By Angie Ray
With local elections less than 12 months away, independent councillors in Dover are watching closely to see if YP can prove its credibility. The inaugural Dover & Deal YP meeting on 27th June was attended by 14 people, which is fewer than we attracted to our proto branch, but we are quite cheerful about the future here.
At the meeting, we discussed our top local issues, which included provision of social and affordable housing, access to NHS services (particularly in rural areas) and combatting the far right.
The following Action Points were agreed:
- Confirm the process and next steps for formally setting up the Dover and Deal branch.
- Set up or agree the local Your Party social media channels and find members to help manage them.
- Carry out a skills audit of members to find experience, contacts and capacity for campaigning, communications, organising, and research.
- Map current local campaigns and community groups working on housing, NHS access, refugee solidarity, water quality, transport, and youth services.
- Identify priority campaign areas from the local issues discussed and agree which should be taken forward first.
- Gather evidence on social and affordable housing provision in new developments, including whether target percentages are being met.
- Collect examples of barriers to NHS access, especially in rural areas and areas affected by major housing development.
- Link with existing refugee support and anti-racist community activity in Dover to strengthen local solidarity work.
- Contact or connect with existing water quality campaign groups to explore joint activity on sewage and sea pollution.
- Investigate the loss of youth services and public transport gaps in villages and poorer areas to inform future campaigning.
Dover and Deal YP Facebook Group
(Previously published in Connections Newsletter issue no. 5)
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