Our politicians wouldn’t allow the removal of safety measures from Manston would they? Nor the civil servants?
These are the people supposed to both represent and protect us aren’t they?
Then how can it be that in 10 years of Manston as a normal commercial airport the requirement for mobile noise monitors has never been provided?
The public have requested them. KIACC and the parish councils have requested them.
Penny Button of TDC is even photographed with a hand-held mobile noise monitor checking noise levels in the local Tesco.
Yet Brian White and our local councillors have never provided one mobile noise monitor in 10 years.
They aren’t expensive. A few hundreds of pounds. A few thousand if you wanted a top of the range one, or a few of them to take noise readings.
The reality is that mobile noise monitors would be deployed to the towns and the readings taken on a regular basis.
As with Manston and other airports you could move them to the wrong positions or fudge the data for a while - but the readings would be clear fairly quickly.
The readings, given the low-level of jets landing and taking off – when they are the noisiest – would be off the scale.
Hearing loss. School learning interrupted. Cancer count. Increased illness and death rate. Disruption to quality of life and so on.
Yet there is a rural end to the airport? But of course that means increased fuel costs in not landing in a straight line from Ostend or other cross-Chanel cargo airports.
Manston has always been a cargo airport with a few passenger flights to sweeten the pill or make grand claims as some kind of New Gatwick.
If the town centres were a factory or the airport itself the public would be issued with ear-defenders. The trade union would be called in at the dangerous noise levels.
An airport can’t develop if the noise monitor readings at the outset are off the scale.
But no monitors means no data means no problem.
Richard Samuel was even Chair of KIACC in 2006 as the Infratil Board removed the noise monitors from the school and tower blocks around the airport. And said and did nothing.
No monitors means no data means no problem. A bit tricky for corporate manslaughter though: removing monitors that are required to be there, and not providing the full noise readings is very tricky.
And no air pollution readings at all?
Our sheep-councillors have MORI surveys and public meetings rejecting night flights yet still they suggest the public want night flights.
The reality is that the Dept of Transport were correct and that Manston cannot be developed as an airport as it’s too near the towns (they weren’t aware of it being built on the drinking water supply) and would have to be developed from scratch.
All the necessary health and safety safeguards would rule it out almost instantly.
And then there’s the air pollution. Aviation fuel at low-level being dumped on the local population.
That’s why airports have a “Cancer Circle” of leukaemia, blood disorders, genetic birth defects and so on.
As you’d expect from 747 fuel and noise, it’s very dangerous.
So why have our civil servants and councillors refused to call for full monitoring, display of the noise and air records?
No monitors means no data means no problem. If you want to skimp ion the safety aspects of developing the airport.
Hustle it through with claims of thousands of jobs (maybe you’re foolish enough to believe there would be thousands of jobs) and see if the public don’t raise a fuss until it’s too late.
Clearly the tales of millions of passengers and thousands of jobs are mere nonsense.
Looks good on the political CV as a glory project though. And supposedly solves all the economic and social problems in Thanet in one fell swoop. Supposedly.
Much better than organising street cleaning and the like.
Don’t mention the cancer though.
KCC Board meetings detailed the expansion of the airport. Our councillors and civil servants are supposed to fall in line. Even if it means they skimp on the noise and air monitors. And the lung cancer. And blood disorders. And birth defects. And likely death toll among the young, ill and elderly.
The only question now though is which councillors and civil servants have knowingly and deliberately endangered the public?
Infratil’s flight logs with the CAA would reveal how much danger through breaches of the 106: the volume, type and patterns of flights and the likely discharge of aviation fuel at low-level.
A simple calculation of the trade-off of jobs versus noise and cancer.
Where are the noise monitors after so many years? After so many rushed decisions to approve night flights? After such a danger to health as an airport?
No votes in poisoning your own citizens.
Which councillor feels capable of asking Messrs White and Samuel and the rest of the Gang of Four?
Steve Ladyman stays silent on the noise monitors. As does Silent Sandys and Roger Gale the “Manston-Olympic-Airport” MP.
Idiots.
As MP I will call for a Parliamentary and Police Inquiry into Manston and Infratil.
Let’s hope a plane doesn’t miss the runway in the meantime.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
Thursday, 28 May 2009
Voting for Change in Thanet
How to Vote?
An issue that affects us all with the new Town Council and County and European elections next week.
This is my view:
The new Town Council will be powerless unless it obtains funding from TDC or KCC: taking funding from TDC makes TDC even more ineffective and a burden on the taxpayer. With the Gang of Four sacked, TDC should be abolished with direct funding from KCC to the various Town Councils.
County elections have produced little in the way of manifestos for improvement of the County for Thanet as a deprived area and with one of the UK’s worst councils: the mix of District and County responsibilities ensures Councillors only represent their small patch.
The time is coming when a Conservative County Council in power since 1930 and Labour councillors around the relatively poorer coast is unsustainable and undemocratic.
European elections: it couldn’t be more confusing could it? I don’t understand the electoral process for candidates: Europe’s powers have reached their limit as “Nations within Europe” pooling their resources and systems across Europe.
Overall with MP’s “ManureGate” there is simply no reason now for all councillors – and MP’s - to fail to declare their costs every month and publish online.
Equally, there is no reason for each public department of RTC, TDC, KCC, Quangos, National agencies and Brussels to publish all their salary and expenses and running costs monthly.
And the organisation’s bank statements and investments.
The waste and cost is extraordinary for so much governance achieving so little.
In Kent, we have 58 councillors at TDC, plus a further 16 at RTC, plus 84 at KCC (plus the other 12 Kent Districts of presumably 58 each), plus 14 MP’s plus unfathomable Euroregion MEP’s.
And many of these positions and expenses are taken by the same person in “double or even triple seating” – the same person in 2 or 3 roles, simply because the main parties feel we need that many people for them to claim to be representative.
Every councillor and public agency is 100% funded by the taxpayer and 100% of that money should be transparent and accountable.
FOI and EIR only require the public to request information that should be automatically displayed.
But how to vote in Thanet?
My view is that the public should:
Boycott or spoil ballot papers: appalling to have to mention this in a democracy but the only message the main parties understand is people not voting for them.
