Put the date in your diaries, the Olympic flame and torch will be
coming to our area on Wednesday 18th July 2012. As a member of the
House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, one of our
roles in parliament is to scrutinise the plans for the London
Olympics, and to hold the organisers to account. So having asked for
torch to come here it is a particular pleasure for me that we will see
the flame flicker through the streets of Hythe, Sandgate and
Folkestone, as it makes its way from Ashford towards Dover. I’m sure
that this will be a great occasion that will live long in the memory
and I hope inspire new generations of Olympic athletes.
The games are about much more than just the few weeks next summer when
they will be staged. It will be a bumper summer for local tourism
businesses with every bed and camp site expected to be filled. The
Channel Tunnel and Lydd Airport will be busier than usual with inbound
traffic and Kent will also be home to a number of visiting Olympic
teams. Visit Britain believes that the Olympic Games acts as a ten
week global advert for the host country and the boost to local tourism
is noticed particularly over the following five years. A growing
number of local schools have also signed up for the School Games, a
national completion which will hold its finals in the Olympic Park in
May.
Last Friday I was delighted to join the staff at Tesco in Cheriton to
present equipment from the retailer to local primary schools. This was
part of the Tesco for Schools and Clubs programme, and staff and
pupils from Cheriton, Harcourt and St Martin’s primaries were there to
pick up the rewards for all of their voucher collecting. If you would
like to find out more about this you can visit their website
www.tescoforschoolsandclubs.co.uk .
Following that I opened the new hard court sports area at the Home
Farm Trust in Lympne. Hft works to support people with learning
disabilities in Kent, and help them lead more independent lives. It
has been based at Lympne for the last 25 years, and supports 70 people
in our area. Hft has also received considerable fundraising support
from the local community, including organisations like Basepoint and
the Folkestone and Hythe Rotary Clubs.
This Sunday is Remembrance Sunday and I will be joining the Mayor of
Folkestone for the service at the war memorial. This is always an
important annual event when we remember those who fought and died in
the two world wars, and in all of the conflicts since. With our armed
forces continuing their operations in Afghanistan it is particularly
important that we show we remember them. I would like to thank as well
all of the local volunteers who have been collected for the Royal
British Legion by selling poppies over the last two weeks. I hope that
we have another record year to support the Legion’s work with
servicemen and their families.