the website of South Ashford Community Forum
The Minutes of the South Ashford Community Forum Meeting of 9th March 2016 can be downloaded from the Minutes and Agendas page. The minutes are draft until accepted at the next meeting. Please do let us have any comments on the minutes by commenting on this post.
Keep Calmand join
12 noon on the 12th March
Everyone is Welcome
Meeting Point
Victoria Park Fountain
Clean for the Queen organised by Central Ashford Community Forum
A copy of the Draft Victoria Park Masterplan will be available to view before the start of this meeting
This meeting is open to those from outside of the SACF Area who have an interest in Victoria Park
Please join us
at 7:00 pm
on Wednesday 9th March
at South Ashford Baptist Church
Brookfield Road TN23 4EY
All who live or work in the unparished area of South Ashford are welcome
Agenda includes:
Full Agenda available from the Minutes and Agendas page
The following letter has been sent to all residents in the unparished area of South Ashford:
Dear Resident
Early in December of last year, Ashford Borough Council completed a review of how local communities in Ashford are represented and governed. If you are a registered voter living in South Ashford you would have had the opportunity to vote in the ballot on whether or not you wanted a Community Council for South Ashford. Voters in the other unparished areas of Ashford also voted on whether they wanted a Community Council in their areas. In South Ashford, of 9,220 voters, 906 voted for a Community Council and 1,492 voted against. Although the Council stated that the results of the ballot were non-binding they have decided not to create a Community Council for South Ashford.
For sixteen years South Ashford Community Forum has been representing the views of people living and working in the unparished area of South Ashford and helping to communicate those views to Ashford Borough Council, Kent County Council and other statutory organisations. Following the decision of the Council we will continue to provide that representation and will be redoubling our efforts to ensure that we are representative of as many of those who live and work in South Ashford as possible. To do this we need to hear your views and invite you to our next meeting. (more…)
The first meeting of South Ashford Community Forum in 2016 will be held
We are pleased that Stephanie Karpetas, of Sustainability Connections, will be speaking about Community Energy and the Big Energy Saving Network
Please download:
from the Minutes and Agendas page.
The December 2015 edition of the ‘South Ashford’ news-sheet has been published and is currently being delivered to 4,700 residential addresses in South Ashford.
This edition includes an update on the Campaign for Community Councils, advice on treating yourself for winter illnesses, information on how to save on your energy bills and details of proposals for development of the ‘Powergen site’ and other sites in and around South Ashford.
A copy of the News-sheet can be downloaded from the Publications page on this site or by clicking on the image on the right.
Quinn Estates, the company proposing to develop the “Powergen” site presented their proposals at South Ashford Community Forum’s November meeting. (more…)
Even though we are aware that, as stated in the original literature sent to residents, the results of the ballot (for and against) are non-binding on the Council and are one part of the consultation process, we are disappointed with the voting, .
Whilst we appreciate that the Borough Council were trying to maintain neutrality, they could have been more informative regarding the precept. Many people saw the top figure quoted of £88 pa and assumed that the Community Council precepts could be similar. The Council’s literature didn’t indicate why Tenterden’s precept is so large and hence not likely to be representative of the urban areas. This fuelled ill informed statements made against the creation of Community Councils. The situation was not helped by the minimal coverage in the local press, despite this potentially being the biggest change in local governance, in the Borough, since 1974.
If the Borough Council do not create a Community Council for South Ashford, South Ashford Community Forum will continue do its best to represent the views of the residents and will seek increased support from the Borough Council to enable us to do this more effectively.
South Ashford Community Forum 9th November 2015
Kentish Express 12 November 2015
Quinn Estates, the company proposing to develop the “Powergen” site will be presenting their proposals at South Ashford Community Forum’s next meeting.
The meeting will be
at 6:15pm
on Tuesday, 17th November
at South Ashford Baptist Church
Brookfield Road, Ashford, TN23 4EY View on Google Maps
The proposals are for 622 apartments and 28 houses on the site that comprises most of the undeveloped land either side of Victoria Way.
Quinn Estates have kindly provided South Ashford Community Forum with pdf copies of the display boards. We have posted links to the files below.
Parliament WeekThe meeting falls in Parliament Week. There will be a session on the theme of “Do Democracy”
We are planning another edition of the South Ashford news-sheet for distribution at the beginning of December. If you have any community news, information or events, relating to the Forum Area, http://southashford.org.uk/index.php/about-us/, that you would like included please send details as soon as possible. The earlier we receive the information the more likely the item will be included, but the final date for any item is 13th November. We will list the date, title and venue (or web address for further information) for any community event. If you would like more information included we invite you to take an advert.
We are also seeking advertising to fund the news-sheet going forward. If you know of any businesses or organisations that would like to advertise, please ask them to contact us.
Following this edition, we are hoping to produce another edition in March.
This edition will be distributed to 4700 homes in the Forum area. We will endeavour to distribute it to as many businesses and organisations as is practical.