Xavier Bertrand, the President of the Haut-de-France region, which includes the towns of Calais, Lille and Amiens, has called for major reforms to the management of the border between our two countries. Under his proposals, new ‘hotspots’ would be created where refugees currently living in and around the camp in Calais, known as ‘The Jungle’, […]
Congratulations to everyone who received their A level and BTEC results last week. We have seen some excellent results from all of the schools in the District, which reflects the hard work of the students and their teachers, as well as the support they will have received from their friends and family. The Folkestone School […]
Last Friday Highways England published their consultation on the design and management of the Operation Stack relief lorry park. The consultation will be open until 23rd September, and you can find out more about it by visiting the Highways England website. They have also organised a series of public information events about the proposals, starting […]
On Friday this week the Department for Transport will publish the details of the final consultation on the delivery of the Operation Stack relief lorry park, at the Stanford West site. The decision over the preferred location for the lorry park has been made by the government and this final consultation concerns the details of […]
This Saturday will witness the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. The event brings together billions of sports fans watching around the world, who will follow the 10,000 athletes competing in over 300 events across 28 different sports. There is truly nothing else like the Olympics. Folkestone will be […]
Massive disruption returned to our roads last weekend, as a result of long check-in delays at the Port of Dover. The lengthy queues were caused by detailed passenger and passport checks being carried out by the French border force at the ferry port. This was in response to the heightened level of security threat in […]
Last week I met with John Gale and Terry Noakes at the Folkestone Trawlers Association, to discuss the outcome of the referendum on Britain leaving the European Union, and its impact on our local fishing industry. This is now an opportunity to re-write the rules as the UK prepares to withdraw from the Commons Fisheries […]
This week Britain will have a woman Prime Minister for only the second time in its history. I am delighted that Theresa May has been elected as the new leader of the Conservative Party and I believe that she will give the country the direction it needs at a time when there are many challenges […]
This week the Conservative Party starts the process of electing its new leader and our next Prime Minister. The Conservative MPs will reduce the field of five candidates to two, and those names will then be submitted to a ballot of all of the members of the party across the country. The winner of this […]
The referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union last week was one of the greatest democratic exercises in our history. Over thirty-three million people voted with the result producing a victory for the leave campaign. I campaigned for a different result, because I believe that staying in the European Union would be better for […]