfordian attitudes. As Mrs B and I walked through County Square what did we see? A couple of vast bat-figures on stilts interacting with the public. Interacting?

As far as I could see, masses of adults wandered past with deadpan expressions on their faces. Some even hurried their children past with frowns of disapproval.

These are probably the puritans who call for universal smoking bans and heavier fines for littering, despite the fact that many of them displayed clear signs of extreme obesity (whatever happened to the old image of fat, smiling faces as indicators of sunny dispositions?)

The children who were allowed to join in the fun did so with gusto.

And then. In the town centre were two splendidly moustachioed, white-face mime artists entertaining a growing crowd with their antics.

They co-opted some members of their audience (including yours truly) to assist them. As the crowd swelled, Mrs. B heard a woman say (despite the clear evidence to the contrary) “They’re not good enough to hold an audience”.

When I first arrived in the town in 1987, I chatted to a chap in the late, very much lamented Castle pub who advised me that one of the things of which I’d soon become aware was the oppressive cloud of “Ashford Apathy” pervading the town. How right he was.

Sadly, despite the council’s valiant efforts to make improvements to the town in recent years, the apathy quotient seems not to have reduced.

Perhaps the vast numbers of folk imported to justify the over-thetop house building programme will help to dilute this, at least temporarily.

Could it be that the suspicion persists that, while numbers of worthwhile projects have been approved by the council and some have actually begun to appear as reality – the new college building, the development to the South of Elwick Road, for example – we still have insufficient funds being applied to assist the disadvantaged members of the community.

Perhaps the departure of Kid Cameron from the top spot will make some difference to those at the bottom of the heap.

‘Masses of adults wandered past with deadpan expressions on their faces’