Image – Port of Dover Cargo team with Bram van den Broecke from Seatrade and Captain Rey Abdul L. Masilam.

Dover Cargo Terminal West is now completely operational after five years in the making.

Nik Scott-Gray, General Manager of Port of Dover Cargo Ltd said:

“Today heralds an exciting new chapter for Port of Dover Cargo – it’s amazing to see the new terminal fully functional and processing such a large variety and volume of cargo using equipment, warehousing and IT systems.

The Dover Cargo business is long established as one of the best in the industry and I’m thrilled that we can now take it even further with the endless opportunities that the new terminal brings us.”

Port of Dover Cargo Ltd has seen an expansion in its customer base recently, as new and existing customers have begun to make use of various features of the new facilities over the last few months, including an additional multi-purpose berth.

The business has an established and thriving trade in perishables freight from Central and South America and the new facility means that the Port now has the capability to process a whole range of commodities. Breakbulk steel rebar was recently discharged through the facility for the first time ever in Dover.

Barbara Buczek, Chief Commercial Officer at the Port of Dover added:

“I’m incredibly proud of the whole team for delivering this huge milestone for the Port. Port of Dover Cargo plays a major role in the success of our whole business, and I’m so pleased to see our wonderful new facility taking it to new heights.”

Dover Cargo Terminal West was constructed to keep up with the demands of an ever-expanding cargo business. Lady Rosebay is the first fresh produce reefer to use the brand-new facility.

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Notes to Editors

About Port of Dover Cargo Ltd:

• Handling fresh produce, containers, project cargo, general cargo, breakbulk, grain and Ro-Ro
• Offering minimal ship deviation by operating at a strategic location next to the world’s busiest shipping lane
• Quickest sea route to European motorways via Calais and Dunkirk

This year, Dover welcomed Saga’s first brand new cruise ship – the Spirit of Discovery into her homeport for the first time. She was the first ship to be named in Dover for over a decade and was christened by HRH The Duchess of Cornwall at her naming ceremony. In June this year, the Port hosted a poignant and historical event for the Royal British Legion’s D-Day 75 Voyage of Remembrance to Normandy aboard Fred Olsen’s Boudicca with 300 D-Day veterans.

The Port is now counting down the days until Virgin Voyages’ first ever cruise ship, Scarlett Lady arrives into Dover for her inaugural call in February, making the beginning of another fantastic year ahead.

Sonia Limbrick, Head of Cruise at the Port of Dover said;

“We are thrilled to have been named Best UK Departure Port by such an influential platform within the cruise industry. 2019 has been a fantastic year for Port of Dover Cruise, with our partnerships with cruise lines receiving widespread attention and our fantastic new facilities allowing us to accommodate more ships than ever before. I’m delighted that this is being recognised even further afield.”

Cruise Critic® is the world’s largest cruise reviews site and online cruise community and 2019 is the 11th annual UK Editors’ Picks Awards. The awards are selected by a global panel of impartial cruise experts from Cruise Critic, to highlight the best ocean, river and luxury cruise lines for UK travellers, across dozens of categories.

These awards combine Cruise Critic editors’ impartial cruise expertise, based on first-hand experiences and industry knowledge, to ultimately help travellers select the best cruise choice for them from an increasing number of options.

Currently passengers can choose a cruise from Dover on one of the following cruise lines: Saga, Crystal, Disney, Fred Olsen and Seabourn.

Image courtesy of Cloudcam UAV

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The Port of Dover is Europe’s busiest ferry port, a vital international gateway for the movement of people and trade. It’s also an award-winning cruise port hosting some of the world’s most prestigious cruise lines, a successful cargo terminal and an award-winning marina. The University has a strong track record of innovation and agility, responding to regional and national market demands and has played a significant role in the Kent community for over 50 years, providing education which makes a real and positive difference to people’s lives.

The partnership will develop sustainable opportunities for Christ Church students and the Port’s staff to extend their skills and qualifications, as well as see University staff carry out research on behalf of the Port. It will also help promote the studying of STEM subjects through joint school engagement and outreach activities, such as the pioneering Primary and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards, with the aim of inspiring new generations of engineering and technology professionals to support regional growth and investment.

Professor Rama Thirunamachandran, Vice-Chancellor of Canterbury Christ Church University, said: “We are delighted to join with the Port of Dover to develop this strategic partnership that will not only help develop opportunities for our students and their staff to advance skills and careers, but will also contribute positively to the local community, supporting economic growth and helping to develop a skilled workforce for our region.

