Dover News - March 2016

Dover district recorded the highest level of housebuilding starts and completions across East Kent in 2015, with work starting on 350 new homes compared to 190 in 2014 and 360 new homes completed, up from 260 in 2014.

Border Force officers at the inward tourist controls at Dover's Eastern Docks have seized approximately 50 litres of liquid cocaine with an estimated potential street value of £2.3 million.

Council Tax levels for 2016/17 were confirmed at a meeting last night - the average total bill for a Band D property in the area will be £1,592, an increase of 3.61%.

Nine more people have been sentenced at Canterbury Crown Court in connection with a large scale Kent Police operation targeting the supply of drugs in Dover. In total, 27 people have now been sentenced in connection with the crackdown and they are now serving over 60-years between them behind bars.

Community groups in the area are to benefit from more than £26,000 funding from Dover District Council in the latest round of the Neighbourhood Forum Community Grants Scheme.

As part of ongoing work to provide help and support to local communities, Dover District Council has agreed support of more than £120,000 for the Dover, Deal and District Citizens' Advice Bureau for 2016/17.

An important boost for young people has been welcomed at Dover District Council with the launch of the Inspire Fund - a unique package of support designed to help young people to realise their full potential.

An independent panel has awarded £97,404 in Port of Dover Community Fund grants to a range of local good causes. The money will go to 13 organisations supporting local people.

A far reaching draft strategy looking at the provision of indoor sports facilities across the district has been published - and your views are sought in a consultation running from 18 March.

Plans to develop a Commonwealth War Memorial on the White Cliffs of Dover were given a significant boost in today's Budget with the Chancellor announcing a contribution of £500,000 from the LIBOR Fund to help develop the project.

A line of new yellow markers will signpost the boundary between bathing and boating areas within the harbour this summer. The buoys will follow a border which is currently defined by a white marker on Prince of Wales Pier and a corresponding marker on the wall of the Eastern Docks.

Dover District Council has been selected as one of 73 local authorities in England, and the only one in East Kent, to take part in a pilot Government scheme to develop a register of brownfield development sites. The Council secured £10,000 from the Brownfield Register Pilots Fund.

The organisers of the first ever Dover Festival 2016 have announced the headline acts for the Dover Music Festival, which will be held at the historic Port of Dover-