If you must vote then vote for Independents or new faces: the control of the main parties simply cosying up to each other or the same old faces year after year is reflected in the failure of Thanet
If you must vote for national parties then ask for 100% transparency of policies and funding and pick your candidate carefully.
Kent and Thanet has been stagnant – and simply failed - for too long.
These are my suggestions for part of an ideal candidate list – I’m embarrassed to say that no other councillors have any polices or achievements detailed in their manifestos:
RTC
#Ralph Hoult – Independent: worked hard for the town and runs Granville Theatre
#Peter Landi – Conservative: worked hard for the town and Ramsgate Society and Conservative to offset the assumption that Ramsgate is always a “Labour council”
#Dave Green – Labour: worked hard for the town with Liz at County
#Pat Doyle – Conservative: worked hard for the town and Conservative to offset the assumption that Ramsgate is always a “Labour council”
#Gerry O’Donnell – Ramsgate First: sensible manifesto for town improvements
#Laura Probert – Independent: a new face
#Angela Cousins – Independent: a new face
Any of the first 3 would make good Mayors of the Town Council
TDC
Not applicable this election: Sack the Gang of Four and transfer funding to Town/Parish Councils
Most councillors seem only interested in either name-calling, irrelevant national party point-scoring or empty posturing.
The only purpose for councillors is to scrutinise the public servants and represent their area for improvements.
KCC
#Elizabeth Green – Labour: works hard with Dave at District for the towns
#Alan Poole – Labour: one of the Thanet Ten on China Gateway
Serious issues remain over the ChinaGate dodgy donation of £25k, Manston night flights and pollution and Thor mercury pollution
Europe
#Steve Dawe – Green: works hard for the County and a good team with Caroline Lucas MEP
If you must vote, vote wisely.
Thanet has failed because of our councillors and civil servants.
Time for Change.
An issue that affects us all with the new Town Council and County and European elections next week.
This is my view:
The new Town Council will be powerless unless it obtains funding from TDC or KCC: taking funding from TDC makes TDC even more ineffective and a burden on the taxpayer. With the Gang of Four sacked, TDC should be abolished with direct funding from KCC to the various Town Councils.
County elections have produced little in the way of manifestos for improvement of the County for Thanet as a deprived area and with one of the UK’s worst councils: the mix of District and County responsibilities ensures Councillors only represent their small patch.
The time is coming when a Conservative County Council in power since 1930 and Labour councillors around the relatively poorer coast is unsustainable and undemocratic.
European elections: it couldn’t be more confusing could it? I don’t understand the electoral process for candidates: Europe’s powers have reached their limit as “Nations within Europe” pooling their resources and systems across Europe.
Overall with MP’s “ManureGate” there is simply no reason now for all councillors – and MP’s - to fail to declare their costs every month and publish online.
Equally, there is no reason for each public department of RTC, TDC, KCC, Quangos, National agencies and Brussels to publish all their salary and expenses and running costs monthly.
And the organisation’s bank statements and investments.
The waste and cost is extraordinary for so much governance achieving so little.
In Kent, we have 58 councillors at TDC, plus a further 16 at RTC, plus 84 at KCC (plus the other 12 Kent Districts of presumably 58 each), plus 14 MP’s plus unfathomable Euroregion MEP’s.
And many of these positions and expenses are taken by the same person in “double or even triple seating” – the same person in 2 or 3 roles, simply because the main parties feel we need that many people for them to claim to be representative.
Every councillor and public agency is 100% funded by the taxpayer and 100% of that money should be transparent and accountable.
FOI and EIR only require the public to request information that should be automatically displayed.
But how to vote in Thanet?
My view is that the public should:
Boycott or spoil ballot papers: appalling to have to mention this in a democracy but the only message the main parties understand is people not voting for them.
If you must vote then vote for Independents or new faces: the control of the main parties simply cosying up to each other or the same old faces year after year is reflected in the failure of Thanet
If you must vote for national parties then ask for 100% transparency of policies and funding and pick your candidate carefully.
Kent and Thanet has been stagnant – and simply failed - for too long.
These are my suggestions for part of an ideal candidate list – I’m embarrassed to say that no other councillors have any polices or achievements detailed in their manifestos:
RTC
#Ralph Hoult – Independent: worked hard for the town and runs Granville Theatre
#Peter Landi – Conservative: worked hard for the town and Ramsgate Society and Conservative to offset the assumption that Ramsgate is always a “Labour council”
#Dave Green – Labour: worked hard for the town with Liz at County
#Pat Doyle – Conservative: worked hard for the town and Conservative to offset the assumption that Ramsgate is always a “Labour council”
#Gerry O’Donnell – Ramsgate First: sensible manifesto for town improvements
#Laura Probert – Independent: a new face
#Angela Cousins – Independent: a new face
Any of the first 3 would make good Mayors of the Town Council
TDC
Not applicable this election: Sack the Gang of Four and transfer funding to Town/Parish Councils
Most councillors seem only interested in either name-calling, irrelevant national party point-scoring or empty posturing.
The only purpose for councillors is to scrutinise the public servants and represent their area for improvements.
KCC
#Elizabeth Green – Labour: works hard with Dave at District for the towns
#Alan Poole – Labour: one of the Thanet Ten on China Gateway
Serious issues remain over the ChinaGate dodgy donation of £25k, Manston night flights and pollution and Thor mercury pollution
Europe
#Steve Dawe – Green: works hard for the County and a good team with Caroline Lucas MEP
If you must vote, vote wisely.
Thanet has failed because of our councillors and civil servants.
Time for Change.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
Kent's ManureGate: not just TDC and the sale of Manston
Not just TDC for once.
Deal Council: 2 councillors resign and auditors call for further 2 councillors and a civil servant to resign.
No copy of the auditors sleaze report from the East Kent Audit partnership Report published as yet.
Kent Police called in to investigate maladministration, fraud and theft.
Shouldn’t TDC be subject to a sleaze report?
The Audit Commission highlights the failures that are a national scandal yet TDC ignores the findings for its own reasons: with incompetence or corruption can be the only responses.
Either incompetence or corruption means a change is required.
