Letter to Dover local press. 8 May 2022
We welcome the good news from Port of Dover and Doug Bannister about their plan for our port to be Carbon Net Zero by 2030. The article in Dover Express on 5 May said plans include the sourcing of alternative fuels, utilization of renewable energy sources, port electrification, off-setting (we hope planted off-setting will be in Kent), minimizing carbon emissions in procurement and development projects working with the community and supply chains and customers.
We applaud Port of Dover and Mr Bannister all the more, given that they are making these commitments after being dealt such a lousy set of cards in recent years by a less than competent set of Conservative ministers.
In April 2020, two Green Councillors on Dover Town Council, Cllr Sawbridge and Cllr Garnett, submitted four pages of detailed suggestions for the DoverTC ‘Ambition Plan’. Their suggestions included for Dover Town Council to send a letter to Port of Dover to ask about:
- Plans for the Port truck and car parking areas to be made ‘non-engine-idling zones’, to include infrastructure for fridge trucks to plug-in to electric chargers,
- Plans to put solar PV on top of Port buildings and to install wind turbines on the harbour walls like the ports of Boulogne and Liverpool,
- For Dover TC to invite community energy enterprises (such as Kent Community Energy and Big Solar Coop / Share Energy) to speak to Council about how they could encourage community owned renewable energy projects on business and larger (public) buildings in Dover,
- For solar-powered boat trips of our port to be facilitated via Destination Dover (like those that have been so successful in La Rochelle for 25 years). On another occasion we have also asked for NO2 air quality monitoring to be done at the port and the results shared with PCS and RMT union officials, and publicly.
So we send appreciation once again to Port of Dover officers for their carbon zero bid. With only seven and a half years before 2030, there will be lots of Dover residents keen both to talk constructively to Port of Dover about their plans, and to see the evidence of carbon zero plans taking shape soon.
Beccy Sawbridge, Nick Shread & Sarah Gleave
