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
I was until recently working in London, decent job and decent salary. Due to the increasing cost of travel from Dover to London, I am now working abroad. I have basically been priced off the trains due to cost and as the article says, the wages in Dover are too low plus there are not the jobs. I would have quite happily stayed in Dover if the jobs were there and even taken a pay cut (I would have saved the train fare). For any traveler coming or going to the continent, can anyone give a reason why they would stop in Dover?
- Taff
Dover, the once perceived gateway to Britain is not laughed at as the back passage of England (everyone and their brother passing through and nothing stays). Ever since Duty-Free was abolished on the channel crossing, this area has become a shadow of its former self. There is no incentive to stay at Dover, no desire to visit one of Dover's Charity shops in its otherwise abandoned high street. How can this be overcome without reinstating the incentives to come to one of the farthest reaches in the UK? Any MP who takes on the monster of the Harbor Board is still bound to lose, there has been so many failed promises on local investment and improvement it is unreal. The simple things like the roads in Dover, all the residents pay tax to use them but they go without proper maintenance year after year. It is saddening to watch this once proud town turning the clock backwards to pre-victorian times - serfdom and the feudal system is where we are all headed if were not careful.....
- Ian Palmer