Taxpayer funded time and money simply cannot be frittered away or deliberately bloated to safeguard careers built on incompetence and corruption.
#ManstonGate: night flights and no night fines
#ManstonGate: 106 breaches and no fines
#ManstonGate: noise and air breaches and fines
#ChinaGate: the £25k donation and 2x £12k donation to the political parties from the developer for Thanet’s largest-ever Planning application
#ChinaGate: the China trip and Tesco bag of expenses with the developer for Thanet’s largest-ever Planning application: public expenses and salaries/time
#Pleasurama: who has been dealing with the tax haven developer for 2 years?
#Dreamland: burned down again
#EKO: what does this quango of District councillors do and cost?
#Election Ferry meetings and costs: attended by the MP and councillors and civil servants over many months and years apparently – or an election stunt and white elephant?
#Thor meetings and costs: no councillors or civil servants attended these?
#Sericol meetings and costs: no councillors or civil servants attended these?
A brief aside on Manston: 85 jobs (jobs! Jobs!! Jobs!!!) claimed by the notoriously unreliable Infratil and “unsustainable at present levels” – that means expansion will not result in any more jobs as there is not enough work for the present 85 staff.
A very expensive use of public funds and time for no jobs and propping up a white elephant airport built opposite Ostend Cargo Airport and on the East Kent drinking water supply.
Who came up with this idea of airport expansion? And without the required safeguards? The Gang of Four? KCC? MP’s?
And now Manston to be sold - and who will clear up the pollution?
There seem to be neither manifestos nor council votes on an international cargo airport.
And even less on removing monitoring and other safety measures.
Who approved this?
On the mystery fires at Dreamland and Thanet shouldn’t Kent Fire Brigade and Kent Police release their scene of incident reports: on-site attendance, research findings, fire and crime lab reports?
And where are the councillor and civil servant salaries, pensions, allowances, expenses, mileage and other costs?
Especially pension costs: the deal with civil servants was always low salaries and high pensions compared to the private sector.
If we have high salaries and high pensions then something is not right for the provision of monopoly public services.
Or do we need to outsource to Sussex and Hampshire for competitive quotes for monopoly services?
KCC have released councillor figures of £1.5M in salaries/allowances and c.£150k in mileage. But where are the taxi and catering and dining costs? Internal and external?
And where are the civil servant figures to match - for each departments “Scores on the Doors”?
For the 900 staff CCC and 500 staff TDC and 30,000 staff KCC?
And the duplication of councillors at the 86 seat KCC and 58 seat TDC and 16 seat Town/Parish Councils occupying dual roles that are identical and double-claiming or triple-claiming allowances?
And where are the MP figures on family salaries and pensions?
Where are the MEP figures on all their costs – plus receipts? Clearly if Westminster MP’s are now doing it, MEP’s should too for their £1.8M salaries and allowances over 5 years.
Where is the Galvin Report on the waste of MEP's?
As MP I will produce an Annual Report of all costs and meetings and projects. All online and in council office and libraries - and monthly and quarterly updates.
Will Steve and Silent Sandys? And Kent’s MEP’s?
As MP I will commission a Parliamentary and East Kent audit report: “Thanet Council 1974-09: 35 years of failure”.
Bloated governance and failure.
This week:
#an open letter to Steve Ladyman and Gordon Brown for reform
#my views on the various elections and candidates
# a formal request to Thanet Labour to return the dodgy donation from ChinaGate to the Infratil Community Fund
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Deal Council: 2 councillors resign and auditors call for further 2 councillors and a civil servant to resign.
No copy of the auditors sleaze report from the East Kent Audit partnership Report published as yet.
Kent Police called in to investigate maladministration, fraud and theft.
Shouldn’t TDC be subject to a sleaze report?
The Audit Commission highlights the failures that are a national scandal yet TDC ignores the findings for its own reasons: with incompetence or corruption can be the only responses.
Either incompetence or corruption means a change is required.
Taxpayer funded time and money simply cannot be frittered away or deliberately bloated to safeguard careers built on incompetence and corruption.
#ManstonGate: night flights and no night fines
#ManstonGate: 106 breaches and no fines
#ManstonGate: noise and air breaches and fines
#ChinaGate: the £25k donation and 2x £12k donation to the political parties from the developer for Thanet’s largest-ever Planning application
#ChinaGate: the China trip and Tesco bag of expenses with the developer for Thanet’s largest-ever Planning application: public expenses and salaries/time
#Pleasurama: who has been dealing with the tax haven developer for 2 years?
#Dreamland: burned down again
#EKO: what does this quango of District councillors do and cost?
#Election Ferry meetings and costs: attended by the MP and councillors and civil servants over many months and years apparently – or an election stunt and white elephant?
#Thor meetings and costs: no councillors or civil servants attended these?
#Sericol meetings and costs: no councillors or civil servants attended these?
A brief aside on Manston: 85 jobs (jobs! Jobs!! Jobs!!!) claimed by the notoriously unreliable Infratil and “unsustainable at present levels” – that means expansion will not result in any more jobs as there is not enough work for the present 85 staff.
A very expensive use of public funds and time for no jobs and propping up a white elephant airport built opposite Ostend Cargo Airport and on the East Kent drinking water supply.
Who came up with this idea of airport expansion? And without the required safeguards? The Gang of Four? KCC? MP’s?
And now Manston to be sold - and who will clear up the pollution?
There seem to be neither manifestos nor council votes on an international cargo airport.
And even less on removing monitoring and other safety measures.
Who approved this?
On the mystery fires at Dreamland and Thanet shouldn’t Kent Fire Brigade and Kent Police release their scene of incident reports: on-site attendance, research findings, fire and crime lab reports?
And where are the councillor and civil servant salaries, pensions, allowances, expenses, mileage and other costs?
Especially pension costs: the deal with civil servants was always low salaries and high pensions compared to the private sector.
If we have high salaries and high pensions then something is not right for the provision of monopoly public services.
Or do we need to outsource to Sussex and Hampshire for competitive quotes for monopoly services?
KCC have released councillor figures of £1.5M in salaries/allowances and c.£150k in mileage. But where are the taxi and catering and dining costs? Internal and external?
And where are the civil servant figures to match - for each departments “Scores on the Doors”?
