Forces sweetheart Dame Vera Lynn has backed a bid to buy the Port of Dover as a "people's port".

She visited The Sea Sport Centre on the seafront on Saturday when Dover MP Charlie Elphicke launched the £400m community idea.

He said: "The gateway to the nation and the White Cliffs should be forever England. We don't want Dover sold off to the French or whoever. We hope that the people's port bid will become a landmark of the Big Society. The people of Dover seek to buy our port and run it in the national interest."

Dame Vera, now in her 90s, sang the iconic There'll Be Blue Birds Over The White Cliffs of Dover in the Second World War and was given a big welcome in Dover on Saturday.

She said: "The port of Dover belongs to us. We want to look after it and we don't want anyone else looking after it or telling us what to do with it.

* For full story buy the Dover Mercury on Thursday.