Local businesses in Ashford are invited to the Lower Thames Crossing ‘Meet the Bidder’ events in September. The event will give businesses to opportunity to learn more about the programme, its ambitions and the procurement process.
The world has seemed particularly out of its normal orbit in the last few days. Just as Parliament recessed for the summer, normally a time for the pace of life to ease up, we faced another outbreak of traffic problems, a serious water shortage, and the battle to be the next Prime Minister.
We all know that there is a great squeeze on spending at the moment, because of inflation, but it is fascinating to see how Ashford compares with the national picture on this. For the statistics in this column I am indebted to Barclays’ Local Insights publication.
I have been contacted by hundreds of constituents over the Downing Street parties and the Prime Minister’s behaviour. The vast majority of these, many of them Conservative supporters in the past, were hostile to him.
I think we all deserve a week away from politics, and a weekend of national celebrations and tributes to an extraordinary woman and public servant is the perfect alternative.
I know how anxious people are about safety in Ashford Town Centre, so it was reassuring to be shown around the various new measures put in place as part of the Ashford Safer Streets initiative.
It is a small consolation after the problems on our roads over recent weeks, but at least the restrictions on the M20 were lifted in time to give everyone as normal an Easter weekend as possible, with visits to friends and relatives not being interrupted too badly.
At times over the past week we have been plunged back into the worst days of Operation Stack, with the M20 closed completely between Junctions 8 and 9.
The shake-up to the current Ashford area bus routes is certainly causing a large amount of anxiety and distress, more than I can remember in any previous time. So many routes are potentially affected because two separate things are happening.
