News

Backing Kent Business at the House of Commons

As part of my "Backing Kent Business" campaign, Kent County Council made a promise to Kent businesses that we would lobby Government on their behalf to rationalise some of the spaghetti of overbureaucratic regulation which makes it so tough to do business in the current recession. On Wednesday of this week, KCC Leader Paul Carter and I delivered on that promise. We presented the case to a crowded Committee Room A at the House of Commons in a session chaired by Andy Love MP, Labour member of ...

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Getting things done for local residents

There's so much we need to do over the next four years in St James', Sherwood and Pembury, and whilst out and about in Camden Road on the Sunday after the elections, it was good to see that the street light repairs I've been pushing for in recent months had finally begun.

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It's here, and it's a week early - our Sandhurst Crossing

On Tuesday morning, I drove to County Hall via Sandhurst Road to meet with some of my friends and formally 'open' our new pedestrian crossing. Lynn Martindale and her guide dog Ellie; representatives from St Philip's Church; Keith Marden and a contingent from Sherwood Park Primary School; Jenny Bays and her daughter and PC Liz Wadey all took time out of their day to 'test' our new crossing. Looking like a crowded version of the Beatles "Abbey Road" album cover, we crossed the road again and ...

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Quarry Road toilets - what a difference!

Travelling down Quarry Road in St James' yesterday, I was struck by the huge difference which finally demolishing the awful toilet block outside St Barnabas Church has made. Although there's still fencing up for health and safety reasons, you can start to see what the view will be like. We'll be able to see the church itself - an imposing jewel in St James' crown - and the area will not only look cleaner and tidier, but also be safer for local residents, and the children attending the ...

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Topping out at Pembury Hospital

Yesterday afternoon, I was invited by the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust to attend the 'topping out' ceremony at the new Pembury Hospital. Although still very much a building site, the last of the concrete was poured yesterday in the acute hospital building. Laing O'Rourke's Chief Operating Officer Tony Douglas highlighted the difference between the state-of-the-art hospital and the original Victorian workhouse which has stood on the site since the 1860's. "Topping Out" he ...

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