Who we are

The East Kent Partnership is an independent organisation which brings together the public authorities, businesses and voluntary and community sectors in a modus operandi that ensures that Partners take personal responsibility for driving forward the agenda for a prosperous and caring community and actually deliver the priority actions that will make a profound difference to the area.

By ensuring that broad base of involvement under the leadership of an independent chairman and executive team, The Partnership can create the confidence in its collective ability to effect change for the better, can engender a sense of civic pride and can promote a positive outlook while working hard to improve essential infrastructure. Underpinning those issues is the absolute need for a clear strategy with supporting objectives, an action plan and the commitment of partners to direct resources, financial or otherwise, to the attainment of agreed outcomes of direct relevance to the area. At the heart of The Partnership's credibility and attractiveness to stakeholders is an understanding of how, by working together, the public and private sectors, the range of public sector agencies, the community and voluntary sectors and the business community - provided they communicate their purpose together - can create a real opportunity for the whole to be much greater than the sum of the parts.

Why an East Kent Partnership?

East Kent has a population of 365,000 and covers a diverse geographical area. It has 72km of coastline spanning from, the White Cliffs at Dover to the beaches of Whitstable, East Kent covers an area of 723m2 (279 square miles) with its population spread across a number of urban centres such as Canterbury, Whitstable, Dover, Deal, Margate, and Ramsgate. However, the rural hinterland has an important economic and social role to play.

The plethora of organisations, agencies and statutory bodies operating in and across East Kent means there is a real risk of duplication of effort, conflicting priorities and uncoordinated investment by both the public and private sector. Kent County Council and the three local authorities of Canterbury, Dover and Thanet are all committed to working together in close co-operation with the private sector and other key local, regional and national agencies. The East Kent Partnership brings together key stakeholders to raise awareness of each other's activities and to enable a more coherent approach to be developed. Through this strategy the East Kent Partnership is committing itself to use the unique characteristics of East Kent, to once more become one of the most vibrant economies in Western Europe. This commitment is based on the partnership working developed over the last 10 years and which has seen the achievement of a number of major new developments. In particular, the change of culture and attitudes that has taken place means that East Kent Partnership now brings together key stakeholders willing to work together to work towards a common vision.

Historically, the high levels of deprivation in some parts of East Kent have led to a negative image and perception of East Kent. However, this has led to major investment programmes which have all helped lay the foundation for future growth and prosperity. The challenge is now to capitalise on these achievements to bring about a further step change over the next ten years and beyond.

The key to our success is the agreement and support for this strategy, which sets out clearly, the outputs, impacts and added value we collectively wish to achieve by 2015. It is on the basis of this strategy that base funding and additional investments will address the needs, raise the aspirations and realise the potential.

Partnership

The purpose of the East Kent Partnership is:

To bring together key stakeholders into one partnership with a shared vision and agreed objectives; stakeholders who have a vested interest in seeing East Kent achieve the levels of prosperity where all can benefit
To identify strategies which need the full support of all stakeholders and which, if successfully implemented, will achieve the over-arching vision of the Partnership
To act as an advocate to government, national, regional and local organisations which can contribute to the social, environmental and economic sustainability of East Kent
To provide evidence on the needs, priorities and opportunities of East Kent
To provide the opportunity to integrate national and regional priorities with the shared needs established at a local level
To provide leadership and champion the interests of East Kent
To promote a high profile and positive image for East Kent and market the opportunities for investment and development
To develop, review and update the East Kent Action Plan
To lobby for and facilitate investment from potential partners, including the public sector, the County and Local Councils, SEEDA and the private sector
To attract funding from external financial organisations and financial institutions where there is clearly a strong business case to be made to attract investment
To act as a 'critical friend' and on occasions challenge the views of partners in support our shared vision

Click here to download the EKP PowerPoint Presentation

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