00:01Over two weeks ago, mass protesters descended on Dover, intimidating residents, blocking
00:07off roads and grinding the port of Dover to a halt for half a day.
00:12In the aftermath, one councillor from up the coast feels that the response from Kent County
00:17Council wasn't good enough and he's trying to gather support in the form of a petition.
00:22Kent County Council is responsible for transport, it's got an involvement with emergency planning,
00:26communication when there are emergencies, so if there's water shortages, Kent County Council
00:31will work with councillors, put out communication and say, look this is happening, here's where
00:35you can go.
00:36And we heard absolutely nothing from Kent County Council when it came to the port of Dover being
00:40shut for half a day, so I think there needs to be some scrutiny for all parties.
00:45Councillor Rob Yates needs 5,000 signatures by the 15th of October for this to be debated
00:50at a full council meeting.
00:52He's calling for a full review into Kent County Council's response to the protests as well
00:58as his other community and resilience partners like Kent Police, in case something like this
01:03were to happen again.
01:05So far, he's got just over 1,800 signatures.
01:10Rob Yates wants reform-led Kent County Council to condemn the massed protesters.
01:14Other reforms party leader Nigel Farage has already done so, labelling them disgusting to GB
01:21news and saying he deplores wearing balaclavas at protests at his own party conference.
01:27During the protest, the only communication shared by KCC was to caution those driving
01:32to and from Dover, but Rob doesn't think the council went far enough.
01:37We can't normalise what happened in Dover, we can't pretend, oh that's fine, just another
01:41protest.
01:42The port of Dover, the busiest port in the UK for passengers, got shut for half a day.
01:46That's not normal.
01:47We need to take this very seriously, not only for our economy, but for the feeling of safety
01:51for our residents.
01:52But although KCC is in charge of highways and therefore responsible for communicating
01:57any disruption on them, other councils feel there's not that much that could have been
02:02done.
02:02Their approach is likely to be one of wanting to work and cooperate with Kent Police.
02:08Although I have to say from the information available to me at the moment, it would seem
02:14that Kent Police were rather slow on the uptake given the information in their possession at the
02:21time that the demonstration took place.
02:22Kent County Council are unable to consider petitions that haven't yet been submitted and Kent Police
02:28has part of their response, said that they've asked the College of Policing to conduct a
02:32learning review to independently examine the processes involved on the 5th of September.
02:37Rob's petition is in its early days, too early to see whether it will sink or swim.
02:44Megan Shaw in Margate.
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