Gwyn Prosser

Working with the people of Dover & Deal

 

What has Gwyn done for Dover?

There’s a long list of achievements and there are many areas where Gwyn has lobbied and made representations to the Prime Minister, Secretaries of State and Ministers to keep Dover & Deal on the Government’s agendas, acquire vital funding for his constituency and ensure the political climate is right to encourage inward investment and development.

 

Laying the Foundations for Development

The basis of Dover’s ambitious regeneration plans, which are about to take off, were laid down when Gwyn was the Chairman of Economic Development at Dover District Council – during the same time he was also Chairing Kent County Council’s Regeneration Committee so he was well placed to lay the foundations of Dover’s plans for the future.

 

Since his election as MP in 1997 the control of the Council has passed to the Conservatives but Gwyn supports the work they are doing to progress Dover’s regeneration and works closely with them to secure funding streams and gain the support of Government.

 

Infrastructure

Turning now to specific issues – the key to improving Dover, growing the local economy and creating more jobs is the provision of good infrastructure like rail services and road connections.

 

It was Gwyn’s lobbying that helped replace the old slam-door rolling stock and replace them with the modern 375 trains and he also intervened to ensure the upgrading of Dover’s Priory Station was commenced (the last phase of this work is now near completion).

 

Our MP has been a long time critic of the poor rail services to East Kent with some train journeys from London taking nearly 2 hours. Gwyn was a Parliamentary Agent when High Speed Train Services were first discussed and he was a strong advocate for using the High Speed lines for running Javelin trains to East Kent.

 

Although the principle was agreed back in 2005, the train operators said the new trains couldn’t go further than Folkestone because of technical problems in the Shakespeare Tunnels. It was Gwyn’s persistent lobbying of the train operators, the network company and Government Ministers that eventually resulted in Dover’s High Speed trains becoming a reality. Now he’s campaigning to extend the benefits of the Javelin trains to Deal. 

 

The upgrades to the M20 / A20 make it more than adequate under normal circumstances but any disruption at the ports (usually as result of industrial action in France) requires the implementation of Operation Stack which gives rise to inconvenience for local travel. Gwyn worked on a number of possible solutions with the Transport Minister, Dr Steve Ladyman, which resulted in the funding and supply of the new quick action barriers. These have improved road flows but the real solution is the provision of a large capacity off-road holding area for HGVs and Kent County Council’s Conservative administration are still dragging their feet.

 

Gwyn has fought long and hard to get the A2 dualled and upgraded but, here again, it’s KCC who set the priorities for road works in the County and they’ve consistently placed the A2 low on their list.

 

Last year, after making numerous representations, Gwyn took a delegation from Dover District Council to meet Roads Minister, Rosie Winterton, in Westminster to investigate more direct ways of making progress. As a result the Department of Transport has confirmed that the upgrading of the A2 can now be included in Dover’s Growth Agenda, and consequently we will get our new road.

 

Sea Change Funding

Through his lobbying of the Department of Culture, Media & Sport Minister of State, Margaret Hodge. Gwyn secured funding for Dover from Labour’s Seachange program. The first instalment has paid for the refitting and enhancement of the Great Tower in Dover Castle and the new attraction has seen a doubling of visitor numbers. In total, Dover will benefit from £8 million of Government funding to help make Dover’s sea front more attractive and promote regeneration.

 

Connaught Barracks

When the Home Office decided to convert Connaught Barracks into an open prison – putting at risk our plans for redevelopment of this prime site – Gwyn lead a vigorous campaign with local people opposing the change. He brought Government Ministers to the barracks for a site meeting and took a delegation of constituents to meet the Home Secretary in Westminster. Four weeks later the Government announced it had taken heed of his representations and abandoned the prison proposals. The site is now being developed with Government support.

 

Healthcare

Investment in the NHS has almost trebled since Gwyn was elected and our constituency has benefited from new and refurbished surgeries, more doctors and nurses and much shorter waiting times.

 

Gwyn campaigned successfully against numerous attempts to close Buckland Hospital in the eighties and the nineties and argued against the more recent removal of services by the Health Authority but when their survey concluded that the buildings were no longer ‘fit for purpose’ - Gwyn knew that his long fight was lost and he lobbied for new investment.

 

As a result of his efforts and with the support of Dover District Council, £20 million has been pledged to build a new Community Hospital for Dover on the Buckland site and work is expected to start at any time. (It’s unfortunate that the Tory candidate is still talking down Dover and falsely describing our new hospital as a polyclinic) 

 

Gwyn was also at the centre of the campaign to design and build a new Health Centre for Aylesham and was heavily involved in pressing for progress. It’s taken a long time but earlier this year he was proud to officially open Aylesham’s new state-of-the-art Health Centre which provides one-stop health services and is equipped with its own pharmacy.

 

Regeneration of the East Kent Coalfield

When the Conservative Government shut down all our pits and threw thousands of miners on the scrapheap, nothing was done to help the pit villages until Labour was elected in 1997. We set up the Coalfields Taskforce and set about regenerating the old pit sites and creating new jobs for former miners.

 

Gwyn is an active member of the Parliamentary Coalfields Group and has been involved in many projects. So far, some £18 million has been invested in our area which has allowed old pit sites to be cleaned up, allowed the provision of new community facilities and created thousands of new jobs.

 

Building Schools for the Future 

Spending on education has doubled since Labour took office and our ‘Building Schools for the Future’ project has created hundreds of new schools and refurbished many more right across the country.

 

Gwyn has ensured that his constituency has benefited from this Government funding and the extra cash has allowed all sorts of school refurbishments and extensions etc. Last month the Secretary of State wrote to Gwyn confirming that the Government was funding two new Academies’ in the constituency. 

 

Lobbying on Road Safety

Gwyn has helped bring in lots of road safety improvements and he was successful in getting the A258 Dover to Deal road improved and made safer following a series of tragic fatalities.

 

He campaigned with a local family who’s daughter was killed by a careless driver resulted in a change in the law and tougher penalties for causing death by careless driving.

 

Lobbying Kent County Council

Gwyn’s representations to County Hall helped overturn the Conservative’s proposals to shut down local schools in his constituency including St Radigund’s Primary School and Aylesham RC Primary School.

 

Casework

Dover & Deal is one of the busiest constituencies in the country and, in addition to his campaigning work in Westminster and in Dover, Gwyn handles an enormous amount of casework for his constituents. This entails assisting constituents with their individual problems by cutting through red tape or making representations to Ministers, Chief Executives or Chairmen of Agencies or companies.

 

He’s held over 1,000 one-to-one surgeries and he holds his Street Stalls in Dover and Deal every other week in addition to his weekend roving surgeries.

 

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Legal Disclaimer

At dissolution (which took place on 12^th April) Members of Parliament cease to be MPs and therefore Gwyn has the status of Labour Parliamentary Candidate until the election result is declared on or after 6th May. Any references to Gwyn on this website as an MP are historic and do not apply to his current status

This website is funded by Gwyn Prosser at no cost to the taxpayer

Promoted by Ray Collins, General Secretary, the Labour Party, on behalf of the Labour Party, both at 39 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0HA.

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