For the 900 staff CCC and 500 staff TDC and 30,000 staff KCC?
And the duplication of councillors at the 86 seat KCC and 58 seat TDC and 16 seat Town/Parish Councils occupying dual roles that are identical and double-claiming or triple-claiming allowances?
And where are the MP figures on family salaries and pensions?
Where are the MEP figures on all their costs – plus receipts? Clearly if Westminster MP’s are now doing it, MEP’s should too for their £1.8M salaries and allowances over 5 years.
Where is the Galvin Report on the waste of MEP's?
As MP I will produce an Annual Report of all costs and meetings and projects. All online and in council office and libraries - and monthly and quarterly updates.
Will Steve and Silent Sandys? And Kent’s MEP’s?
As MP I will commission a Parliamentary and East Kent audit report: “Thanet Council 1974-09: 35 years of failure”.
Bloated governance and failure.
This week:
#an open letter to Steve Ladyman and Gordon Brown for reform
#my views on the various elections and candidates
# a formal request to Thanet Labour to return the dodgy donation from ChinaGate to the Infratil Community Fund
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Who earns what - and for what?
Letter in the Thanet Gazette:
With MP's snouts in the trough, when are our district and county councillors - and civil servants - going to publish all their salaries, expenses, allowances, pensions etc?
They should be published each month in a Scores on the Doors by department.
Ans with the County elections upon us which councilors are voting for night flights at Manston, ChinaGate, Thor, Sericol and Infratil pollution?
Update:
* I've received KCC councillor allowances/expenses from County Cllr Alan Poole: c.£1.6M out of a £2B budget: lots spent on car mileage but why no meetings in East Kent?
* Audit Commission to open TDC's books and budgets in June for annual audit: FOI and EIR though enables any financial information to be provided at any time and within 20 days: I'd like a copy of the payroll for staffing and salary levels - home addresses etc can be blacked out as with MP's
* EA want to meet me to "walk me through" their information on Thor: 3 months and counting from the intial EIR request: try Paul Leinster, Head of the EA: paul.leinster@environment-agency.gov.uk
* No update on Sericol: pumps switched off: who are our councillors for these factory sites?
* No update on Infratil pollution or the removed noise monitors
* FOI request for ChinaGate costs and Tesco bag of receipts
* Steve Ladyman's expenses look OK to me but where is the detail on salary costs, previous years information on any flipping, and pensions - and where is Roger Gale's information?
* Did our MP's support moves by Parliament to restrict all this information years ago?
* Will there be monthly updates of expenses etc from now on by our MP's and the Gang of Four?
With MP's snouts in the trough, when are our district and county councillors - and civil servants - going to publish all their salaries, expenses, allowances, pensions etc?
They should be published each month in a Scores on the Doors by department.
Ans with the County elections upon us which councilors are voting for night flights at Manston, ChinaGate, Thor, Sericol and Infratil pollution?
Update:
* I've received KCC councillor allowances/expenses from County Cllr Alan Poole: c.£1.6M out of a £2B budget: lots spent on car mileage but why no meetings in East Kent?
* Audit Commission to open TDC's books and budgets in June for annual audit: FOI and EIR though enables any financial information to be provided at any time and within 20 days: I'd like a copy of the payroll for staffing and salary levels - home addresses etc can be blacked out as with MP's
* EA want to meet me to "walk me through" their information on Thor: 3 months and counting from the intial EIR request: try Paul Leinster, Head of the EA: paul.leinster@environment-agency.gov.uk
* No update on Sericol: pumps switched off: who are our councillors for these factory sites?
* No update on Infratil pollution or the removed noise monitors
* FOI request for ChinaGate costs and Tesco bag of receipts
* Steve Ladyman's expenses look OK to me but where is the detail on salary costs, previous years information on any flipping, and pensions - and where is Roger Gale's information?
* Did our MP's support moves by Parliament to restrict all this information years ago?
* Will there be monthly updates of expenses etc from now on by our MP's and the Gang of Four?
Thursday, 21 May 2009
A vote of no confidence for Thanet governance
Policy #1: sack the Gang of Four.
With Messrs Ezekiel and Latchford facing another leadership challenge the time is right to introduce a public vote of no confidence – and schedule another council leadership challenge.
2 more years of incompetent government is simply pointless for our lame duck MP’s and Councils: as with Westminster’s MP’s they should go and go now.
Clearly our MP’s have indulged in the Westminster culture of using the ACA allowance as a top-up of salary.
Only now under FOI are the last 4 years receipts about to be released.
The previous 10 or 20 years worth of claims will never be released.
Only now are all expenses claims required to have a receipt rather than those over £250.00.
Only now are salaries of all staff required to be detailed and one of the last grey areas of hiring family as another secret top-up of salary be detailed.
Derek Conway is the first high-profile MP who was unable to detail why a high salary was paid to a family member – and no work was ever provided.
With an MP paid £64k there will be some explaining to do on family salries that match or exceeed this figure for admin support work. The "manure and moat" parliament is undergoing a thorough clean-out
Thanet’s councillors claim about £600k or so in various salaries/allowances.
But these figures don’t include all costs, expenses – and crucially pension payments.
Thanet’s senior civil servants claim salaries of c.£100-130k each but again these don’t include all expenses, costs – and again crucially pensions.
Why are pensions important?
They maintain the lame duck system of clinging onto power for no purpose other than collecting the pay cheques.
For MP’s no MP will resign during his term as their civil service pension would not be paid.
For civil servants, there are at least 4 types of civil service pension and the unspoken assumption that these are paid regardless of performance.
As MP I will end both these 1970's trade-union-style “Spanish practices”:
MP’s can be “called in” by 10% of the electorate in a public petition
The termination of civil service contracts can include pensions
Without the effective public scrutiny of elected officials and the scrutiny of civil servants by elected officials the danger is that we have a corrupted system of governance.
Effective government provides transparency to then judge the value of the monies paid for the work done.
Clearly with TDC rated as one of the worst governed areas in the UK by the Government itself it’s hard to justify pay rises, high salaries, hidden expenses and the like.
Unless by educing transparency you can delay scrutiny and the inevitable questions asked and ultimately P45’s.
