In a room decked out with maps and models, the marketing team at the headquarters of Dover Harbour Board tell a group of students about plans to invest £120 million in an expansion of the port’s Western Docks.

The project, which will create 600 jobs and safeguard another 140, might be where these eager engineering trainees begin their careers once they finish their
tuition.

Alternatively, the port’s future workforce may come from a £6.5 million Maritime Skills Academy in Whitfield being developed by Viking Recruitment.

The training centre, due to open in the spring, is expected to attract 20,000 students a year from marine companies around the world, each leaving with the latest seafaring skills.

If jobseekers are not nautically inclined, there will be plenty of other employment opportunities in the town, according to Tim Ingleton, head of inward investment at Dover District Council.

He is showing me around the £60 million St James’s development in the town centre, set to become home to 120,000sq ft of retail and leisure space, including a 108-bed Travelodge, six-screen Cineworld cinema, M&S, Next, Frankie & Benny’s and Bella Italia.

Today it is a demolition site, most notable for the slow dismantling of Burlington House, a high-rise 1970s office block that the council bought earlier this year through a compulsory purchase order.

The first phases of shops and parking are due to open in the spring.

One simple fact is behind all this development and the economic prosperity set to come with it, according to Mr Ingleton.

“We are probably one of the few local authorities in the South East which has its planning frameworks at the level of maturity we have,” he said.

“We recognised the confidence that would give to the investment market.”

Translation: Dover is ahead of other councils because it has already laid out where it wants developers to build houses, shops and other facilities in its so-called Local Plan.

In fact, they were not even called Local Plans when councillors approved the proposals in 2010. They were still known by their rather clunky former title of Local Development Framework.

“We are seeing the investment sector making significant decisions because of the foundations we have put in place,” said Mr Ingleton.

“We are probably five years ahead compared to other councils in Kent. We adopted the Local Development Framework in mid-recession, when people wanted certainty of investment.

“People want to know they are making the best investment and they want political support that an adopted Local Plan brings.

“We saw the challenges which the levels of growth in Dover would bring in the future and foresaw the need to get our Local Development Framework agreed.

“This is unprecedented in our history. We are bearing the fruits of 10 years’ hard work getting our planning policies and processes formally established.

“There’s more to do, but as each month goes forward other opportunities are emerging.”

Dover was already in a good place to attract big investment.

Some 13 million people travel through the port each year, with more than £100 billion of cargo carried in each direction annually.

It is also home to huge tourist attractions like Dover Castle – English Heritage’s second most-visited attraction, after Stonehenge – and the White Cliffs.

Across the district, this has prompted major investments. Hadlow College is spending £40 million on the first phase of its sustainable business park on the former Betteshanger Colliery.

In the north of the borough, more than 125 companies have made Discovery Park near Sandwich their home, employing 2,300 people and enjoying cheap business rates thanks to its Enterprise Zone status.

“There are not many places with this level of development, the UK’s flagship Enterprise Zone on one end and the best roll-on-roll-off port at the other,” said Mr Ingleton.

“There are not many places with this level of development, the UK’s flagship Enterprise Zone on one end and the best roll-on-roll-off port at the other..." - Tim Ingleton, Dover District Council

The town is yet to capitalise on its position. Many shops in the town centre remain empty and many tourists fail to explore beyond the castle.

Mr Ingleton said: “Unlike Canterbury, where many people go into the town on a visit to the cathedral, the castle sits in an elevated position and we need to bring people from the castle down into the town.

“We have a long-standing ambition to use a cable car to connect the castle to the town. We are having discussions with English Heritage on that, but we need to link it to other development in the town.

“There is still interest to do it. The topography provides opportunities because people up in the castle can look down on the town and say ‘I want to go down there’, but we need to overcome the disconnection.

“It’s not just about the land use and how we move people around but also about convincing people there is a comprehensive offer. There can’t be many places that have the history we have.”

Much of the future workforce in Dover will live in the council’s proposed main housing district in Whitfield, which was allocated to become the site for 5,750 homes in the Local Plan.

There was local opposition to the plans, but planning officers chose to recommend the site for the vast development.

“It was certainly a very well-debated process,” said Mr Ingleton.

“With the topography and landscape around Dover, if the district was going to expand there were not too many opportunities.

“All those local concerns were considered by the inspector and we have been on a journey to get a masterplan which provides the housing need and also the community benefit.

“Many of our communities have seen local services decline, with local pubs, post offices and schools closing.

“This is about creating a development which will serve the needs of the district but also provide local community facilities.”