“Working with industry partners is integral to our new Kent and Medway Engineering, Design, Growth and Enterprise (EDGE) Hub, which will provide a dedicated space for Science, Technology, Health, Engineering and Medicine where students and staff can work on projects in partnership with business, as well as encourage an increase in students studying STEM subjects to assist in solving the skills shortage across Kent and the UK.”

Doug Bannister, Chief Executive of the Port of Dover, said: “As Europe’s busiest ferry port and with thriving cruise, cargo and marina businesses, a strong and diverse skill set amongst our staff is vital for the successful running of the Port. We are delighted to be working together with Canterbury Christ Church University to create new opportunities for STEM careers and to inspire the next generation of professionals within our local community.”

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Notes to editors

• The University’s EDGE Hub is a new £60million initiative that will open in September 2020. This ambitious and far reaching initiative has been designed to unlock regional economic growth and employment in engineering, science and technology sectors. For more information visit: www.canterbury.ac.uk/edgehub.
• In November 2018 Canterbury Christ Church University was announced as the University Lead for the South East Region Primary and Secondary Engineer Leaders Award. From 2019/2020 the Port of Dover will be the competition’s Industry Lead 2019/20. The Primary Engineer and Secondary Engineer Leaders Awards ask children, ‘If you were an engineer, what would you do?’. The competition celebrates the ingenuity of children from three to 19-years-old and links the schools to the University and engineering firms.

Canterbury Christ Church University

• Canterbury Christ Church University is a modern university with 15,300 students across Kent and Medway. Its courses span a wide range of academic and professional subject areas.
• 93% of our most recent UK undergraduates were in employment or further studies six months after completing their studies*.
• We are one of the South East’s largest providers of education, training and skills leading to public service careers.

*2017/18 Destinations of Leavers from Higher Education survey

Port of Dover

• The Port of Dover handles up to £122bn, or 17%, of the UK’s total trade in goods.
• The Port processes 12 million passengers, 2.6 million lorries and 2.3 million tourist vehicles each year.

Using social media as a new way of communicating and demonstrating a high level of transparency about operational achievements, future strategies and environmental challenges and performance is becoming increasingly important for European ports who can only function and further develop if they receive the licence to operate from the local citizens.

The ESPO Award was handed out by the Director-General of DG Move Henrik Hololei (picture, right), during a ceremony at the “Albert Hall” in Brussels.

Looking back at the selection process in this 11th edition of the ESPO Award, the Chairman of the Jury, Dimitrios Theologitis (picture, left), said:

“The Jury was impressed by Port of Dover’s strategy which is centred around campaigns on all media, electronic and others, leaflets, consultations, forums, workshops, sports events. But the most important ingredient of this successful strategy is giving back to the community, be it financial participation in charities and community groups, making the installations available to the public for events, or foreseeing spaces and buildings open to the public”.

The Port of Dover won the 2019 Award for its project, “Transparen-SEA (Socially Engaged Accountability)”, which aims to create a comprehensive and meaningful programme of consultative and social community engagement events alongside the cultivation of an internal network of port ambassadors whose advocacy ultimately permeates back into the local community where many live. This was all supported with a social media overlay that connects directly with the community and reinforces the aims of the project.

The project has not just been focused on one particular aspect of engagement, it has been a wholesale immersion in the community and the community in the port. What is equally important is that the social media has not just been a faceless arm’s length engagement tool, but has been used to create the end result of much more face to face engagement so that the people of the port community and the people of the local community recognise each other, and do so as part of the same overall community, importantly all buying in to the same shared vision and giving everyone a sense of ownership of that process.

Richard Christian, Head of Policy and Communications, Port of Dover said:

“Having gone through such a rigorous selection process alongside many other great ports, to have been chosen as the winner is a fantastic achievement for the whole team at Dover. Our comprehensive and continuing programme of societal engagement is something of which we can be proud in setting the standard across Europe.  Our thanks go to ESPO and the judges for this great honour.”

The ESPO Award 2019 saw four projects from Port of Dover, Dublin Port Company, Ports of Stockholm and Union des Ports de France (UPF) compete for the prize.

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This year’s event attracted around 10,000 people to the beach and town in one day.

For the first time, the funds have been split between three local charities chosen by the Port – Dover SmART Project, Pegasus Playscheme and Wetwheels. Doug Bannister, CEO of the Port of Dover, and Amanda Stewart, event manager for the Regatta presented the three charities with their cheques this week.

Amanda Stewart, Senior Property Executive at the Port of Dover said:

“The Regatta is such a fun and lively event, bringing the local community together every summer to enjoy the very best that the seafront has to offer. We always aim for the event to be even more successful every year, so I’m absolutely thrilled that we’ve reached our fundraising record. Most importantly, we are able to spread the funds across three really important charities within the local area.”

