Help shape a sustainable transport strategy in South Ashford

Published: 23/11/2022

Cycling and walking sign in the countryside

Do you live in the South of Ashford area, broadly between Shadoxhurst and Stanhope and/or Kingsnorth and Great Chart? Are there different choices you make about getting to and from work/school/shopping on a daily basis or are you at home more often?

What are your thoughts about different forms of transport and the infrastructure within Ashford? If any of this sounds like something which concerns you, then please take this brief survey to share your voice.

What do we mean when we talk about Green Active Travel or terms like Sustainable Transport? These phrases are at the forefront of a rapidly evolving market for greener forms of transport in the race to slow or even reverse climate change.

We might already be making changes to our own behaviour or our day-to-day choices in an effort to reduce emissions. Or we might be finding such changes are simply too costly to implement. Sometimes it's a combination of time and money that we simply cannot afford when it comes to doing our part for climate change.

Ashford Borough Council is taking a leading role in climate change, which is why the council pledged to make its own operations carbon neutral by 2030. The aim is for the whole of the borough to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Crucially places like the South of Ashford Garden Community (SAGC) should be modelling some of the change the borough is looking to make. The Garden Community was established with principles on environmentalism and sustainability, principles which were set by local people who were consulted during the formation of a Vision for the new community.

Kent County Council and Ashford Borough Council are working in partnership to understand the challenges local people face in getting about. They seek to produce a Sustainable Transport Strategy, which can address some of these challenges.

It’s a strategy that seeks to integrate the SAGC with existing communities, to address increasing traffic problems and to promote active travel such as walking and cycling. This will require infrastructural improvements and greater opportunities to diversify where and at what time we go to work, school and so on.

It will require further innovation in transport technology, greater investment in public transport and improvements to public safety on our roads and footways.