The Shepway Sports Trust launched its ‘Active 50’ programme, on Friday last week, which has been designed to encourage older members of the community back into sport and physical activity. I was delighted to attend a special event, at the Three Hills Sports centre in Folkestone where people were invited to try out and sign […]
Shepway District Council has announced proposals to submit a bid to the government for support to create a new ‘garden town’ on the land surrounding Otterpool Park Farm, close to the south side of junction 11 of the M20. The council has my full support in its decision to launch this debate, but it is […]
I recently met with Kent's 'Rural plc', an organisation that promotes investment in countryside and farming businesses across the county. Farming in Kent is a big business. Within the county the farming sector alone is worth £5.4billion, employs 85,000 people and, were it to be viewed as a company, would rank 57th in the FTSE […]
The announcement from the Folkestone Harbour company that it is about to commence the next stage in the redevelopment of the town’s seafront is excellent news for the whole district. Following substantial investment from Roger De Haan and over £5million in funding that we have secured from the government, work will start on some of […]
Last Friday I joined Jacques Gounon, the Chairman of Eurotunnel, to officially open the new access area for road freight joining the tunnel’s services at Folkestone. This completes a major investment from Eurotunnel in improving the speed and efficiency of its operations in Kent, that will help both freight, and passengers travelling in private cars […]
Last week I met with David Statham the Managing Director of Southeastern trains to discuss the disruption to services caused by the closure of the Folkestone to Dover line. This line will be out of action for many months until work is completed to rebuild the seawall and viaduct carrying the railway. The consequences of […]
Events in Calais over the last ten days have given us further cause for concern. Firstly, we have seen the threat of the return of major industrial action at the Port. Ferry workers set fire to tyres in protest at the failure of DFDS, as they see it, to honour commitments they have made regarding […]
On Friday last week I was delighted to be able to help present a large number of football kits, donated by the charity Kit Aid, to support the Folkestone based organisation, Green Kordofan. Green Kordofan was started in 2011 by Raga Gibreel, and champions sport for development to support the people of South Kordofan, who […]
Over the last week I have been in contact with many people across the District regarding the proposed lorry parking scheme for the M20 motorway near to Stanford. Given the massive disturbance caused by Operation Stack last summer, there are many people who say we should get on and build the lorry park straightaway, whilst […]
The consultation on the long term solution for Operation Stack has now begun and will close on 25th January 2016. You can find out more about the detailed plans here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/operation-stack-consultation-on-new-lorry-area-launches-today . It is important that everyone has there say. Thanks to the £250million funding that we have secured from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, […]