Time for Change: Campaign for an Independent Green Thanet MP and Ramsgate Mayor

A promise of a few hundred jobs for the Kent and Thanet Soviets? We’ve had this before. Billions of Euros promised form the Central Bank by Mr Brown. And indeed it was. But dole money not regeneration money. And the cardboard jobs of bureaucracy or cigarette butt collectors. And last time as Regional Minister you came down to Ramsgate and smashed our fishing boats. The promise of jobs is welcome: we need new lungs to filter the air from Infratil and we need fresh kidneys to filter the Thor water. But you’re in the Thanet poorhouse now not Chatham’s Dickensworld. This is thin Government gruel of promises. Please can we have some more meat? Dry ship’s biscuit from the rubble of Chatham Dockyard and a thin slice of SEEDA cheese in TDC’s accounts and nothing in the Ramsgate pantry. Mayor Dave has an appetite for regeneration. We need to feed him. Send us some meat Minister Shaw. KCCC sends over £100M on bank charge processing – for the banks the Government bailed out. Send us that meat. Th...

What do you do with corporate criminals like Infratil? Criminals because they are a £1Bn airport company. Their Directors removed the noise and air monitors from Manston. Airport Directors of $1Bn corporations know not to do that. Especially an airport slated for expansion. Planes repeatedly breach the 106 even EU-banned Russian and African cargo planes. The most dangerous planes flying. Well, the EU is investigating the sale of Infratil Lubeck in Germany to ensure that State Aid wasn’t wrongly used. The UK and EU are pretty strict on State Aid. Only where needed: when the private sector or public sector needs developing. Not funding an airport for one of the world’s largest airport companies. That’s merely giving tax breaks, tax funds and infrastructure support for what a multi-national airport company itself does. Rather like giving State Aid to Tesco to open another supermarket. Infratil can’t even fund the noise monitors or radar at Manston. It can’t even stop polluting the drinkin...

3rd Ramsgate Town Council meeting: 7th September Let’s hope there are some developments - beyond the filing cabinet - from RTC at the next meeting around: 11 year early death rate: update Top 5% SOA areas: update Thor mercury pollution Cleaner drinking/bathing water Infratil pollution: drinking water/overflights/night flights/training flights Air, Water, Noise, Drains monitoring EA report water pollution: petrol stations, buried pipes Infratil: 6 dumped jumbo jets clearance/MOD pollution Derelict Richboro site ChinaGate update Contaminated land register and plan Pleasurama clearance Port/Foot Ferry/Marina update Town Centre/Silver Mile update Refuse/recycling/beach and street cleaning rotas and aims Street furniture repairs/design styles Derelict/Burned properties/land register and plan Monthly Town/District Reports: NHS, Police, Fire, Education, Ambulance, Coastguard Mayor/Committee reports Tourism Festivals: Xmas and 2010 (season 1St April-1st October) Forward plan: 2009 and 2010 TDC...

Running towns. Improving services. Reducing costs. They can't do it can they? Utter incompetence from Messrs Samuel, White, Latchford and Ezekiel: * polluted drinking water with Infratil and Thor * £60M council tax; £40M sent to KCC, £20M council salaries: £2M reserves: £3M left for the towns and services * now they seem to be approving Pleasurama via a British Virgin Islands company with mystery Directors Any old rubbish will do for Thanet it seems for the Gang of Four. Bumf, flannel and bullshot is all they offer. Mere dodgy developer deals r us. If only they'd spare us their grand political views and get the towns smartened. They can't do it can they? And the sheep-councillors seem unable to exercise scrutiny and control of council costs. Mere cheerleaders rather than community leaders. Along with the 0% salary fraud it's the kind of thing the Audit Commission would be all over like a rash. It goes beyond slipping and sliding around good governance and veers into mis...

