It was a great honour to be re-elected as your Member of Parliament last week, and I would like to thank everyone in the Folkestone and Hythe constituency who voted for me, for their support. As always though I will work to represent everyone in our area, regardless of their political beliefs. My first surgeries following the election are being held in Folkestone this Friday, and you can call my office on 01303 253524 to make an appointment. The general election count at the Three Hills Sports Centre in Folkestone was a long night at the end of a long campaign. The teams who ran the polling stations and counted the ballots did an excellent job in making sure that everything went smoothly, and I would again like to send my thanks to them.
For the last few months there has been a great deal of concern that the result of the general election would be unclear, leading to weeks of negotiations in the attempt to form a new coalition. Thankfully the voters made sure that didn’t happen by electing a single party Conservative government with a clear working majority. On Monday we were all straight back to parliament and the Prime Minister has started work forming his new government. Amongst the first appointments was for Amber Rudd, the MP for Hastings and Rye, to become Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. One of my long running campaigns has been to secure a long term future for nuclear energy at Dungeness, with the construction of a new ‘C’ power station. It is therefore great news that the new Energy Secretary is an MP from the neighbouring constituency, who understands the positive benefits that nuclear power brings to our local economy.
The new government’s top priority remains securing our economic recovery; creating new jobs and opportunity for all. Locally, this means continuing to support the growth of local businesses and the regeneration of the old town and seafront in Folkestone. A few weeks ago I visited the impressive restoration work that is being carried out on the harbour arm. This is due to open to the public this summer, and will be soon become a popular attraction for the town. Earlier in the year I secured a £5million grant from the government for the Folkestone harbour company to help pay for some of the infrastructure needed to support the wider regeneration of the seafront, and I hope that further work commences on this later in 2015. The plans recently unveiled by the Roger De Haan Charitable Trust to create an urban sports centre in Tontine Street, comprising of biking and skateboard parks, and a new boxing club, is another positive and exciting development for the town. The plans for this new centre will be on public display next week at Sunflower House on Foord Road in Folkestone on 15th and 16th May. Please come and have a look and have your say in the consultation on the proposals.
