It is almost impossible to say anything new about the Ring Road, but since this has become almost the only topic of conversation in Ashford, at least among those who have to use it, I feel the need to try. Let me put these roadworks in a historical context.

The universal view in the town for the past decade has been that the Ring Road in its old format was a disaster. It cut the town centre off into a small island, discouraging visitors from coming in, and  therefore prevented Ashford from becoming a proper shopping destination. It was, in short, a classic example of bad 1970s planning.

This was the origin of the plans to abolish a one-way ring road, and replace it with normal two-way roads, across which pedestrians could come and go, strengthening the town centre and allowing new shopping developments to be built. As a result we have the new County Square including department stores and other national retailers, and the prospect of many more people regarding Ashford as a desirable shopping destination.

This is the theory behind the “new” ring road. So far, in practice, it has been nothing but trouble. There are two points to make in the short term . The first is that details need to be changed. There are filters which would help the traffic flow, and the timing of red lights which would help both drivers and pedestrians. The second is that it will be impossible to judge the whole scheme until it is completed, and we can see what the experience of the new town centre has to offer.

In the long term, we have to see whether the new road allows the centre to expand, so that a larger area feels like Ashford town centre. This needs to include the old market, and the station area. If this happens, it will have been worthwhile. At the moment, I know this feels like a big if.

Quietly and without fanfare the biggest transformation of Ashford Town centre for a generation happens this week. Today (Thursday) sees the opening of

Ever since I became Ashford’s MP people have complained that there is nothing to shop for in the Town Centre. This was always a slight exaggeration but there is no doubt that Canterbury and Maidstone have always had more to offer for those who can choose where to go. 

We have never experienced Operation Stack for as long a period as we did last week, so the justifiable anger we all feel has never been as acute. I thought the nadir was reached with a report urging us to ask “is our journey really necessary?”
 

Are we going back to the Second World War? We live in an advanced and prosperous country where we should have the choice to move around in ways that allow us to lead our normal daily lives. I don’t know anyone who thinks about taking the car for a joyride, especially not with petrol at £1.10 a litre. 
 

After years of buck-passing between the various authorities involved, including the Department of Transport, the Highways Agency, and various local authorities, I applaud the way Kent County Council has taken the lead and identified a site for a new lorry park.
 

Even without the recurrent horrors of Operation Stack, Kent would need a new lorry park, but recent events make it all the more urgent. I am aware that any site would be controversial, and those who live very near the proposed site just off the A20 will need some questions answered, but the evidence that this is the best place is powerful.
 

The full details will have to come out in the coming weeks, but it is clear that we cannot carry on using the M20 as the first resort for an emergency lorry park. Not only does it make driving on the adjoining roads miserable, it makes marketing Ashford as a place to do business that much more difficult.
 

We need to take advantage of our location and transport links, so resolving the Stack issue is absolutely vital. We can’t control the way the French behave, but we can decide where to put the lorries, and the motorway is not the answer.

I am always reluctant in this column to write about issues specifically affecting Charing. Because I live there, I am sensitive to the thought that I may be taking more of an interest in an issue than I might otherwise. 

The news that the Cheeseman’s Green development is moving forward reminded me that one of the many issues surrounding the growth of Ashford is the use of flood plain land for development. Last summer’s floods in the West Country and Yorkshire sent a shock through the flood planning system, as areas which had not been flooded in living memory were affected. 

This serves as a warning to us that we need to prepare for the worst when putting new estates down. With this in mind I have been questioning the Secretary of State for the Environment, Hilary Benn, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Group on Flood Prevention. 

Mr Benn told me that the latest Planning Guidance should mean that no developments are approved which do not meet the best standards. In this context it means roads, buildings and gardens that do not produce a rush of surface water into the drains when it rains heavily. 

One significant change is that any property that wants to turn grass or soil into a hard standing area now needs planning permission if the owners want to use a non-permeable surface. This seems eminently sensible to me. 

In terms of planning, the Environment Agency has been given “Strategic Overview” of any emergency. Given the large number of bodies with responsibilities when a flood hits, including local authorities, drainage boards and water companies, I hope that this leads to proper co-ordination. 

In the end, if you are worried about your own house, the best advice is to register on the Environment Agency’s Floodline. If you do that there is a chance you will receive advance warnings to enable you to take the necessary precautions. This may seem pessimistic advice, but it is better than having a house full of water. 