Clearly the Gang of Four: Messrs Latchford, Ezekiel, Samuel and White have been unable to improve the area after many years and simply have neither effective nor credible policies:
#museums closed
#night flights
#election ferry that don’t fit the harbour
#Chinagate trips on public time and the developer’s dollar
#Polluted drinking water (any councillors raised this at TDC or KCC yet? Try Paul Leinster, Head of the EA: paul.leinster@environment-agency.gov.uk after 3 months I've still received no information on toxin levels from my FOI/EIR request)
And our MP’s are the same. The only time Thanet has been raised in Westminster is for Roger Gale’s “Olympic Airport” ludicrous plan to stimulate a failed aerodrome.
If this is the calibre of our political leadership then no wonder the water’s polluted, the museums closed etc etc.
Because only incompetents would be able to take £20M in public money each year and spend £15M on internal council salaries - and achieve nothing except a reduction in public services.
And claim that things are improving.
That’s not governance – it’s failure.
Time’s up fpor Thanet's "scum and scoundrel" council.
Steve Ladyman cannot win the next election. A falling majority of 664 votes means his seat is one of the most marginal in the UK. The recent furore over MP’s expenses means almost any Labour MP if not any MP in the current Parliament will struggle at the next election.
And Silent Sandys is silent with Roger Gale acting as her mouthpiece while she is at Tory Head Office
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Sack the Gang of Four
Close Manston airport
End Chinagate: return the £25,000 donation, call in the UNIDO-CGP-SEEDA contract, and end CGP involvement
Time for Change.
With Messrs Ezekiel and Latchford facing another leadership challenge the time is right to introduce a public vote of no confidence – and schedule another council leadership challenge.
2 more years of incompetent government is simply pointless for our lame duck MP’s and Councils: as with Westminster’s MP’s they should go and go now.
Clearly our MP’s have indulged in the Westminster culture of using the ACA allowance as a top-up of salary.
Only now under FOI are the last 4 years receipts about to be released.
The previous 10 or 20 years worth of claims will never be released.
Only now are all expenses claims required to have a receipt rather than those over £250.00.
Only now are salaries of all staff required to be detailed and one of the last grey areas of hiring family as another secret top-up of salary be detailed.
Derek Conway is the first high-profile MP who was unable to detail why a high salary was paid to a family member – and no work was ever provided.
With an MP paid £64k there will be some explaining to do on family salries that match or exceeed this figure for admin support work. The "manure and moat" parliament is undergoing a thorough clean-out
Thanet’s councillors claim about £600k or so in various salaries/allowances.
But these figures don’t include all costs, expenses – and crucially pension payments.
Thanet’s senior civil servants claim salaries of c.£100-130k each but again these don’t include all expenses, costs – and again crucially pensions.
Why are pensions important?
They maintain the lame duck system of clinging onto power for no purpose other than collecting the pay cheques.
For MP’s no MP will resign during his term as their civil service pension would not be paid.
For civil servants, there are at least 4 types of civil service pension and the unspoken assumption that these are paid regardless of performance.
As MP I will end both these 1970's trade-union-style “Spanish practices”:
MP’s can be “called in” by 10% of the electorate in a public petition
The termination of civil service contracts can include pensions
Without the effective public scrutiny of elected officials and the scrutiny of civil servants by elected officials the danger is that we have a corrupted system of governance.
Effective government provides transparency to then judge the value of the monies paid for the work done.
Clearly with TDC rated as one of the worst governed areas in the UK by the Government itself it’s hard to justify pay rises, high salaries, hidden expenses and the like.
Unless by educing transparency you can delay scrutiny and the inevitable questions asked and ultimately P45’s.
Clearly the Gang of Four: Messrs Latchford, Ezekiel, Samuel and White have been unable to improve the area after many years and simply have neither effective nor credible policies:
#museums closed
#night flights
#election ferry that don’t fit the harbour
#Chinagate trips on public time and the developer’s dollar
#Polluted drinking water (any councillors raised this at TDC or KCC yet? Try Paul Leinster, Head of the EA: paul.leinster@environment-agency.gov.uk after 3 months I've still received no information on toxin levels from my FOI/EIR request)
And our MP’s are the same. The only time Thanet has been raised in Westminster is for Roger Gale’s “Olympic Airport” ludicrous plan to stimulate a failed aerodrome.
If this is the calibre of our political leadership then no wonder the water’s polluted, the museums closed etc etc.
Because only incompetents would be able to take £20M in public money each year and spend £15M on internal council salaries - and achieve nothing except a reduction in public services.
And claim that things are improving.
That’s not governance – it’s failure.
Time’s up fpor Thanet's "scum and scoundrel" council.
Steve Ladyman cannot win the next election. A falling majority of 664 votes means his seat is one of the most marginal in the UK. The recent furore over MP’s expenses means almost any Labour MP if not any MP in the current Parliament will struggle at the next election.
And Silent Sandys is silent with Roger Gale acting as her mouthpiece while she is at Tory Head Office
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Sack the Gang of Four
Close Manston airport
End Chinagate: return the £25,000 donation, call in the UNIDO-CGP-SEEDA contract, and end CGP involvement
Time for Change.
Monday, 18 May 2009
Missing noise monitors and Chinese expenses
Very bizarre how all the councillors and civil servants at TDC and the local MP’s keep quiet on the removal of noise monitors by Infratil.
Removed from Clarendon school and one of the tower blocks throughout 2005 and 2006 with the assistance of TDC on the authority of a Mr Gunn, of the Infratil Board of Directors.
Clearly this raises issues over Infratil’s liability for noise damage and overall approach to safeguards at Manston.
Rogue corporations are not unknown: Thor, and Union Carbide or Northern Rock or Enron or Parliament to name a few.
But of more concern is TDC’s involvement: Brian White and Richard Samuel are both direct reports and - during this period even Chair of KIACC.
And authorised the removal of monitoring at an internatrional airport that was expanding.
No mention is made of providing noise and air monitoring for over 3 years.
Nor the removals.
The only noise data – subsequently in a bizarre situation from an Infratil employees garden – shows huge dangers as you’d expect.
