Council services
Community Services
Community Services provide support for the district-wide community in delivering a wide range of community-based projects, including:
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Researching and publicising funding opportunities
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Supporting communities in funding bids
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Facilitating community consultations on behalf of the council
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Delivering information-sharing events.
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Delivering the Inspire programme to support vulnerable young people in our district.
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Supporting events across the district.
The aim is to develop confident communities with a sense of place who are engaged and empowered in decision-making. The service raises the district’s profile to create a sense of community pride and raise awareness of investment opportunities.
The service also develops partnerships to create opportunities for people to learn new skills through employment and volunteering. They support events that bring people together to celebrate and to raise the district’s distinctive profile and work to secure a higher level of external funding for the district.
They support communities to develop skills, training and learning opportunities through partnerships with education providers to address local business needs and build self-sufficiency in communities.
Community Safety and CCTV
The Council facilitates the Dover District Community Safety Partnership, a group of agencies coming together to keep the district safe to live, work and visit. The partnership funds many initiatives across the district, tackling community safety issues identified by our communities.
We have operated a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) system since 1994. Cameras are strategically located around the town centres in Dover, Deal and Sandwich. The camera network is recorded 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. CCTV has proved itself in recent years to be a powerful tool in the continuing fight against crime, particularly when integrated with other crime reduction methods such as retail 'radio-link' systems.
The system helps provide a safer environment for everyone by:
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Reducing the fear of crime;
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Assisting partner agencies to help those most at risk including missing and vulnerable persons;
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Helping to catch and prosecute those who commit crime or public order offences;
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Providing evidential material for court proceedings;
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Assisting with traffic flow through the town but not enforcing minor traffic laws;
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Assisting in the detecting and preventing of crime.
The team are also responsible for our approach to unauthorised encampments, events, emergency planning, business continuity and safeguarding issues (child and adult protection) and the Disclosure and Barring Service checks within the council.
Environmental Crime
The team seeks to promote behavioural change through various enforcement and educative activities to create a cleaner, safer, greener environment. The team’s work is supplemented and enhanced by collaborating with Kent Police, KCC, Parish Councils etc. The principal focus of this team area is to tackle environmental crimes, including:
Waste and Recycling Services
The Council service provides residents with:
- Weekly segregated collection of food / kitchen waste, collected in a 23L kerbside caddy, with householders also using a small kitchen caddy.
- Alternative weekly collections of recyclables and residual waste, with residual waste collected in a 180L wheeled bin (black lid), mixed dry recyclables collected in a 240L wheeled bin (blue lid) and paper and card collected in the black box. Alternative arrangements are available for those householders with limited storage space or difficult access. The materials collected through the doorstep recycling scheme now includes paper, card, plastic bottles, plastic pots, tubs and trays, cans and glass, which are collected fortnightly from all properties across the district.
- Fortnightly subscription service for the collection of garden waste; and
- Separate collection of clinical waste, including needles.
Paper and card from the recycling schemes are recycled into newsprint and packaging, cans into new metal items, plastic into food grade plastics or recycled products. Glass is crushed and used as roadside aggregates or melted down for reuse.
Garden waste collected fortnightly through the subscription green waste collection service is composted on a local farm and ploughed back in as a soil improver. Food waste collected weekly as part of the new service is taken to an anaerobic digestion facility operated by Tamar Energy in Basingstoke.
Street Cleaning
The Council is responsible for the cleansing of the highways and Council owned land and is the statutory Principal Litter Authority for its area. The duties relate to the removal of litter, detritus (grit in the gutter), dog fouling, and blossom and leaf fall. The Council also works closely with the local Highway Authority, Kent County Council, to remove weeds from the public highway. Street cleansing activity is undertaken via a combination of manual and mechanical sweeping, and the emptying of litter and dog waste bins is also undertaken.
The Service is also responsible for the removal of fly-tipped (i.e. illegally dumped) material, and works closely with Environmental Enforcement section, which is responsible for the investigation and enforcement element.
Grants to Voluntary Organisations
Grants are awarded to voluntary organisations across the district to support them in delivering their aims to residents. These include the Citizens Advice Bureau, and the Neighbourhood Forum grants scheme.
Economic Development
Economic Development leads, co-ordinates and delivers growth, regeneration, placemaking, tourism (visitor) and strategic major projects across the district. The service focuses on supporting transformational change and positioning the district as a great place to live, work, visit, learn and invest.
