THERE'S good news on the jobs front in Ashford. Rail company Carillion spent a day at Ashford International hotel last week to recruit 85 people to work on its new contract.

Around 500 people from around the country attended the recruitment drive on Wednesday to find technicians, track workers and signalling specialists for the Ashford to south-east London contract.

Barry Watson, recruitment manager for Carillion Rail said: "It's been a fairly good response for the jobs. "We had a lot of people through between 11am and 1pm. I thought we were going to be overwhelmed.

"They came from all over the place. A lot of people have got experience in different areas of railways."

He said that the firm could be advertising for more jobs next year after the contract got under way in January.