Lib Dem and anti-ID card campaigner Darren Briddock is one of the first in the country to receive a new "Chipped" passport. The new passport contains limited "biometric" data on a machine readable chip, and have only been issued in the UK for the past few weeks.
The Autumn 2006 edition of the Kent & Medway Networks (KMN) Newsletter for Patient and Public Involvement in Health Forum Members in Kent and Surrey has been released. This publication gives an update on some of the work of the PPI Forums supported by KMN, and is available to download from this web site.
The Lib Dems have launched a bid in Parliament to save freight services through the Channel Tunnel. British freight will no longer be taken through the Channel Tunnel after 30th November, because the Government is to end financial support of the service.
Chris Took has been reselected as Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Ashford Constituency. Chris fought the general election for the Liberal Democrats in 2005 and increased their vote by more than 1,000.
The Lib Dems have launched the annual Winter Lib Dem Draw, with a top prize of a £2,000 holiday and over 50 other prizes. Shepway residents are being asked to take part in the draw which has given away over £50,000 worth of prizes in the last ten years - giving a great chance of bagging a valuable prize!
Shepway MEP Sharon Bowles has written to Eurostar to press them to retain services from Ashford following the announcement that services from the station will be slashed. Eurostar have announced that the Ashford to Brussels service would be cut completely whilst the number of trains from Ashford to Paris will fall to three.
A motion to Folkestone Town Council from Councillor Peter Gane has resulted in Kent County Council making a firm commitment to a date to resolve the long-running lorry parking problem in the Cheriton High Street lay-by opposite Tesco.
Shepway District Council have forced through a plan to sell land in Weymouth Road for a housing development against the wishes of 97.5% of local residents and Folkestone Town Council.
Lib Dem leader, Cllr Lynne Beaumont, has welcomed news that Shepway's street cleaning service will be brought back to Shepway. Following calls from the local Lib Dems, Shepway Council has announced that street cleaning and grounds maintenance are set to return to Shepway Council's control next year.
A Populus poll for The Times this week asked about what people think of the parties and found that the Liberal Democrats are for the many and not the few, understands the way people live their lives and cares about the problems ordinary people have to face compared to the other parties.
The NO2ID campaign have issued a reminder that there is still time to renew your passport without getting onto the National Identity Register - the massive database at the heart of the ID card scheme - but the government is hiking the cost of 10 years' freedom to £66 from October 5th. You can expect further rises so if you have just a few years left to run on your passport, now's the time to renew.
Local Labour spokesman Adrian Cirket has called for "the majority of Labour voters to vote for Labour" at the next election.
