The Waiting Miner statue, which currently stands on Dover seafront by the former National Coal Board offices, has been a contentious issue since it was placed there.

Years of talks resulted in the creation of the Move the Miner campaign in 2007 to find a more fitting home for the statue.

Now the miner’s final resting place has been chosen as the entrance to the Fowlmead Country Park on the former Betteshanger spoil tip and with the countdown to the Kent Miners Festival and reunion at the park, chairman of the campaign, Gary Cox speaks out about what it meant to be a Kent miner.

I got involved with this campaign because I am proud and privileged to belong to a mining family.

I was only at Betteshanger colliery for a short while, eight years, but I have been a member of a mining family for 56 years.

My grandfathers, my father and many uncles and cousins all worked throughout the Kent Coalfield.

Many uncles I have are not actually related but were workmates of my grandfathers or my dad’s but I still call them uncle and they are still part of my family. That’s what community spirit is all about.

Not many people know the true Kent miner. Many people think they do because of what they have read in the papers or heard in the media.

The Kent miner is far removed from all that propaganda.

From very early on, they were labelled "Militants", in a bad context but we have learnt to live with and even embrace the word militant.

Militant, as a noun, is used as a term for warriors who do not belong to an established government or organisation.

Contrary to what many people believe, very few miners were political. Probably nearly every one of them voted Labour, by tradition, and talked a good debate on the subject over a pint in the welfare clubs but very few were active.

Their politics were community politics. People outside our communities who called our miners militant had the idea that we were just a bolshy lot who would enter a dispute for no reason - who wanted to line their own pockets or simply to kick back at the authorities.

The fact is, very few disputes were about money, they were mainly about conditions and terms.

When our miners entered into a dispute there was always a good reason and very rarely a selfish one.

When the pits first opened in Kent the geological conditions were unique and made life very difficult and dangerous. The landowners, pit owners and management where only interested in making a profit.

The miners knew that the pits needed to make a profit but they were not willing to die for the sake of money.

Many did die and many worked in treacherous conditions and only the miners themselves could do something to stop others, often their own flesh and blood from having to work in those conditions.

So when these miners stood up to their tyrannous bosses, they challenged them. Not for themselves but for their comrades and family members who were to follow them into the industry. If they had not stood proud and strong, many more miners would have died and many more would have had to endure the atrocious conditions.

In the last few years before they shut our coalmines, the miners of Kent voted to forego their yearly wage rise in favour of increasing our retired miners’ pensions.

If that is an act of a militant person then I am proud to be called a militant.

The miners of Kent were and are true caring community people, who have always tried to do what’s best for their communities.

The community was their lives. To be part of a mining community was, and still is, something really special.

It’s like having one massive family where everyone looks after everyone. Of course there were disputes within these communities from time to time but they were dealt with quickly and usually resolved in a friendly way.

I truly feel sorry for people who have never experienced this type of community spirit. I think it is sadly dwindling away and we owe it to our forefathers to try and rekindle the community spirit that, they fought hard to protect and to encourage.

Our miners made history in Kent.

Villages were purpose built for the collieries, welfare schemes were introduced, towns prospered on the back of the coal industry. The Kent miner shaped and formed the heritage of our towns and villages, in this beautiful corner of Kent and that should never be forgotten.

Our last pit closed 20 years ago but our mining communities are still here and I know our fathers and grandfather’s would want us to carry on in their tradition of caring for our communities.

We need to say a big thank you to the miners who worked so hard for us and sadly are no longer with us and to make sure they are never forgotten.

That is why it is important to move the Waiting Miner statue to a more prominent position on the Miners Way Trail and to hold the Kent Miners Festival.

Although the statue looks great on Dover seafront, it has no beneficial reasons for being there any more.

Now that the Miners Way Trail has been formed, citing this statue on the trail will, at last, benefit the entire Kent Coalfield Communities and re-establish the very reason for which it was commissioned.

The Kent Miners Festival is a community event that will bring together all the mining families and friends, not just from our area but from all over the country for a day to have fun and to celebrate and remember our heritage.

It will also be an event to educate, with our mining exhibitions, visitors that are not aware of our heritage and to give them to chance to have a great family day out.

Hopefully they will see that, even without our mines, our communities are still here and are still strong.

With your help we can make this an annual event and keep our heritage alive.

The story of the Kent miner is not finished yet.

The Kent Mining Festival will take place at Fowlmead Country Park on the A258 Deal to Sandwich road on Bank Holiday Monday, August 31. It is free and open to anyone.

Former miners from the Kent Coal Field and their families are especially welcome. Gates open at 10am and there is ample free parking.

For more details on Fowlmead country park visit: www.fowlmead.co.uk

To find out more about the Move the Miner campaign, visit www.movetheminer.org