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Brian, for construction of phases 1 and 2 combined, the main contractor has set as an employment minimum 25% local people, recruitment is ongoing now. There was also an opportunity earlier this month for local suppliers to meet the main contractor and offer their services during the construction phase. I hope that there will be more opportunities such as this as the development progresses.
Mr Vic and I often differ over matters to do with the port and the way in which he describes matters is not necessarily the actual way it is, or was, or why things panned out as they have done. It is his opinion and his interpretation of events. I'm fine with that.
I like Mr Vic, he's a good guy with a unique perspective and we always exchange pleasantries when we bump into each other and have had some very good conversations.
It is possible to have a different view and come to different conclusions to someone else without impugning their integrity, no matter how wrong you think they are.
Opposition to the dredge is far from universal within the wider community, so supporting the Board in this area and highlighting that a license refusal will delay the project and adversely impact numbers of jobs created and the quantity and quality of the regeneration activity that I (and so many others) have spent so many years pressing for, is hardly ignoring what the wider community may want.
I have a job to do to protect port outcomes that will benefit Dover and the Port and given a choice between spending a significant additional amount of money (up to 3 times the £6.7m quoted by the Goodwin Sands Group, whilst having 5 times the carbon emissions and with no evidence to suggest major environmental harm from dredging the Goodwins or of any war graves within the area selected for dredging ) to line the pockets of aggregate businesses based in or near London and using that same money to deliver jobs and regeneration for Dover, I choose Dover every time.
All the evidence from this extended process is, or will be (once the additional requested survey is complete), with the MMO who will make a decision on the evidence based facts - environmental, social and compassionate. The sooner the MMO get on with it and announce a decision, the better.