The Regatta celebrated its 7th year on 4th August 2019, with a huge, energetic program which was the biggest yet. For the first time ever, the Port hosted an Open Air Cinema screening of The Greatest Showman on the beach at dusk. Other highlights were a giant inflatable assault course, a 7.5 metre high climbing wall and Segway’s, plus the much-anticipated Community Raft Race. All funds raised from the event were donated to charity.

Dawn Maddison, Founder of Dover SmART Project said:

“The Smart Project is absolutely delighted to have received such an amazing donation. For us as a small local charity, this will have a huge impact and enable us to keep supporting our community.”

Sue Clark, Chairman of Pegasus Playscheme said:

“This will be our starting block for 2020 and will help us so much. We are extremely grateful and proud of our town.” 

James Salmon, Director of Wetwheels added:

“We will dedicate this money towards themed Wetwheels experiences in 2020 that are aimed at the local Dover community; enabling disabled and disadvantaged people to experience the thrill of powerboating and our beautiful White Cliffs of Dover coastline.”

The Port has recently announced that the 2020 Community Regatta will be on Sunday 9th August.

For further information on the charities, visit doversmartproject.co.uk, www.pegasusplayscheme.com and www.doverseasafari.co.uk/wetwheels

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Experience a truly magical white Christmas this year, as Dover’s charming Cruise Terminal One is transformed into an enchanting winter wonderland, with the stunning White Cliffs setting the scene in the background. White Cliffs Christmas is kindly supported by DFDS.

Father Christmas and his elves will be there to see everyone on this year’s naughty and nice list and the undercover ice rink will be the biggest yet at 440 metre squared, meaning more people than ever can skate inside the beautiful marine station. Around 30 market stalls will offer festive treats, crafts and unique gift ideas for loved ones.

Barbara Buczek, Chief Commercial Officer at the Port of Dover said:

“White Cliffs Christmas is a wonderful festive extravaganza for locals and those further afield – we can’t wait to spread some Christmas magic around Dover. Now in its fourth year and with more festivities than ever before, White Cliffs Christmas is the perfect winter celebration.”

Opening times and prices – opens 1st December *all events are wheelchair friendly

Entry into the event and car parking are free

Skating, sponsored by DFDS (last skate session is one hour before closing):

• Thursday evenings from 5pm until 8pm
• Friday evenings from 5pm until 9pm
• Saturdays from 10am until 9pm
• Sundays from 10am until 7pm
• 19 December 10am until 8pm
• 20 & 21 December until 9pm
• 22 & 23 December until 8pm
• 24 December 10am until 7pm
• 27 December – 01 January open from 11am until 6pm

• Child     £8.00
• Adult     £10.00
• Family   £30.00 (family of 4)

Father Christmas grotto, sponsored by Walker Construction:

• 11am until 6pm Saturdays and Sundays
• 11am until 6pm from Thursday 19 Dec – Sunday 23 Dec
• 10am until 1pm on Christmas Eve

• £10 entry

The Christmas Market will be open every Saturday and Sunday from 10am until 6pm, and every day from 19 to 24 December.

Due to popularity, we recommend booking advance. To book, or for more information visit www.whitecliffschristmas.co.uk. For schools or large group bookings please contact events@doverport.co.uk for a bespoke package.

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The Cargo Terminal, a key part of the £250 million Dover Western Docks Revival project has recently become operational, representing a huge milestone for the Port and its cargo business.

Barbara Buczek, Chief Commercial Officer at the Port of Dover said:

“We are really pleased to be welcoming ADM back to Dover, for what will be a particularly special visit as they experience the fantastic new facilities available in our multi-purpose cargo facility. Our customers are now able to enjoy the benefits of our constantly flourishing cargo business first hand, and that’s really exciting to see.”

ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) is one of the world’s largest agricultural processors and food ingredient providers, connecting crops to markets on six continents. With regular calls in Dover, the partnership highlights the Port’s unrivalled location and efficiency for global trading.

Jonathan Lane, Head of Grain Trading at ADM Agriculture said:

“We are delighted to be using the Port of Dover’s brand-new cargo terminal facilities this week, and look forward to seeing our vessels use a new berth for the first time. 3,400 tons of group 1 bread making wheat, and 3,000 tons of feed beans sourced from Kent and the local area will be loaded through the terminal during these two calls.”

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Notes to Editors

About Port of Dover Cargo Limited:

• Handling fresh produce, containers, project cargo, general cargo, grain and Ro-Ro
• Offering minimal ship deviation by operating at a strategic location next to the world’s busiest shipping lane
• Quickest sea route to European motorways via Calais and Dunkirk