As I recently posted on Twitter, Repton (in the west of Ashford) recently got a £1m new community centre (Repton Connect) at the heart of their community, whilst Bockhanger is getting theirs demolished, with no commitment from Ashford Borough Council (ABC) to build a new one.
Not only is this grossly unfair, but I think it shows that ABC is not thinking clearly, or holistically, about the provision of council owned, and vital, community assets across the whole of north Ashford. Worse I, and many people I have spoken to in the Bockhanger and Bybrook area, are very worried that ABC's direction of travel seems to be towards seeing the whole site around the Bockhanger community centre as an opportunity to develop it for high-density houses, flats, or apartments. Doing this will make developers very happy but isn't doing right by the community of Bockhanger and Bybrook, or the wider Kennington community, or north Ashford.
The sad fact is that Bockhanger community centre is/was the only ABC owned community centre north of the M20 motorway. ABC needs to get on the same page as the community and recognise that, not only is a bigger and better community centre on this Bockhanger site vitally important to the future social cohesion, life, and economic sustainability of the adjacent Bockhanger and Bybrook areas, but that it is also critically important to meet the needs of the wider Kennington and north Ashford communities.
Kennington as an administrative area has an adult population of over 11,000 people. Don't all these wonderful people and communities deserve at least one community facility north of the M20 at least as good as Repton Connect, if not bigger and better?
It's time for ABC to recognise how vital a top quality, and well thought through, community centre/co-located library/community café amenity on this site is, not just to Bockhanger and Bybrook, but also to the wider Kennington Parish/administrative area, and indeed the whole of north Ashford.
The petition is gathering more signatures every day, but we still need many more people to support this petition to reach our target of 1,500 to secure a full public debate about this issue in council.
Thank you for your continued support, but do please share this petition. Even if you have already shared it please share it again with some more people. It is only by spreading the word through social media and word of mouth to friends, relatives, and everyone we know, that we will reach our target of 1,500 signatures.
All the best,
Diccon