One Passionate Campanologist (Pun Intended) and Ashford's Public Sector Finances

Following the national press interest process of bellringer Chris Cooper in his tent at St Mary's Church, I feel that such passion and dedication to the cause merits comment.

I went round to the churchyard on Friday to see if I could get the opportunity to speak to him. However, having been round three times, I realised that he must have indeed been moved on.

Given that the front page on the Kentish Express identified he will impending him on a hunger strike, I was naturally concerned.

It seems that Mr Cooper was moved on on Thursday following the groundbreaking ceremony (no pun intended).

There are a lot of pertinent points to be raised from about the redevelopment of St Mary's Church.

Firstly, the development has an integral selling point to The Church, as it will mean that any damage to the 12th century property will be repaired by money from the grants and Ashford Borough Council rather than the Dioceses having to foot the bill. After all, they've just hosted the Pope coming to the UK, they couldn't possibly have the money to make minor structural repairs.

Secondly, it is worth noting that the money allocated to the churchyard is ring fenced for creative arts development. Therefore, in spite of Mr Cooper's valiant protest, the money could not be used to save the magistrates and county courts within the town. Nor could it be used to install CCTV camera or fund extra presence roles of the churchyard to help mitigate antisocial behaviour levels. This is the legacy you may or may not agree, with but ultimately it is hard to overthrow.

Thirdly as fellow Liberal Democrat campaigner Jeremy Adby points out, the redevelopment of St Mary's Church is already costed a terrifying £191,000 and that was without the ground being broken.

When facing a significant public sector deficit, ludicrous introductions of charges for advertising on the high street and regularly soaring council tax, it is shocking that so much money could be invested into something that hasn't happened yet.

Chris Cooper is quite right to question where our public finances go, our council tax has been rising above inflation levels for a significant number of years, and in addition to localise "stealth taxes", we do not seem to be reaping many benefits in Ashford.

In the last two years we have lost our custody suites, we may soon lose police station, our PCSO budgets have been halved so the number of community support officers on the street has been affected accordingly, potholes have worsened, our green waste collection has been withdrawn,wardens have been removed from older people's accommodation and the council are now charging for Lifeline and high street notice boards. If all of this is going to fund the development of the church, I would rather they paid more attention to the fundamentals of society.

We may have low expectations of what Borough councils are meant to provide, but it has to be agreed that rubbish collection, community safety, housing, and care for older and younger people is integral to the services they have. I would prefer to see the council concentrating on fulfilling these services to the highest quality before investing vast amounts of money in something that has raised so much controversy, passion and debate, especially when other services are so greatly needed.