The post you are reporting:
From DHB's website:
Unprecedented tangible benefits will be delivered through the creation of a Port of Dover Community Trust (PDCT) would be established with an immediate cash sum of £10 million with a tripling of the PDCT's assets through the holding of shares in the new company. The PDCT will be independently chaired and will be both representative and for the benefit of the local community and the long term regeneration of the area. As a trust port, the Port of Dover cannot pursue such a course as all of its profit has to be ploughed back into maintaining and enhancing the port. The port will, through the PDCT, be in a position to do so much more for Dover and its community than it has been able to do for the past 400 years.
Q: Can you explain a bit more about the Port of Dover Community Trust that you are proposing?
A: The Port of Dover Community Trust will receive a cash sum and then hold a long-term shareholding in the privatised port company so as to align the interests of the local community in a tangible and visible way with the future development, growth and success of the Port.
This proposal is wholly consistent with the Government's philosophy of empowering local communities to help themselves, harnessing local resources to build a stronger society. While Dover has benefited from having an international port at its heart, the local community equally suffers the social and economic costs of heavy traffic through its town centre. The resources that we propose to provide to the PDCT will help kick-start initiatives created by the Dover District Council and others, which could contribute to the regeneration of Dover Town.
DHB has therefore proposed to DfT that a sum of £10 million from its cash resources be injected into the PDCT at privatisation and that its investment in the Port should have an initial value of £20 million, structured so that the PDCT can from the outset expect some minimum level of annual income.
During constructive discussions with local democratic representatives, they have each emphasised the importance of the Port of Dover Community Trust being transparent, fully accountable for the resources contributed to it and having the confidence of the local community and established and managed by the community for the community. To this end DHB has developed detailed new proposals for the scope, resources and governance of the Trust to address these issues. We have since engaged formally with a broad range of key community representatives to create positive momentum, interest and enthusiasm for a PDCT which works for the community. The established Working Group under independent Chairmanship is taking forward the task of discussing the objectives of the PDCT, the composition of the initial PDCT board and the process for appointing board members in the future.
In general, the PDCT will:
• seek to cultivate enterprise, build assets and secure local community prosperity;
• engage in the economic, environmental and social regeneration of the area;
• be independent and self-sufficient;
• be community based and managed; and
• involve itself actively in partnerships and alliances between the community, voluntary, private and public sectors.
The objectives could include the following, under the overarching stipulation of retaining an appropriate connection with the Port:
• regeneration of the waterfront/beach/promenade area;
• improving the skills and education of the local workforce;
• the Public Realm Strategy ("sense of place");
• public recreation facilities;
• raising business awareness, skills and knowledge;
• entrepreneurial activity; and
Blah blah blah.
Do keep up, Howard.