Canterbury Labour Party

7 days ago

Fantastic Motion brought by Naomi Smith and Charlotte Cornell to Full Council on Thursday

www.facebook.com/share/1ATQBmXNZy/?mibextid=wwXIfrKEEP THE TAPS RUNNING

Enough is enough. Last night the full Canterbury City Council passed Labour's motion to Keep The Taps Running, following a series of damaging water shortages and outages across our district, particularly affecting our coastal communities.

The motion was put to the council by Cllrs Naomi Smith and Charlotte Cornell to ensure we have accountability, explanation and infrastructure in place.

We also want to make sure that South East Water fixes the life-expired and unreliable infrastructure that has caused so much disruption to residents and businesses across our district.

This motion was debated and agreed cross party to pass. The full text, with amendments, is below:

This Council resolves to ask Cabinet to consider:

1. requesting that South East Water provide Canterbury City Council with a detailed and publicly available explanation, examining: o the causes of recent supply failures; o what permanent measures are still required to eliminate future drinking water outages to current homes; o delivery timescales for those measures. o how their supply plans ensure that tankering operations, are not becoming a substitute for long-term infrastructure resilience.

2. investigating and commissioning a report back to full council on: o what planning, regulatory and legal mechanisms are available to Canterbury City Council and / or the Local Planning Authority if water infrastructure delivery is not keeping pace with housing growth; o whether development phasing, or development pausing, could be considered where infrastructure is failing to reliably supply existing homes.

3. requesting that the Leader write to South East Water, OFWAT and The Drinking Water Inspectorate setting out the concerns raised by residents regarding repeated failures in potable water supply and seeking assurances that their interventions will help infrastructure delivery will keep pace with existing and future demand

4. requesting further of South East Water, confirmation that they will be publishing their anticipated Resource Position Statement, as expected by the Environment Agency’s current timetable, in Spring 2027.

5. including South East Water (or any subsequent water provider) as a consultee for all planning applications of ten or more dwellings (or any development with similar water supply demands) with immediate effect.

6. tasking officers to research and draft a policy to sit alongside the Local Plan which ensures no development will be undertaken without a clear, phased plan to ensure that local water supply capacity will be sufficient to accommodate the new builds without degrading service to existing residents. ... See MoreSee Less

Canterbury Labour Party

2 weeks ago

Check out where you could save this summer

act.labour.org.uk/p/greatbritishsummer ... See MoreSee Less

Canterbury Labour Party

3 weeks ago

The Beaney in Canterbury is delighted to welcome to its collection a portrait of community champion and former Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Cllr Keji Moses.

Keji’s portrait is by Oliver Enwonwu, a Canterbury‑based third‑generation artist, whose work explores history, memory and identity shaped by colonialism and migration.

Oliver has very generously gifted the portrait to The Beaney.

Its addition to the collection allows the museum to showcase the work of an acclaimed artist while recognising and celebrating the achievements of one of Canterbury’s own inspirational figures.

Keji, who was Lord Mayor in 2025/26, is the founder and CEO of Mayah’s Legacy, and is a community leader raising awareness of the mental health impacts of pregnancy loss.

She supports women facing adversity and speaks on grief, loss, self‑esteem, impostor syndrome and emotional well‑being.

The portrait can be seen in the Canterbury: Our Community exhibition at The Beaney, opening tomorrow (Saturday 4 July), and will then move to the People and Places gallery at the close of the exhibition in early September. ... See MoreSee Less