Here is my latest Newsletter - it is a long one, but hope you find it useful/helpful and interesting.
Good Morning.
First of all, I would like to apologise for not sending news of some recent events and public information, but my laptop has had some serious difficulties - hopefully, now all resolved.
In today's Newsletter, I have information on:
Western Heights Preservation Society Fund-Raising Concert.
Brighter Dover Fund-Raising Concert
Dover District Council's Council tax for 2013/2014
Kent Highways "Find It - Fix It" Pot-hole campaign.
Pencester Road closed for resurfacing
Dover's "Big-Local" £1 million fund update
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The Western Heights Preservation Society are holding a concert in Dover's Town Hall in May, to raise funds to allow them to continue and expand the work they do on the Heights - new tools and materials will help them continue this very valuable work. You may even want to join them as a volunteer - please visit their web-site:
www.doverwesternheights.org
Here are some details:
The Mission Gospel Choir of Folkestone, on behalf of the WHPS, present a great evening's entertainment, on Friday 10th MAY 2013
•doors open at 7:00pm and the concert starts at 7:30pm
•20 mins interval
•finishes at 10:00pm
•light refreshments and toilets with disabled facilities are available
Dover Town Hall, Biggin Street - Limited seats available, so book now.
Stalls are £5.00 - Balcony seats are £7.00* - *No disabled access to the balcony
Featuring hits from Sister Act, Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Aretha Franklin and many more.
To book your tickets, call in at the Visitor Information Centre in the Market Square, or call 01304 201066.
Don't forget to put it in your diary.
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Brighter Dover are working on a special project now, in the Market Square - they have already carried out many planting projects around Town and this is hoped to be their crowning glory.
Sylvie Parsons is pleased to inform you that Brighter Dover received a £700.00 cheque recently from DTC thanks to Councillor Stuart Dimmock. There is now £3,560.00 in the Brighter Dover Bank Account and an order for the topiary can be placed, once she has banked £5,200.00.
Sylvie has organised a fund raising evening to help Brighter Dover with the Market Place project. It would be great if you could come along to the fund-raising event at the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht club on Saturday, the 11th of May 2013 at 7.30pm for 8pm
The entertainment is provided by the Swing-Time Sweet-Hearts and there is a buffet and a big raffle. There are only 100 tickets available, so book as soon as you can.
Here are the details:
Brighter Dover Fund Raising Evening at the Royal Cinque Ports Yacht Club
The tickets cost £10.00 per person, which include a buffet and raffle; you can purchase them from Mrs Karen Dry at DTC, Tel: 01304 242625
karen.dry@dovertowncouncil.gov.uk or from the RCP Yacht Club Tel: 01304 206262, email:
rcpyachtclub@gmail.com
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Dover District Council's Council Tax 2013/2014
The average total Council Tax bill for households in Dover District is to increase by 1.86% for the next financial year. Dover District Council agreed Council Tax levels at a meeting on the 6th. of March and confirmed that the District Council part of the bill is to increase by 1.86% - an increase of 6p a week for Band D properties.
The average total bill for a Band D property in Dover District for 2013/14 will be £1,484.49. This includes the element of Council Tax for Kent County Council (£1,047.78), Dover District Council (£167.49), Kent Police (£141.47), Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Service (£67.95), and an average for Town and Parish Councils of £59.80.
Dover District Council has one of the lowest Council Tax Band D rates in Kent. For more details, please see the Budget report on the DDC website at
www.dover.gov.uk (click on agendas and minutes, then Council for 6 March).
Residents are also reminded that important changes are happening to Council Tax benefits, discounts and exemptions from April 2013, as part of Government changes - for more information please see
www.dover.gov.uk and click on Council Tax Changes.
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Kent Highways "Find It - Fix It" Pot-hole campaign. A major blitz on potholes has seen more than 2,000 fixed in the last four weeks by Kent's highways team and crews will be carrying out six times more work with the launch of the Find and Fix 2013 campaign
An extra £1.5 million investment is also being made in the county's roads to stop potholes in their tracks.
Kent County Council cabinet member for environment, highways and waste, said: "We have the very best crews in highways who work extremely hard to keep our roads in the best possible condition. They fix potholes quickly and efficiently and the staggering improvement in the time it has taken them to fix potholes this year is a real testament to this.
Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the Automobile Association (AA), added: "It is vital that Kent residents get value for money value from the multi-million pound investment in road repairs and renewal making council tax payers' money go further whilst also improving road resilience and the driving experience. Residents can report defects via their website at
www.kent.gov.uk/highways or by phone on 08458 247 800
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Pencester Road closed overnight - and advice about the buses: Re-scheduled Overnight Closures - Pencester Road, Dover - now from 18 March 2013 for up to 5 nights, 6pm till midnight. The road will be closed for its entire length.
The alternative route is via A256 Maison Dieu Road, Woolcomber Street, A20 Townwall Street and York Street.
As Pencester Road is the terminus for Dover bus routes, included below are details provided from Stagecoach, detailing the effects on bus services.
The resurfacing works are weather dependent, and adverse conditions may delay their progress or prevent them going ahead on the planned dates.
If there is a need for a postponement, revised dates will be notified and signposted on site.
The Kent County Council 24-hour Customer Contact Centre phone number is 08458 247 800 - ask for Resurfacing Team
Buses will have to divert as follows :
All 60/61 town services will divert along Maison Dieu Road, Castle Street, York Street and into Priory Street serving all bus stops en route including York Street layby (this is for passengers requiring Folkestone as these buses will be departing from here only).
All services due to commence service at Pencester should commence service at Priory Street.
All services due to terminate at Pencester will terminate at Taswell Street bus stop.
All 15 through services will divert along Maison Dieu Road, Castle Street, York Street and into Priory Street serving all bus stops en route including York Street layby (this is for passengers requiring Folkestone as these buses will be departing from here only).
The 18:10 and 19:10 15s to London Road will NOT serve Priory Street.
The 18:16 15 (connection) will connect at Taswell Street bus stop and continue route from here, NOT serving Ladywell.
The 20:45, 21:45 (after leaving docks), 22:55 15s to Canterbury should start at Priory Street and continue route.
All services due to terminate at Pencester will terminate at Taswell Street bus stop.
89 services. The 18:43, 19:43 and 21:57 services from Dover to Elvington should commence service at York Street layby and then serve Priory Street and continue route.
All services due to terminate at Pencester will terminate at Taswell Street bus stop.
101/102 Folkestone services. On approaching the roundabout at the bottom on Folkestone Road, you should turn right along York Street to the roundabout at its junction with Townwall Street where you should go around and back up York Street stopping in the layby bus stop just before the Folkestone Road roundabout. From here, buses should continue route up Folkestone Road as normal, not serving Priory Street.
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Big-Local Lottery Money - £1 million for Dover: here is the latest information from Ross Miller.
The Stone Hall (Town Hall) has been booked from 10-4, on the 25th. of May including a "free" tea and coffee service.
On the day, people will be given the opportunity to represent their views in ways other than verbal,
especially the younger generation, by asking them to draw what they like,or dislike, about Dover; people will of course still have the opportunity to talk to us.
A couple of laminated A0 maps of the area covered, will be required, then ask people to stick coloured post it notes on for things they like/dislike/want to see improved etc. This will help us with building up the Vision.
Clare & Joanna of Dover Arts Development, are investigating getting young people engaged in some
form of activity through Dover on the day which we will use to get the message out to people about the meeting
Finally we will offer a number of ways for people to stay in touch/provide their details
Moving onto other matters.
Posters - The overall feedback on the DavisDavis proposed design has been highly positive and we are keen to press ahead with this. Those attending the meeting felt that we should seek 500 A5 handbills and 100 A4 posters as well as an electronic version that can be used on websites, information boards etc. I will be discussing this directly with Rick Davis asap. We will of course need to update the details on the bottom....
Web Site - Anita is wireframing this at the moment and will be putting forward an outline for review fairly soon, she has been tied up completing her dissertation and dealing with her day job, but now has a
little more time to complete this.
Big Local Leaflets - I dropped of leaflets and the initial posters Carl provided at the Gateway Centre and The Library, hopefully they will stir some interest.
Princes Trust
I had a wonderful 2 hour conversation with the current group of trainees at the Princes Trust in Dover this morning which really seemed to fire their imaginations. I am proposing to get back in touch to see how many we can persuade to be champions and spread the message to their peer group
LTO
We discussed the need to move this forward and came up with the following possible organisations to invite to tender for the role:
Dover Society
Dover Air Cadets
Dover Angling Club
Dover Sea Cadets
Dover Community Association
Town Team
Dover Peoples Port Trust
Western Heights Preservation Society
If there are other organisations you would like approached please let me know urgently
Many thanks for now..
Ross Miller
314 London Road
Dover
CT17 0SY
07852 235957
If you would to get involved in this, please contact Ross.
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Kind Regards
Roger