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Ashford’s ability to continue to attract major investment, despite the deepening recession, is helping to keep the town’s ambitious growth plans firmly on track.

Leading the way is national retail giant Waitrose, which has confirmed its commitment to open its first supermarket in Ashford later this year, creating 140 jobs.

“We welcomed the opportunity to invest in the development of an important part of Ashford,” says Waitrose Director of Development, Nigel Keen. “The store will be part of a new local centre for Repton Park, as well as serving the wider Ashford area, providing a strong retail anchor at the heart of the community.

“Waitrose places great value on becoming part of a town’s fabric and we have worked hard with the developer to ensure this scheme is one that best meets the needs of Ashford and the surrounding area.”

Meanwhile, Britain’s biggest national hotel chain, Premier Inn, has opened a 74-bed hotel on Ashford’s hugely successful and expanding Eureka Business Park, where developer Quadrant Estates has just gained planning approval for four new office buildings. Two other schemes on the park are nearing completion, with tenants starting to fit out shop units.

As well as the arrival of high-speed domestic rail services later this year, Eurostar’s Brussels service has been reinstated. Ashford business commuters now benefit from a week-day service that gets them into the Belgian capital by 9am local time.

Ashford is also bucking the national house-building slowdown after local planners approved construction of 1,600 new homes; while the town’s County Square shopping centre, which launched its multi-million-pound extension last spring, defied the credit crunch last Christmas by reporting a huge increase in sales. Footfall was up nearly 40% at the end of December 2008 compared to the previous year.

Jo James, Chief Executive of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, says such is the momentum of Ashford’s development, it would take ‘extremely severe circumstances’ to have an adverse effect.

“Ashford is extremely well placed to weather the recession and will probably maintain a healthy trading climate, despite problems arising,” she says.

“Ashford has so much going for it that I cannot believe things will grind to a halt. The area is in the middle of a massive expansion which was inspired by the quality of road and rail communications with the rest of the UK and with the Continent, and these are about to be boosted by the domestic high-speed rail link to London.

“While we should not be over-optimistic, and may suffer some slow-down in the future, I think we can be confident that the circumstances which have contributed to the town’s recent activity are bound to remain in place and continue to boost trading opportunities. Businesses in the area have already shown that they have the entrepreneurship and ability to take advantage of any opportunities offered.”

Waitrose and Premier Inn aren’t the only companies showing confidence in Ashford as a good place to do business. According to investment promotion agency Locate in Kent, more than a thousand jobs were created in Ashford in 2008 in sectors including retail, construction and property, business services, leisure and tourism, engineering, financial services and ICT.

Private and public sector investment also continues to be ploughed into the region to provide new health centres and facilities to support Ashford’s rapidly growing population; while Southern Water is installing 4km of sewers as part of a waste improvement programme to support a major development of 4,000 homes.

This summer, Ashford is poised to benefit from the latest fibre-optic broadband technology, with Virgin Media launching its ultrafast (50Mb) broadband service across the region following successful trials in Ashford.

Judith Armitt, Managing Director of Ashford’s Future, the agency responsible for delivering the town’s growth programme, says: “While Ashford is not immune to the effects of the recession, we are managing to hold our own. We’ve received extra government funding and the town centre has been transformed by the new ‘shared space’ scheme.

“The introduction of the 37-minute high-speed train service to London – probably the most significant economic boost to the South East this year – will further strengthen Ashford’s attractiveness as a business location, making it one of the most accessible towns in the UK.

“Continued investment in training, quality housing and commercial development, and improved transport links is vital if we are to encourage businesses to expand or move into the area. The economic upturn will come and when it does, Ashford will be ready to take full advantage.”