Left out of booklet on tourism

11:59am Tuesday 6th February 2001

DARTFORDS omission from a Kent tourism booklet is its own fault says Kent County Council.

The 72-page booklet, Kent Garden of England, makes no mention of the town other than as a reference to the location of the Bluewater shopping centre.

The accompanying map also has a conspicuous gap where Dartford should have been.

But KCC deputy leader Keith Ferrin says this was due to Dartford Borough Councils own lack of involvement, despite being asked twice to submit an entry.

He said: When this project was started months ago, all the district councils were invited to give input about their area.

But we had no response from Dartford.

Closer to the time of going to press, we contacted them again to remind them.

But they still did not give us anything to work with. Dartford really has no reason to be upset about their exclusion.

A spokesman for Dartford Borough Council said the council was not aware its environment and leisure department had been asked for its contribution.

The spokesman said the council would investigate the matter.

Meanwhile staff at the office of Dartford MP Dr Howard Stoate, who had earlier called the exclusion symptomatic of KCCs neglect of Dartford, said he was also unaware of these requests.