The service is responsible for attracting funding and private sector investment into the district to drive the strategic growth agenda identified in the Council’s Corporate Plan, Tourism & Visitor Economy Strategy, Economic Growth Strategy and Local Plan (emerging). In addition, the service is also leading and engaged on several of the Council’s major projects and grant programmes, assisting the Council in its role in numerous external regeneration partnerships, funding organisations and tourism associations.
Maintenance of Parks & Open Spaces
Open space provides residents and visitors with opportunities for walking, socialising, and quiet reflection in the natural environment, as well as access to leisure facilities including play areas, outdoor sports facilities, skate parks and multi-use games areas. The team cares for around 500 hectares of parks, pitches, open spaces, cemeteries and closed churchyards on a regular schedule. Many further hectares of land in the Council's ownership are supported by the team as required. The White Cliffs Countryside Partnership manages three Council owned nature reserves totalling 76 hectares and works on other sites in the district that are owned by third parties.
Property Management and Asset Maintenance
The team are responsible for maintaining in excess of 220 assets in the district which include but are not limited too; operational assets (i.e. Whitfield Offices, Kearsney Café, Maison Dieu and Deal Pier), sports centres and pools, cemeteries, museums, park buildings and recreational land and facilities (including play areas), stores, depots, public conveniences, shops, commercial properties, industrial land, ground leases, and community assets.
Additionally, responsible is held for for beaches and foreshores, coastal protection, dealing with oil pollution, beach huts, boat plots, Council owned street lighting, garage plots, car parks, shelters, structures, street furniture, markets, licences and leases and general facilities management such as caretaking, cleansing and routine maintenance.
Public Conveniences
The Council maintains and operates facilities within the towns and villages across the district.
Dover Museum
Dover Museum is one of the oldest museums in the United Kingdom, founded in 1836. Its three floors of exhibitions on the history of Dover and its award-winning Bronze Age Boat Gallery are open free to the public. It operates a successful schools programme and works with young people, traditionally a hard-to-reach group for museums, to make the museum more relevant to them.
The staff are leading a team of volunteers in implementing a new collections plan relating to the national museums’ accreditation scheme. Staff at the museum are also working on the Maison Dieu / Dover Town Hall project and utilising the Urban Archaeological Database to inform decisions in respect of the regeneration of Dover town centre. They also lead and advise on projects related to the Roman Painted House, Western Heights and Silver Screen Cinema.
Tourism
This service is the destination management & marketing organisation for the District, welcoming 4.7 million visitors a year, championing the district’s £302 million tourism industry and supporting more than 6,000 jobs under the ‘White Cliffs Country’ brand.
Focused upon the five strategic pillars of ideas, people, place, business environment and infrastructure, White Cliffs Country targets domestic and international markets to raise the district’s profile as a ‘great place to visit, invest, live, work and learn’, improving experience, engagement, quality and skills within the industry, and growing investment in tourism. White Cliffs Country works with local, county, regional and national partners and industry groups as well as supporting local businesses to grow their tourism and visitor offering.
Climate Change Initiatives
The Council has acknowledged the serious impact of climate change globally and declared a Climate Change Emergency, having already confirmed support for the Kent and Medway Energy and Low Emissions Strategy, Kent Environment Strategy and Kent Fuel Poverty Strategy, and signed the Emissions Reduction Pledge 2020.
A cross party Climate Change Member Group has been established, to oversee the implementation of Climate Change Strategy and Action Plan. The Action Plan sets out actions to reduce emissions from Council activity, operations and what influence the Council can bring to improve the environment and future sustainability of the district.
Council action to date to support the climate change agenda includes:
- Solar Panels have been installed on the Dover Museum Store at Whitfield Court.
- Around 2,750 streetlight units have been replaced with energy saving LED's within the district. Inefficient streetlights at Burgoyne Heights have been replaced with 64 LED streetlights.
- The Danes and Marke Wood Pavilions, the Grand Shaft, Deal Pier Office, Dolphin House Communal Stairwell and Council owned and controlled public conveniences have had internal lighting upgraded to LED.
- Advertising screens on Council owned bus shelters are powered down 20% of the day (between 12am and 5am) to save energy.
- Electric ovens and hobs are being installed in the new kitchens at Dover Town Hall to reduce the carbon emissions from catering equipment. Lighting is being upgraded to LED fittings throughout with the main venue benefitting from automatic lighting control system (presence/ absence detection).
- Dover District Leisure Centre has been ranked Kent’s best leisure centre for energy efficiency, carbon footprint and energy consumption. The centre has a highly efficient combined heat and power plant, 70 solar panels on the roof, electric vehicle charging points, facilities to promote cycling and sustainable travel plans.