Storm St Jude struck the Kent coast on Monday morning, as predicted by the Met Office with a force of over 70 mph. It was thankfully not as strong as the great storm of 1987, but the expectation and preparation for its arrival were much better. In 1987 there was famously no notice, but with […]
This week the government announced that it had reached a deal with EDF energy to allow the construction of a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point in Somerset. This is excellent news for the country and I hope it will prove to be so for Dungeness in the future. The decision to go ahead […]
On Friday evening last week I attended a meeting of the Directors of the ‘Step Short’ First World War centenary project, at the tourist information hub in Folkestone’s Tram Road car park. As the Chairman of the project I have been part of a large number of meetings like this over the last six years, […]
The greatest investment we can make in the future of our community is in the quality of education we provide for our young people. The creation of a new Academy school in Folkestone providing an integrated education for students aged from 3 to 18 is a statement to the ambition people have for the town […]
Maria Miller, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, invited me to speak to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester this week about our work in Folkestone to mark the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War in 2014. The government rightly recognises that this anniversary is an important time for […]