![Yvette Cooper [© Crown Copyright 2005]](/fileadmin/_processed_/d/1/csm_yvette-cooper-crown-copyright-2005_5bd337c3fe.png)
The number of households in temporary accommodation nationally was 101,070 at the end of March 2005 - remaining at the same level for three consecutive quarters. The Government's homelessness strategy 'Sustainable Communities: settled homes; changing lives' aims to cut this number by half by 2010.
Reports Operation Stack has cost Kent Police more than £123,000 in overtime payments this year have led to renewed calls for Highways Agency action.
Kent Police are continuing to appeal for witnesses after a burglary and serious sexual assault at the home of a 75-year-old woman in Cheriton.
Sharon Bowles is the Liberal Democrats latest addition to the European Parliament (succeeding Chris Huhne who was elected to the UK Parliament on 5th May) as MEP for South East England, including Shepway.
Emily Sanger has thanked Harbour residents for their support in the Harbour ward by-election. Emily was elected as the new Town Councillor for Harbour with 54% of the vote. The by-election was called following the resignation of the sitting Folkestone Town Councillor.
Many local residents in Harbour ward are up in arms at the news the people who closed Shepway's toilets last year are back in power - and quite right too says local campaigner Emily Sanger! Former Council Leader Cllr Linda Cufley has been brought back into Shepway's ruling cabinet by the Conservatives.
Emily Sanger, the Liberal Democrat candidate for this Thursday's Harbour ward Town Council By-election, has been pushing local issues onto the Council's agenda to get real action for Harbour. Emily is a hard working local campaigner who has lived in Folkestone all her life and is a Governor at a local school.
A new report published in The Lancet has concluded that exposure to high levels of aircraft noise could impair the development of reading and memory in children. Residents of Greatstone and Littlestone have been fighting expansion plans for Lydd Airport due to the proposed increase in the number of flights and size of aircraft that will approach the airport only a few hundred feet above local houses, and the report adds new concerns.
Folkestone Harbour ward campaigners Emily Sanger and Cllr Tessa Caruana are working to tackle local eyesores and litter problems.
Two wards at Folkestone Royal Victoria Hospital are to close, health bosses have confirmed. The closure was opposed strongly by the Liberal Democrats. Many local people are upset that despite words of support for the wards by Michael Howard during the recent election campaign, the wards have still been closed following his re-election.
Shepway Lib Dems are backing to no2id campaign against a compulsory id card scheme and national identity database. The local Liberal Democrats will be backing the campaign on their web site, and also through local campaigning.
The plan to display a Eurotunnel boring machine by junction 13 of the M20 has been rejected by Shepway Council after a planning meeting. Councillors decided the proposed siting of the machine to be too close to the roundabout at the junction and unsuitable for an area of outstanding natural beauty.
