Winter is well on the way and with the colder weather we are all more aware about the cost of heating our home. At the Folkestone business to business event earlier in the year I met local representatives from The Utility Warehouse which specialises helping its customers to find the cheapest tariffs for energy bills, […]
Building and refurbishing more good quality homes to rent and buy, at all price levels, has to be one of our top priorities. We need more homes in the Shepway area to meet local demand, and this pressure will only grow with so many people currently looking to move into the district. The high speed […]
Over the last few weeks we have continued to see very positive signs of growth returning to the economy. The latest figures for unemployment in the Folkestone and Hythe constituency showed the biggest monthly fall in September for over three years. In the last twelve months unemployment has fallen by 20% and the overall rate […]
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 […]
Like most people I have been appalled to read the recently published stories about the terrible conditions in which the builders and workers in Qatar who are constructing the infrastructure that will support the 2022 Fifa World Cup in that country, are being subjected to. It is shocking to hear about their lack of basic […]
On Tuesday I visited the children’s centre in New Romney with Cllr Jenny Whittle, the cabinet member for children’s services on Kent County Council. We were met by the manager Sandi Mortimer, and had the chance to discuss its work with the parents who use it. I’d asked Jenny Whittle to join me in visiting […]