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    I went this evening but left just after the start of the Q&A session

    Ingleton's presentation on St James's, as always, was delivered in his dreary monotone and told us very little other than the sub-contractors are pressing on with the work, there is no main contractor yet but negotiations are ongoing and that the intention is to open late 2017 but this will be driven by the tenants. This was all pretty much well know or deduce-able from the photos on numerous websites of progress. his only other point of note was that the master planning of the Dover Waterfront scheme is progressing well.

    Neil Wiggins gave a good if slightly over long presentation on the Town Teams scheme for the Market Square area; this included the artist impressions of what it will look like which to be fair is pretty impressive and if it gets the money will make a big difference to the look of that part of town. The funding decision is expected late March/early April. The money is from the Coastal Communities Fund, The work must start within 6 months of the grant award and be completed by Dec 2019, though Neil stated it was hoped to complete Dec 2018.

    Finally Allison Burton gave a very cursory and speedy presentation on Love Dover.
    She told us nothing of the reasons for the lack of transparency around the legal structure fiasco but did confirm that the Charitable Interest Organisation was formally registered on 4th January.
    She mentioned that they were in the process of appointing additional trustees and that applications were being received but did not disclose how one could apply, or who other than herself were the current trustees.
    She mentioned the first purchase in passing and when questioned said that it was chosen as it had the potential to be a "quick win" (my words) in terms of conversion of the upper floors to residential accommodation and therefore lead to a reduction in the business rates for the retail premise.
    Certainly I learnt nothing new and most of what was said is already here, albeit across a number of threads, on this forum.

    I gave up with the Q&As when someone suggested we look to Folkestone & Whitstable for our inspiration on how to regenerate - clearly he has not been to Folkestone recently and seen the negative impact the Asda shopping mall has had on Guildford Street, the lower high street and upper Rendezvous Street or cottoned on to the fact that they have a major benefactor in De Hahn, equally they missed the fact that Whitstable is nothing like Dover - one is a fishing town with a quaint high street and the other is an industrial port town with 13m people transiting the town each year.

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