Who says young people are not interested in politics? Anyone who holds that pessimistic conventional view should have been at Canterbury Christ Church University last week for the first in a series of meetings under the title “Making Politics Matter”. As this was an experiment they needed a willing, and possibly foolish, volunteer, so naturally they turned to me. I arrived to talk about my brief as Shadow Immigration Minister, with past experiences of meetings in universities hanging over me. At worst, you can be faced with a large lecture theatre and a small and sullen audience clearly consisting of friends of the chairman dragooned in for the occasion. Our meeting at Christ Church was completely different. A full room with a lively range of views, and a good mixture of current students and interested outsiders who had come along to see what this new project was about. 

It confirmed my view that if you present people of any age with a subject they are interested in they will turn up, even if the format is that most traditional one of a politician making a speech and taking questions. Immigration is certainly that kind of subject, as so many people have a personal experience of it. About half of those present had at least one parent born outside the UK. Even in an age where people can (and frequently do!) contact me through websites and email as well as the traditional means of letter and phone calls there is a hankering for close-up personal contact. Any amount of TV and radio appearances cannot make up for the ability to conduct an actual conversation.  We certainly had a good exchange of views at the university, and I hope that future speakers get such a large and lively audience. The organisers and the university deserve it.  

Does anyone out there run an environment group, charity or sports club which could do with between £1,000 and £10,000 worth of B&Q products? If so, then you will be interested in the “One Living Planet” awards. 

The face of the Town Centre is clearly going to change even more than we thought in the coming months. Not only will we have the new County Square, which is now nearly finished externally, but there is the prospect of a complete redesign of Charter House.
 

This comes with the idea of turning most of the building into flats. On balance I am in favour of this idea for two big reasons. The first is aesthetic; no one could describe the current Charter House as an adornment to the Ashford skyline. It is, to be honest, a bog-standard office block. A new use should herald a new and more modern design.
 

The second reason is the possibility of more people living within walking distance of the town centre. We all know that one of the problems with the centre is that it more or less shuts down when the shops close, before coming to life again some hours later when the pubs and clubs start filling up.
 

The more people live close to the centre the more change we have of cafes staying open in the early evening, giving life to the High Street and surrounding areas. Not only does this look better, I am convinced it makes the centre safer, as deserted streets are often forbidding streets.  I am always struck by the finding that many young people living in Ashford are themselves afraid to walk round at night.
 

No doubt there will be many problems that people think of in relation to the conversion of Charter House. I very much hope that these problems can be successfully overcome so that we can have a new-looking building and some new town centre residents. We would all gain from that.

gencyEvery so often an official letter arrives in my office which contains such a ridiculous phrase that it needs sharing with the wider world. So for those of you fortunate souls who have never had to deal with it, welcome to the land of the Child Support Agency. 

I cannot improve on the CSA’s own prose to illustrate how useless they are. Only the name has been disguised, for obvious reasons. 

“Unfortunately Ms X’s case has broken on our computer system, and our only option is to assess and maintain the case clerically. As part of the Agency’s improvement plans the case is awaiting assignment to a case worker on a specialist clerical team. At present I do not have any timescales as to when this will happen.” 

It is the phrase “As part of the Agency’s improvement plans” that deserves an award as the most implausible use of the English language so far in 2008. The fact that the computer is broken so the case has to be handled manually, and the CSA has no idea when, if ever, this will happen, is apparently not only part of the plan, but part of the improvement plan. 

All I can say is thank God the CSA is not planning to get worse. I am also struck by “I do not have any timescales.” “When are you going to put that shelf up?” “I do not have any timescales as to when this will happen.” 

While we can, and should, laugh at the use of language, it disguises an unfunny reality. People only use language like this to disguise the truth, which in this case is an organisation which is falling apart. The CSA is simply not up to performing its important task. 

This is going to be a momentous year for the shops in Ashford Town Centre, with the opening of the new enlarged

Of course the numbers coming will in part be dictated by how much money people have to spare, and the signs on that front are not good. The economy is clearly slowing down, and with big increases in energy prices to come, which in turn will feed through to food and other essentials, it is unlikely to be a great year nationally for retailers. 

Interestingly there seems to be something of divergence between the local and national figures for shopping over Christmas and the New Year. Nationally the big chains, and the British Retail Consortium, are reporting a flat picture, with very little increase over 2006. 

However in Ashford things have looked more cheerful for the shops, especially in the days immediately before and after Christmas. It looks as though many people held back until the last few days, and then splashed out for Christmas itself, and again in the sales that followed. 

This makes the year that much more unpredictable for Ashford’s shops. If the trend continues that shoppers here are less constrained than in other areas of the country the new

Long-term, we must all hope that people who have not considered making Ashford their shopping centre before are encouraged to come in and try it. This will benefit not only the new shops but also the existing ones, as the footfall in the town centre increases. Fingers crossed!