A planning application for a new passenger terminal and extended runway at a Lydd (London Ashford) Airport has been submitted. The plans seek to build capacity at the airport to 500,000 passengers a year and offer flights further afield than presently.
The online petition for the Gurkha Justice campaign (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/gurkha/) has taken over 700 signatures in just 5 days, making it one of the fastest signed petitions on the Governments Petition web site. With over 1,100 petitions on the site, the Gurkha Justice petition is already in the top 50 most signed petitions.
Shepway Lib Dems Chair Tim Prater has written to the Chair of East Kent Hospitals Trust asking for an urgent statement on where the trust plan to locate services currently located in the main building at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone.
A car has been written off and traffic island demolished on Sandgate High Street in the earlier hours of Sunday morning. The accident saw the car mount the kerb and plough into the light on the island outside the Shepway Liberal Democrat offices at around 3am.
Responding to the Government announcement today that a third runway at Heathrow airport and a new runway at Stansted are to be built, the Liberal Democrats have attacked the Government's aviation strategy.
Police estimate around 1,000 Gurkhas have arrived in London to march from Parliament Square to hand deliver a letter to the Prime Minister at Downing Street this morning. The Gurkhas are protesting about the Government's failure to properly honour the right for retired Gurkhas to become citizens of the UK on retirement and to protest about the low pensions paid to retired Gurkhas.
2 years ago, a major campaign by Gurkhas and strongly backed by the Liberal Democrats won an agreement to give citizenship rights to ex-Gurkhas who had served this country. A new on line petition to support the Gurkha's cause has been launched at the new E-petitions service at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/gurkha/.
Shepway Lib Dems have slammed news today that the main building of the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone may be sold. Despite repeated promises by NHS Trust managers that services were secure at the hospital, the sell-off will lead to the transfer of more key services to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.
The Liberal Democrats took their "Say No to Police Cuts" campaign to Folkestone town Centre today and collected hundreds of signatures against the proposed removing of 35 police officers from the South Kent area. You can add your own signature to the petition on-line at www.shepwaylibdems.org.uk/petitions/9.html
Toby Philpott, Shepway Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesman, was invited to see for himself at first hand the work of the National Coastwatch Institution station at Copt Point in Folkestone on Friday 8th December.
Folkestone Town Council has been notified by the Director of the Kent Association of Parish Councils that the Town Council has received a "Quality" Status Award.
It is fantastic to be coming back home to Folkestone. I'm frantically house hunting and meeting up with old family friends. As with any homecoming, it makes you think about the changes in the area - some good, some less so.
