Cllr Heather Hayward Shortlisted for 2020 LGIU & CCLA Cllr Award
The LGIU and CCLA have just announced the shortlists for this 2020 Councillor Awards and our colleague, Cllr Heather Hayward of Ashford Borough Council is among them! Heather has been shortlisted for the 2020 Cllr Awards for Community Champion.
Deliver, Deliver, Deliver!
We visited Ashford MP, Rt. Hon Damian Green today to discuss our thoughts on the government planning White Paper ‘Planning for the Future’ and the more immediate changes proposed to the planning system. Our message was simple; Target the developers and management companies to meet the government housing targets. They land bank planning approvals but […]
Councils are not the planning problem
The pressure on local councils to ‘Build, build, build…’ comes directly from government, is justified on the grounds of the ‘housing crisis’ and ‘driving the economy’ but is in direct conflict with most residents feelings as well as messages about the vital role of green spaces to human health and the environment. Like many of […]
Building a community through a garden…
On a scrap of land next to Belgic Court in The Limes development in Roman Ward, Cllr Heather Hayward is leading a transformation. The land, at the corner of The Limes, Ashford, was a playground area. Five years ago, planning permission was granted to build 8 self-contained flats, with a condition that half of the […]
Kent Challenger Games 2019 – a sunny success for everyone.
The Kent Challenger Games on Friday 12 July brought together about 700 children from a wide range of schools to do something out of the ordinary. Inspired by the Invictus Games, Councillor Winston Michael initiated the Kent Challenger Games in 2017 and intends to hold the next one in 2021. The idea is to use […]
Downs North chooses Conservative…
After a short but intense campaign, the villages that comprise Downs North Ward, last week elected Charles Dehnel, Conservative, to be their Ashford Borough Councillor. For the Ashford Independent team, and their candidate Rachael Carley, it was an extremely disappointing result that perfectly illustrated the challenges of resource and person-power faced by independents. When a […]
Vote Ashford Independent for Downs North on Thursday 18th July
Our candidate for the Downs North by-election on 18th July, is Rachael Carley. The Downs North ward is made up of the villages of Chilham, Godmersham, Old Wives Lees, Molash, Bilting and Crundale. If voted in, Rachael will join the Ashford Independent team of 11 Councillors, strengthening the main opposition group in Ashford Borough Council. […]
Cllr Heather Hayward – Features on Radio Ashford!
Listen to Heather Hayward’s interview featured on Radio Ashford with Phil T below…
Scheme in village given the nod despite fears
Ashford Independents biggest winners in Ashford Borough Election 2019!
With our intense focus on local issues it was a rather strange feeling to see BBC News announce our success in the Ashford Borough Council Elections last week – telling the world that the Independents had slashed the Tory majority. Eleven of our fifteen candidates were duly elected to represent their Wards. The trend was […]