00:00What started as a campaign to save an Ashford shopping centre from demolition is now picking
00:05up celebrity support.
00:07Star of TV crime dramas and Hollywood blockbusters, Tom Burke has now joined the calls to save
00:12Park Mall, which he says he regularly shops in.
00:15I have an investment in this place.
00:17It's where I grew up, it's where I still spend a lot of my time.
00:25I would like Ashford to care, I would like the council to care about the right things.
00:31I know they've got a lot to care about, but you know, turning a blind eye to this kind
00:35of thing is unacceptable.
00:38But behind these delivering a petition to Ashford Borough Council, it's businesses here who
00:43are most to be affected by the authorities' plans to pull down the centre.
00:47They have until January to leave their units.
00:50I employ four staff full-time, you know, we pay our taxes, VAT, and they're all very
00:57concerned, as I might, you know, my staff are one month's paycheck away from being evicted
01:02from their homes.
01:03They don't have any money put away.
01:04No one does.
01:05To move, we're looking in excess of 100k just to cut everything out and to find a store.
01:10I've been here nearly 10 years.
01:12Would have made my 10th anniversary in September of this year.
01:18Being forced out of an almost subsidised site so that they can knock up some flats is a bit
01:26painful.
01:27It comes after the council decided to close and knock down the Park Mall shopping centre
01:31after Ashford Borough said it had been running the site at an unsustainable loss.
01:36The plan is to replace the centre with an interim multi-storey car park, while plans to build
01:40flats on the land remain in the pipeline.
01:43With the council standing firm on its decision to demolish Park Mall, those in favour of this
01:47petition are now calling for an amendment which would see parts of the shopping centre
01:51in best condition saved from facing the bulldozer.
01:54I don't personally believe that we should demolish the entirety of this shopping centre.
01:59There's an awful lot of traders that are going to lose their livelihoods, their investments,
02:02and there's an awful lot of people that are going to lose their jobs, and I just don't
02:05agree with that at all.
02:06This is people's jobs, this is people's livelihoods that are going to go, right?
02:10That is going to go.
02:11It won't exist.
02:12It's like that.
02:13Game over.
02:14And that's not good enough for me.
02:15Because in my heart, I'm passionate about this town centre.
02:18In a statement, Ashford Borough Council told us the asset cannot support a continued managed
02:23decline anymore.
02:24The proposed residential-led mixed-use development will serve as a catalyst for the regeneration
02:29of the town centre, bringing new energy and investment to the area.
02:34Almost 1,200 people have called for the council to U-turn on its proposals, so with deliberations
02:39to continue at the civic centre, many of those will be keeping their fingers crossed that
02:43the bulldozers can stay parked for now.
02:46Bartholomew Hall for KMTV in Ashford.
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