Ashford Mediation Service

For more than 20 years, AMS has been helping people across the Ashford Borough area with their neighbourhood, family and intergenerational disputes. Thanks to grant-aid from the Borough Council, our mediation services are provided free of charge within the local community by our trained volunteer mediators, who enable people to talk about problems and reach solutions, by listening to, supporting and guiding them.

Our mediators help people deal with all manner of problems. Noisy neighbours; Parking disputes; Boundary disputes; Shared driveways; Behaviour of children and/or pets; harassment or abusive behaviour; these are all quite regular occurrences. But also familiar are relationships in families that have broken down between children and parents, or access to children when partners split.

Whenever possible, the early engagement of AMS is really important. Finding early solutions and preventing problems deteriorating to more damaging levels, is by far the best path. Civil disagreements between two parties have a tendency to spread and involve families and friends, and affect other neighbours and the wider community; and some can turn nastier still and turn civil issues into criminal ones, an outcome that everyone wants to avoid.

Escalation like that is costly. Whilst it can have a severe effect on a person’s mental health and general wellbeing, such social problems often require costly interventions from our public sector agencies (typically social services, health and social care services, maybe education and children’s services, plus the Police of course); and take resources away from where they are badly needed at a time when those resources are increasingly squeezed.

If you would like further information about AMS and our mediation services you might visit our website, or get in touch with us yourself, especially if you become aware of a developing situation that would benefit from our input. Our website also explains the steps involved in the mediation process.

And just a final thought: if you are interested in becoming a trained volunteer mediator, or know someone who would, please let us know. It is a rewarding role, knowing that you are providing practical support and guidance that really does help resolve issues and make a difference in our communities: there is always a demand for more mediators.

Ian Redding, Development Director
Ashford Mediation Service