What a state!

On 26th November, Ashford Borough Council are holding a ‘state of the borough’ debate.  You might be surprised to hear this as the council does not have a long tradition of debate with local people in Ashford, or because you just hadn’t heard about it and find it suprising that an important event like this hasn’t been more widely publicised!  Either way, the resistance can give you the information you need to participate in this important debate.

There is a statement from Paul Clokie, the leader of the council here.  Have a read.  For those of you pressed for time, here are the highlights:

• “For the most part our borough has managed to defy the economic downturn”

But…..

• “Like everybody else the council is affected by the recession with reduced income from services it charges for such as property searches, car parking, building control and planning fees. It is therefore a challenge for us to deliver services within the budgets we have to provide them.

And…

• ” Given the economic climate, reduction in income and resources at many of our facilities and a growing reliance on support from external partners, it is a big challenge to maintain and develop services to meet the needs of a growing population. “

For example….

• ” We are all still producing too much rubbish. A growing population, too much packaging and a general increase in how much we all throw away, places added pressures on our waste and recycling budgets. We aim to increase our recycling levels by 10% over the next three to four years. The current financial pressures mean we are unable to expand our blue box recycling scheme and have had to suspend our successful separate green waste collection service for the foreseeable future.”

Now, it’s not all bad – the council rightly highlight some of the good initiatives and projects they have been involved in:

• Singleton Environment Centre, which received more than 100,000 visitors last year.
• The refurbishments to the Stour centre (although services there have been cut, haven’t they?)
• Proposals to refurbish the Parish church as a community cultural facility
• A “vibrant local arts programme” (hang on, hasn’t this had a cut to its funding too?)

So…a mixed bag in this statement which does its best to present a rosy picture where the impacts of central (Labour) government funding for infrastructure developments, housing and other initiatives are attributed to our (Conservative) council, whilst all the problems and potential cutbacks are blamed on the economic crisis which, by the way, Ashford has “managed to defy”.

The state of the borough debate will be a public meeting that you can submit questions to (in advance) and attend in person.  As they say on the ABC website, “Even if you don’t have a question, why not come along on the night when the council’s Executive and senior managers will not only answer pre-submitted questions but also take follow up questions.”

As you might expect, the Ashford Resistance plans to submit some questions and also to be there for the “follow up” on the night.  If you want to submit a question to the council yourself, there is an online form here.  All questions have to be submitted by 18th November – so you have 5 days!

We want to make sure that, when we ask questions, they are questions that you want answered so we’re using the poll below to collect your feedback on some potential topics – let us know your thoughts by participating in the poll and / or leaving us a comment!