People say there isn't enough money locally. And they're right. Local wages have fallen in real terms by £1,000 in five years. Our wages now lag Kent and the UK.
Wage earners living in Dover & Deal have fallen behind by £2,000 a year compared with Kent and the UK in the last five years. Latest figures say the average local wage is £19,000 - while Kent is £21,000 and the UK £20,000. Unemployment locally has been rising much faster than elsewhere in Kent and home repossessions are a serious cause of concern.
Charlie Elphicke believes these shocking figures are the result of the Government's failure to invest locally and failure to provide our community with its fair share. For too long there has been underfunding locally.
We need a fairer share of investment to get more job creating businesses to move in. We should be better off. This is why we urgently need the road upgrades that should have happened 10 years ago. This is why Conservative controlled Dover Council's regeneration plans are so important. This is why we need a change from talk to action and delivery. A strong voice in Parliament would make a big difference. We absolutely have to move Dover & Deal back into the fast lane and be better off.
Charlie Elphicke and Conservative councillors plan to secure bigger wages and more jobs for Dover & Deal with their "Be Better Off" plan. The plan includes dualling the A2, building the Western Docks, getting lorries out of the centre of Dover, expanding Manston Airport and promoting Dover & Deal as a go to destination for businesses to move to for the best links to Britain and the continent.
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Sorting out the on-going problems with the train service at Deal would do a lot for the local economy of Deal. Dover is certainly promoted as a destination for businesses and leisure, but what hope for Deal with such poor communications? 2 hours 20 minutes to get to Charing Cross since the introduction of the High Speed line.
- Eleanor Inch
When I was young much of the freight that passed through the port was carried by train - there were large martialling yards below the cliffs near Archcliffe Fort. Of course, in those days we had ferries that could carry trains across the channel; today we have the Chunnel, so why can't more of the freight be put back on the rails? I spend a lot of time travelling in the USA and I see far fewer trucks on the roads there than I do on the motorways of Britain - freight is hauled across the continent on trains up to a mile long! It's time we saw more investment going into rail traffic - both passenger and freight - rather than trying to cope with the ever-increasing stream of foreign trucks rolling through our town! While we're at it, let's stop importing trains from Japan, and ships from Holland and Scandinavia, and start building our own again - that would provide even more jobs and cut down on the balance of payments!
- Bill Beer