Plan will boost vibrancy in our community

GO anywhere around the world and everyone has heard of Dover. Ours is the strongest of brands.

We were the front line in the battle for freedom 70 years ago.

We are the main route in and out of Britain. Dover has a fantastic brand name.

Deal was the headquarters of the Channel Fleet and is the most amazingly beautiful town with the most incredible seafront experience.

The rural areas of our community offer rolling hills and charming villages.

All in all, we are one of the most diverse, stunning and famous parts of the UK.

Yet there is a shared sense we have not capitalised on what we have quite as we might.

This is what I hope to help change in my service to our community. So I have tabled a plan for us to buy our port.

The Dover people’s port would enable us to focus on making the most of our port and join the town properly to the seafront.

It would make the much-needed regeneration of the seafront easier and faster.

It is my hope that this will also provide us with a regeneration fund to make a real difference to Dover – less those “coming soon” signs that drive us all mad.

Yet putting Dover back on the map is more than just about regeneration. It is about name and fame. This is why I am so keen for the Olympic Torch to be received in Britain at Dover.

It would be a showcase of what we are and what we have.

Making the seafront, the White Cliffs and Dover Castle the centrepiece of the arrival ceremony would remind the nation how great Dover is.

Deal has a great tourism offer. Yet more jobs and money would be created if Betteshangar Business Park can be brought into use. This is why I am so keen on the Hadlow College plan succeeding.

It would create around 1,000 much-needed local jobs.

It would enable more skills education locally. And there is more we can do on tourism if we can see Deal Castle become a centrepiece of the celebration of the history of our town.

More jobs and money is central to my hopes for our community.

The continued development at the industrial zone at Whitfield is something we all want to see.

Already there are exciting developments and I am banging the drum for more to Think Dover and Deal.

Our community is so well placed for the wider UK and the continent. We have good transport links and I want to see us build on what we have.

Please let me know what more we can do together to take our community forward.