The St.James development has no sign of material progress after many years of effort. Occasional press releases suggest progress is being made but this is yet to materialise into development work becoming visible. The public are entitled to understand what has happened in significant detail. Effort on this project is evident, but outcomes are not.
This Online e-petition ran from 16/01/2014 to 22/05/2014 and has now finished.
2070 people signed this Online e-petition.
On 24 February 2014 the petition organiser, Mr Shirley, contacted the Head of Democratic Services to request that his petition be ended no later than 3 March 2014. The petition was originally set to run until 15 January 2015 by the petition organiser and although the petition scheme makes no provision for the early ending of a petition, the Head of Democratic Services has decided to accept the request. Accordingly, the petition will now close for signatures on 3 March 2014, at which point it will be processed in accordance with the Council’s published petition scheme.
Update (14 March 2014):
This petition will be received at the next scheduled meeting of the full Council to be held on 23 July 2014. The petition organiser will have 10 minutes at the meeting to present the petition in accordance with the provisions of the petition scheme. The Council will then make a decision as to how it wishes to respond to the petition which can include (a) taking the action requested in the petition; (b) Not to take the action requested in the petition for reasons set out by the Council; or (c) to commission further investigation into the matter or refer the matter to a committee of the Council.
In the event that an extraordinary meeting of the full Council is called for prior to 23 July 2014, then consideration will be given as to whether it is appropriate to include the presentation of the petition on the agenda.
Update (31 March 2014)
The Chairman of the Council had agreed to receive the petition at an extraordinary meeting of the Council to be held following the Annual Meeting on 14 May 2014.
Update (23 May 2014)
The petition was received and considered by the full Council at its meeting held on 14 May 2014.
A meeting of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee will be held on 23 June 2014 at the Discovery Centre to scrutinise matters relating to the DTIZ.
Members of the public who wish to ask questions at the meeting should contact democratic.services@dover.gov.uk to register. Questions must be received at the latest by no later than two working days prior to the meeting. The meeting will be open to the public to attend.
Update (2 June 2014)
The Chairman of the Scrutiny (Policy and Performance) Committee, Councillor K Mills, has requested an update be provided in respect of the deadline for speaking and questions. While speakers are asked to register in advance, and it would be helpful for questions to be provided so that detailed answers can be prepared for the meeting, the Chairman has agreed that questions do not have to be provided in advance.
Members of the public who wish to register to speak should contact democratic.services@dover.gov.uk to register. The meeting will be held at the Discovery Centre and open to the public to attend.