Article For Folkestone Herald and Kentish Express

13 January 2005

Last Friday began with a breakfast meeting of the Shepway Business Forum, which I Chair, at the Leas Cliff Hall.

This was an open meeting to enable the Forum to report on the progress we have had since the Forum was established a few months ago.

It was extraordinarily well attended with over 200 people present. The speakers included Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart, Leader of Kent County Council, Robert Bliss, Leader of Shepway District Council, Alistair Stewart, Chief Executive of Shepway District Council, Pam Alexander, Chief Executive of SEEDA and Roger de Haan. The developers of the town centre and the potential developers of the harbour also spoke.

All agreed that the prospects of our area have never been more exciting. The things we have been wanting to happen for such a long time are now beginning to take off. I have always said that the potential of our district is enormous. The Business Forum may prove the catalyst which will actually cause things to happen. I certainly hope so.

Later in the morning I went to New Romney for a meeting with the Town Council on mains drainage for the town. It was attended by representatives of Southern Water, the Environment Agency and Shepway District Council.

Southern Water’s plans are now well advanced and a long promised, long awaited mains drainage scheme for the town will become a reality in the next couple of years.

The project, however, is still bedevilled by the inability of two Government regulators, the Environment Agency and Ofwat, to agree on whether a long sea outfall is necessary. The Environment Agency says it is. Ofwat says it is too expensive and is refusing to authorise the necessary investment. Unbelievably DEFRA, the Government Department involved has refused to arbitrate. I shall be taking up this scandalous state of affairs with Margaret Beckett, the Secretary of State for DEFRA to see what can be done to remedy it.

Later in the day I attended a meeting with leading representatives of Folkestone churches and civic leaders, which I had called to discuss Shepway’s response to the Tsunami victims.

We acknowledged that many people in Shepway have responded very generously to the Disasters Emergency Committee Appeal. But we renewed the appeal to those who have not yet got round to giving, to do so via the DEC telephone lines on 0870 60 60 900.

We also talked about the need to ensure that the need for help with reconstruction was not forgotten once the media spotlight moves on. To this end we suggested that an attempt should be made to match Shepway with a local community in one of the countries affected, probably Sri Lanka. Schools in Shepway could be matched with schools in the local community concerned. So could churches and mosques. Students in their gap year might want to spend some time with a reconstruction project in the local community affected. Holidays could be provided in Shepway for children from the affected areas, paid for through funds raised locally. And people with particular expertise might be helped to visit the area concerns to help directly in the work of reconstruction. The plan is for Shepway District Council to co-ordinate this effort and the council have responded favourably. I am pursuing the possibility of setting up a scheme of this kind nationally but I hope Shepway will be one of the first local authorities to take part.

In the evening I attended a meeting on crime and anti social behaviour held by Kent County Council Local Board at the Civic Centre. 

As well as representatives of County and District Councils, Superintendent Paul Brandon was present and we all answered questions from the public. Crime is clearly a very serious problem in our area. I believe the police are doing what they can with the resources and constraints with which they have to operate. We need more police officers, freed from the burden of political correctness and paperwork. My Party is pledged to provide over 1000 extra police officers for Kent, over a period of time and we will take vigorous and determined action to cut the form filling.

That may have to wait a few months but the meeting was certainly a useful opportunity for members of the public to air their concerns on an issue that is of absolutely vital importance.