Alas, what has happened to Dover District Council's two Project Advisory Groups (PAGs)? Until this week, DDC's website showed that new Climate Change PAG* was due to meet at 6pm on 23rd November. It also showed that there would be 4 Local Plan PAG meetings in November and December 2021 in the lead-up to a final on-line consultation for the DDC new Local Plan expected in Feb 2022.
We had been told public could observe these meetings.
At the DDC meeting on 20th October 2021, cllrs were told PAGs answered only to executive Conservative cabinet and didn't need to be made so accessible to the public. All cllrs voted to agree. These two Project Advisory Groups have disappeared from the DDC website this week. Which does prevent public hearing what is happening!
Planning, overdevelopment and climate change are issues the 87,000 voters in Dover district are interested in.
So it is a GREAT PITY if the 6 person Conservative DDC cabinet are becoming more secretive on these issues. They removed community representatives from Local Plan advisory group nearly 2 years ago.
If you wish to ask about this:
Leader of the Conservative cabinet & DDC is cllr-trevor.bartlett@dover.gov.uk
Chair of the Local Plan PAG is cllr-nicholas.kenton@dover.gov.uk
Chair of the Climate Change PAG is cllr-chris.vinson@dover.gov.uk
*DDC Climate Change Working Group ceased to exist in June 2021 after 8 meetings between Dec 2019 & April 2021. Its replacement is the Climate change PAG.