Noise into danger levels requiring ear guards, and air monitoring spikes of aviation fuel chemicals.
And no much-promised mobile noise and air monitor has ever been provided.
It looks like a case of no monitors, no data, no problem.
Certainly there is no public transparency on the air and noise readings – nor the correct flight paths. Nor the full fines to limit noise and air pollution.
As with Infratil shedding aviation fuel into the aquifer and Pegwell Bay it’s not that these things are acceptable – they simply are not.
Whether an airport provides jobs or not - the safety measures simply cannot be waived away.
Yet the attempts to do so are revealing.
Yet our councillors and civil servants remain silent.
Our MP’s remain silent.
Then, with CGP providing £25k donations to both Parties for the largest-ever Planning application in Thanet for cargo warehouses – and trips to China for our MP’s and councillors and civil servants - the whole 24/7 cargo airport business looks very murky indeed.
But we can guess.
We have scum and scoundrels for our political and council leadership.
Scum and scoundrels that would endanger the public through removing noise and air monitors. And then pretending that this was acceptable – and even that there was no problem at all.
All for an airport built on the drinking water. And a few miles from Ostend 24/7 cargo airport where MK airlines are based.
An idiot’s international cargo airport for Kent.
Clearly the public endangerment has been for little more than political vanity and civil service Planning incompetence.
Not dissimilar to the Election Ferry yet another regeneration project sunk without trace after "months and years of discussions.".
Cobblers.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Sack the Gang of Four
Close Manston
End ChinaGate: return the £25k CGP donation to the Community Fund, publish the Chinese Tesco bag receipts
Time for Change.
Removed from Clarendon school and one of the tower blocks throughout 2005 and 2006 with the assistance of TDC on the authority of a Mr Gunn, of the Infratil Board of Directors.
Clearly this raises issues over Infratil’s liability for noise damage and overall approach to safeguards at Manston.
Rogue corporations are not unknown: Thor, and Union Carbide or Northern Rock or Enron or Parliament to name a few.
But of more concern is TDC’s involvement: Brian White and Richard Samuel are both direct reports and - during this period even Chair of KIACC.
And authorised the removal of monitoring at an internatrional airport that was expanding.
No mention is made of providing noise and air monitoring for over 3 years.
Nor the removals.
The only noise data – subsequently in a bizarre situation from an Infratil employees garden – shows huge dangers as you’d expect.
Noise into danger levels requiring ear guards, and air monitoring spikes of aviation fuel chemicals.
And no much-promised mobile noise and air monitor has ever been provided.
It looks like a case of no monitors, no data, no problem.
Certainly there is no public transparency on the air and noise readings – nor the correct flight paths. Nor the full fines to limit noise and air pollution.
As with Infratil shedding aviation fuel into the aquifer and Pegwell Bay it’s not that these things are acceptable – they simply are not.
Whether an airport provides jobs or not - the safety measures simply cannot be waived away.
Yet the attempts to do so are revealing.
Yet our councillors and civil servants remain silent.
Our MP’s remain silent.
Then, with CGP providing £25k donations to both Parties for the largest-ever Planning application in Thanet for cargo warehouses – and trips to China for our MP’s and councillors and civil servants - the whole 24/7 cargo airport business looks very murky indeed.
But we can guess.
We have scum and scoundrels for our political and council leadership.
Scum and scoundrels that would endanger the public through removing noise and air monitors. And then pretending that this was acceptable – and even that there was no problem at all.
All for an airport built on the drinking water. And a few miles from Ostend 24/7 cargo airport where MK airlines are based.
An idiot’s international cargo airport for Kent.
Clearly the public endangerment has been for little more than political vanity and civil service Planning incompetence.
Not dissimilar to the Election Ferry yet another regeneration project sunk without trace after "months and years of discussions.".
Cobblers.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Sack the Gang of Four
Close Manston
End ChinaGate: return the £25k CGP donation to the Community Fund, publish the Chinese Tesco bag receipts
Time for Change.
Friday, 15 May 2009
Toxic Thanet: Trafigura and Thor mercury
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8048626.stm
Toxic waste dumping in Holland and Africa by a company called Trafigura subcontracting to a company called Tommy as detailed on Newsnight (see web article and video clips) following the Margate Apprentice debacle.
The waste was shipped for USA to Tunisia who barred it from their country where the waste was part-processed (at sea!) by mixing with oil and other chemicals off Gibraltar and then shipped to Holland.
The industrial waste was attempted to be disposed of in Holland but the smell and toxicity alerted the authorities who acted immediately to confirm how to dispose of it safely.
This was ignored and the toxic waste shipped and dumped in the Ivory Coast, West Africa.
Trucks then moved the waste at night to several dumps around the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan.
As the death toll increased, the issue came to light.
Thor mercury at Margate was investigated in 1988 and closed for poisoning the water table and several workers.
The equipment and processes were moved to South Africa where as the death toll increased…etc etc.
Thor mercury in Margate remains open and the Environment Agency has subcontracted cleanup of the site to other companies - including Thor mercury.
There is no danger to human health say Trafigura and the Environment Agency… etc etc.
The toxic waste from Trafigura seems far less deadly than mercury.
The EA at Margate say not only is the toxic waste not dangerous to human health but neither are the chemical fires nor the spread of polluted water. And the water pollution in Thanet is largely due to the public pouring oil or paint down the sink.
The pollution of aviation fuel from Infratil flushes from the runway over the drinking water supply and into the road system and into the sea. And has done for years and since the EA notice to cleanup to Infratil in 2005.
And cleanup at Thor since 1988 and now 2009 will now take several more decades.
Unless.
The cleanup at Thor has been very lax.
And the site is extremely toxic.
As you’d expect from a banned mercury factory.
And the EA simply are not moving fast enough to secure the site and clean up the mess.
And neither are Thanet’s councillors, civil servants and MP’s.
Trafigura like Thor previously are on trial in the High Court.
In Margate, the site could be secured by the Police to prevent any vehicles and people moving in and out: "night deliveries or removals" are not unknown for toxin dumps and even mercury traces from soil on car tyres or rainfall splashes pose a serious health danger - for the nearby housing estate, BandQ, Hornby factory and farmland. And the discharge into the water table.
