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Reporters turn 'grimebusters' to clean town centre

A team of reporters turned ‘grimebusters’ to highlight stories about their town’s dirty town centre.

A year ago expensive new granite pavements and block paving were unveiled in Ashford as part of a controversial new ‘shared space’ scheme which allows pedestrians and vehicles to share the same areas.

The Kentish Express has published the latest in a series of stories which centre on complaints from traders and shoppers, saying the new shared space areas are filthy and stained with drink spillages and chewing gum.

The Express says that both Kent County Council and Ashford Borough Council say they have been unable to find a way of cleaning the ‘shared space’ area adequately and investigations to find a solution are continuing.

So the Kentish Express muckrakers decided to have a go themselves and do some street cleaning.

Reporters Sam Lennon, Luke Hollands and Thom Morris spent time out on the streets tackling the stains.

News editor Alastair Irvine said: “We just thought it was a fun way of making a point to the councils that something needs to be done urgently.

“They seem unable or unwilling to sort it out so we thought we would get stuck in ourselves.”

A video of their efforts can be seen on kentonline.co.uk.

  • (L to R): Luke Hollands, Sam Lennon and Thom Morris put in
    some elbow grease to clean up Ashford.