The post you are reporting:
If the Trust Port status was working for Dover and if it really truly afforded any protection against being sold off by the next generation of execs and/or government, then I'd say and campaign to keep the status just as it is.
The sad and undeniable facts are that the Trust Port Status has done nothing for Dover and promises nothing for Dover. The even sadder fact is that, as a creature of statute, the Trust Port Status as it stands will always create the danger and threat of private sale whenever the whim of executive or government moves that way. The surest way to ensure that the port will be up for sale again in 10 years time is to maintain the status quo now, or create a modified Royal Charter which, as 'common practice', can be over-written by later legislation just as the existing charter has been.
The 1606 charter was basically written out of existence by the 1954 Port of Dover Consolidation Act and had previously been undermined by Acts of Parliament in the 1830's, 1840's and 1940's. The port has periodically, with some regularity, been placed on the block ready for sale at least 8 times since 1850. If it stays as it is now, then some of you won't be around anymore when it is sold, but I will and I will be forced to watch as a significant proportion of my life and most of the wealth that my company has generated over the last 3 years is wasted because we did not achieve the perpetual protection of ownership that the DPPT proposes and which is lacking in Trust Port Status as currently constituted under UK law.
Most of the members of DPPT are NOT incomers. The vast majority of members are Dovorians through and through from generations back.
The DHB executive and board of directors in partnership with national government are trying to sell the port, that sort of makes it anyone's right to take it over provided they can finance the purchase and demonstrate sufficient financial resilience in their business model to secure its future as part of the UK's transportation network. DPPT is able to meet these requirements, but because we have a different model of ownership, which is mutual, and will not be rewarding executives with shares from embedded value, our proposal will never conform to DHB's requirement. The DHB proposals must therefore be rejected and the Ports Act process brought to a close as a consequence so that the future ownership of the port can be settled permanently and never again be put at risk by executives and politicians. DPPT aims to ensure that that right of ownership, put up for grabs by the DHB, is taken up in perpetuity by Dovorians for the benefit of Dover, the surrounding area and the Nation.