Yet the site could be cleaned up in months.
Or decades.
Who are the Thor site councillors: District and County - and MP's and civil servants?
Where are the FOI/EIR reports on the cleanup: dates, toxin levels, toxin volumes and weights, signatures, emails, documents, consignment notes etc?
Is the clean up a regular TDC agenda item? If not why not? This isn't a candy-floss factory spilling icing sugar.
Neither is the aviation fuel discharge from Infratil or Sericol and the switched-off pumps.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Toxic waste dumping in Holland and Africa by a company called Trafigura subcontracting to a company called Tommy as detailed on Newsnight (see web article and video clips) following the Margate Apprentice debacle.
The waste was shipped for USA to Tunisia who barred it from their country where the waste was part-processed (at sea!) by mixing with oil and other chemicals off Gibraltar and then shipped to Holland.
The industrial waste was attempted to be disposed of in Holland but the smell and toxicity alerted the authorities who acted immediately to confirm how to dispose of it safely.
This was ignored and the toxic waste shipped and dumped in the Ivory Coast, West Africa.
Trucks then moved the waste at night to several dumps around the Ivory Coast city of Abidjan.
As the death toll increased, the issue came to light.
Thor mercury at Margate was investigated in 1988 and closed for poisoning the water table and several workers.
The equipment and processes were moved to South Africa where as the death toll increased…etc etc.
Thor mercury in Margate remains open and the Environment Agency has subcontracted cleanup of the site to other companies - including Thor mercury.
There is no danger to human health say Trafigura and the Environment Agency… etc etc.
The toxic waste from Trafigura seems far less deadly than mercury.
The EA at Margate say not only is the toxic waste not dangerous to human health but neither are the chemical fires nor the spread of polluted water. And the water pollution in Thanet is largely due to the public pouring oil or paint down the sink.
The pollution of aviation fuel from Infratil flushes from the runway over the drinking water supply and into the road system and into the sea. And has done for years and since the EA notice to cleanup to Infratil in 2005.
And cleanup at Thor since 1988 and now 2009 will now take several more decades.
Unless.
The cleanup at Thor has been very lax.
And the site is extremely toxic.
As you’d expect from a banned mercury factory.
And the EA simply are not moving fast enough to secure the site and clean up the mess.
And neither are Thanet’s councillors, civil servants and MP’s.
Trafigura like Thor previously are on trial in the High Court.
In Margate, the site could be secured by the Police to prevent any vehicles and people moving in and out: "night deliveries or removals" are not unknown for toxin dumps and even mercury traces from soil on car tyres or rainfall splashes pose a serious health danger - for the nearby housing estate, BandQ, Hornby factory and farmland. And the discharge into the water table.
Yet the site could be cleaned up in months.
Or decades.
Who are the Thor site councillors: District and County - and MP's and civil servants?
Where are the FOI/EIR reports on the cleanup: dates, toxin levels, toxin volumes and weights, signatures, emails, documents, consignment notes etc?
Is the clean up a regular TDC agenda item? If not why not? This isn't a candy-floss factory spilling icing sugar.
Neither is the aviation fuel discharge from Infratil or Sericol and the switched-off pumps.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Wednesday, 13 May 2009
Margate tomorrow:You're Fired! Burned! Torched!
Tonight’s TV programme with Alan Sugar’s Apprentices regeneration Margate surely marks the final nail in the coffin for Margate.
But what happens tomorrow after the show is aired?
Imagine a town of 2M visitors plummeting to zero, burning down and then the final ignominy of Alan Sugar’s trainee Apprentices advising the council on what to do next.
It’s hard to imagine a more desperate – and foolish – strategy from the Gang of Four.
What will the Apprentices say tonight on prime time national television?
How wonderful the seafront looks?
How more visitors should come down to enjoy the fire sale of seafront properties?
How clever the council are for inviting them down to comment in front of the nation on the decline of the world’s first seaside resort?
What innovative strategies each of the Apprentices will provide in their day in Margate?
Perhaps asking Jeremy Clarkson to review a Lada or Simon Cowell to review a pub singer would attract a better reaction.
Car crash TV.
And tomorrow? After the TV show showing the failure of Margate’s regeneration?
The Gang of Four to suggest how innovative the approach was despite the brickbats?
A flood of new visitors to paddle in the outflow from Manston and taste the Thor mercury waters or wander around closed Dreamland?
Roger Gale to throw another jerry-can on the fire and claim he never knew anything about regeneration by fireball?
Kent Police to suddenly realise most of the seafront has burned down - in the same places?
Develop the seaside resort with a 24/7 cargo airport, SEEDA cargo warehouses and business park and dual carriageway - to encourage tourism?
Or... will the British public - in the greatest season for domestic tourism in decades - stay away in droves beacause Margate looks a mess?
Oh.
And a council tax increase for residents for failure.
The Gang of Four and our MP’s and civil servants simply have no idea on regenerating the area. And even more bizarre than that, they are actively making the problems worse.
A vote of no confidence at every council meeting.
Sack ‘em.
Let them move on to destroy another public organisation or town.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
But what happens tomorrow after the show is aired?
Imagine a town of 2M visitors plummeting to zero, burning down and then the final ignominy of Alan Sugar’s trainee Apprentices advising the council on what to do next.
It’s hard to imagine a more desperate – and foolish – strategy from the Gang of Four.
What will the Apprentices say tonight on prime time national television?
How wonderful the seafront looks?
How more visitors should come down to enjoy the fire sale of seafront properties?
How clever the council are for inviting them down to comment in front of the nation on the decline of the world’s first seaside resort?
What innovative strategies each of the Apprentices will provide in their day in Margate?
Perhaps asking Jeremy Clarkson to review a Lada or Simon Cowell to review a pub singer would attract a better reaction.
Car crash TV.
And tomorrow? After the TV show showing the failure of Margate’s regeneration?
The Gang of Four to suggest how innovative the approach was despite the brickbats?
A flood of new visitors to paddle in the outflow from Manston and taste the Thor mercury waters or wander around closed Dreamland?
Roger Gale to throw another jerry-can on the fire and claim he never knew anything about regeneration by fireball?
Kent Police to suddenly realise most of the seafront has burned down - in the same places?
Develop the seaside resort with a 24/7 cargo airport, SEEDA cargo warehouses and business park and dual carriageway - to encourage tourism?
Or... will the British public - in the greatest season for domestic tourism in decades - stay away in droves beacause Margate looks a mess?
Oh.
And a council tax increase for residents for failure.
The Gang of Four and our MP’s and civil servants simply have no idea on regenerating the area. And even more bizarre than that, they are actively making the problems worse.
A vote of no confidence at every council meeting.
Sack ‘em.
Let them move on to destroy another public organisation or town.
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change.
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Manston will close says Matt Clarke of Infratil
Not just his words in February, before the mystery BA contract that never happened, as the sheep-councillors hustled through night flight changes - but now his words just last week in another emergency presentation to Thanet Council.
Matt, Infratil's Manston Chief Exec, goes further and says in his report that sudden influxes of freight traffic is urgently required.
Of course. But it's rarer than scotch mist. Hundreds of freight flights. 24/7.
The question now is how many days and weeks do Infratil have left?
And how will TDC and KCC not be left holding the baby in terms of clean-up of Infratil's mess?
A bargain-basement land sale, dodgy planning permissions for passenger terminals but cargo sheds instead, dumped jumbo jets, 3 years of water pollution, air and noise pollution on the local populations at Ramsgate, Sandwich, Broadstairs, Herne Bay and Canterbury and repeated breaches of the S106?
All opposite Ostend Cargo Airport and the world's largest passenger and freight airports at Gatwick and Heathrow.
And Infratil rewriting the 106 themselves to allow the banned loop training flights - and previously banned EU aircraft.
The Gang of Four are left with egg and aviation fuel on their face.
Can they hang on - and onto their pensions - until after the June Election before being dumped?
Claims of the 82 jobs at Manston are inflated and not full-time or full-waged positions - but then Infratil have always flown fast and loose with the truth: roosts for owls in dumped jumbo jets? Or one of TDC's infamous Xmas consultations with Infratil on the 6M passenger Masterplan?
Again as credible as the Gang of Four themselves.
And their incompetent policies for closing museums, repeated pollution and economic collapse in Thanet.
We have the clutching of straws as the last foolish regeneration plan collapses - except for the ChinaGateway cargo warehouses around Manston. With the £25k party donations.
Or the British Virgin Islands tax haven project for Pleasurama with unnamed directors and shareholders - a loophole that closes in January 2010 too.
The reality is that Manston always has been a plan for a freight airport with a figleaf of passenger flights to make 24/7 night flights palatable.
And who will clean up the mess?
Or shall we leave it?
Meanwhile Kings Hill regenerates the old airport in Tonbridge with several dozen companies and housing plans.
As MP I will call for the extradition of any Infratil Directors who've left for Down Under not in chains and a Parliamentary Inquiry into Kent's aviation policies.
As well as UK aviation data on cancer levels around airports, water pollution etc.
Our lame duck MP's have failed. And Brazier and Ladyman were the Air and Transport Minsiters - and now the Election Ferry has sunk without even fitting in the harbour.
And Silent Sandys is, well, silent - except for supporting Roger Gale's foolish and desperate "2012 airport" nonsense and photo opps with Roger and Julian and Matt as they claimed Manston was a resounding regeneration success.
Idiots.
And a dangerous and deceitful lack of care and attention for public safety with removed noise and air monitors from a school and other public buildings.
Who will clean up after dirty Infratil?
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change
Matt, Infratil's Manston Chief Exec, goes further and says in his report that sudden influxes of freight traffic is urgently required.
Of course. But it's rarer than scotch mist. Hundreds of freight flights. 24/7.
The question now is how many days and weeks do Infratil have left?
And how will TDC and KCC not be left holding the baby in terms of clean-up of Infratil's mess?
A bargain-basement land sale, dodgy planning permissions for passenger terminals but cargo sheds instead, dumped jumbo jets, 3 years of water pollution, air and noise pollution on the local populations at Ramsgate, Sandwich, Broadstairs, Herne Bay and Canterbury and repeated breaches of the S106?
All opposite Ostend Cargo Airport and the world's largest passenger and freight airports at Gatwick and Heathrow.
And Infratil rewriting the 106 themselves to allow the banned loop training flights - and previously banned EU aircraft.
The Gang of Four are left with egg and aviation fuel on their face.
Can they hang on - and onto their pensions - until after the June Election before being dumped?
Claims of the 82 jobs at Manston are inflated and not full-time or full-waged positions - but then Infratil have always flown fast and loose with the truth: roosts for owls in dumped jumbo jets? Or one of TDC's infamous Xmas consultations with Infratil on the 6M passenger Masterplan?
Again as credible as the Gang of Four themselves.
And their incompetent policies for closing museums, repeated pollution and economic collapse in Thanet.
We have the clutching of straws as the last foolish regeneration plan collapses - except for the ChinaGateway cargo warehouses around Manston. With the £25k party donations.
Or the British Virgin Islands tax haven project for Pleasurama with unnamed directors and shareholders - a loophole that closes in January 2010 too.
The reality is that Manston always has been a plan for a freight airport with a figleaf of passenger flights to make 24/7 night flights palatable.
And who will clean up the mess?
Or shall we leave it?
Meanwhile Kings Hill regenerates the old airport in Tonbridge with several dozen companies and housing plans.
As MP I will call for the extradition of any Infratil Directors who've left for Down Under not in chains and a Parliamentary Inquiry into Kent's aviation policies.
As well as UK aviation data on cancer levels around airports, water pollution etc.
Our lame duck MP's have failed. And Brazier and Ladyman were the Air and Transport Minsiters - and now the Election Ferry has sunk without even fitting in the harbour.
And Silent Sandys is, well, silent - except for supporting Roger Gale's foolish and desperate "2012 airport" nonsense and photo opps with Roger and Julian and Matt as they claimed Manston was a resounding regeneration success.
Idiots.
And a dangerous and deceitful lack of care and attention for public safety with removed noise and air monitors from a school and other public buildings.
Who will clean up after dirty Infratil?
Failed. Failed. Failed.
Time for Change
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