In response to the information you have requested, I am able to provide the following details. Please note that all figures relating to 2008/09 are currently subject to audit. 1:Thanet District Council bank account details and investments: As at 31 March 2009 (the current year of audit), the Council has reported in its draft accounts short term investments of £6.936m, and a balance at bank of £988,000. 2: The East Kent internal audit report re Deal Council: I am not the auditor of Deal Council and do not have a copy of this report. 3: TDC payroll costs by department 2008/09: Please find analysis below. Directorate Amount Chief Executive Directorate 1,051,127 Environmental Services Directorate 6,962,256 Customer Services and Business Transformation Directorate 4,006,333 Finance and Corporate Services Directorate 2,388,911 Community Services Directorate 3,397,946 Legal and Democratic Services Division 561,959 Regeneration and Economic Development Directorate 3,680,221 22,048,755 4 TDC Me...

Not all of us. Could you poison some of us? Maybe not. Less voters. Less council tax. Fiddly to get rid of the bodies. Don’t poison all of us. Building a stealth cargo airport on the drinking water supply doesn’t really work. Except for poisoning all of us. In a 24 mile radius at least: Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate, Herne Bay, Canterbury, Dover, Deal, Sandwich. That’s why the water is polluted for 250,000 people in East Kent. That’s why there’s an 11 year early death rate. We’d die at 80 years old in the rest of Kent and UK but at age 69 in East Kent. Is it the cargo airport with flights at low levels dumping aviation fuel on the people and over the towns? Is it the Thor mercury factory banned in 1988 and in Africa but still operating? Is it Infratil and TDC and the Environment Agency not enforcing the 106 requirements to dump fuel into the sea? Our politicians and civil servants haven’t quietly agreed amongst themselves to loosen the safety regime at Manston have they? Not for a big...

It’s worth remembering that Thanet has the highest lung cancer rate in Kent. And a specialist cancer ward for specialist cancers such as leukaemias and the like. And an 11 year early death rate. 11 years. So in most parts of Kent and UK you’d die at around 80 years of age. But in Thanet you’d die around age 69. That’s a massive statistical skew for just 100,000 people on a Kent population of 1.3M. Off the scale. Those are Third World death rates: Kazakhstan, Bolivia, Iraq - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy Why is that? Coal mines probably have something to do with that. Smoking wouldn’t really do it. But throw in an airport and a mercury factory and the most polluted drinking water in South East England and you’ve a toxic cocktail that endangers you. And kills you 11 years earlier. Throw in removing the air and noise monitors by Infratil and Richard Samuel and Brian White and your councillors for unregulated airport expansion built on the water supply a...

Never a good sign. Best see a doctor. Such symptoms are usually for breathing difficulties: imagine asthma multiplied a thousand times. As your lungs are contaminated or damaged and struggle to draw oxygen you cough harder and harder. Either because of damaged tissue or your lungs gradually fill with water or phlegm. As you cough harder and harder you eventually break down tissue and cough up blood. Small amounts at first. The damaged tissue then pulls further blood into the lungs and you cough harder and harder… Few natural diseases in Britain these days have these symptoms. Heavy smoking severely damages your lungs. Some industries too such as coal mines. Often with such coughing up of blood you’ll find tar or coal dust mixed in there. One major factor though is living or working next to toxic sources. Such as airports. Which, nuclear reactors or waste dumps or very large chemical factories aside, are the largest man-made polluters. That's why the workforce have to wear ear prote...

Well I hope. Don' t want to lose those I'd guess. Back and forwards to the hospital. Maybe a dialysis machine at home. If things are really bad then waiting for a donor. Even worse for children or your elderly relatives. Ask a councillor how their kidneys are doing. Or an MP. Or a civil servant. You see, mercury poisoning tends to rot the kidneys first. While aviation fuel - which is essentially kerosene - wouldn't be too good for you either. That's why Thor mercury should have closed in 1988 as it poisoned the water table and several workers. Then they did the same thing in Africa. And what do you think would happen to all the aviation fuel discharge at low level on towns and then into the drinking water supply at Manston? Or all the petrol stations that surround the airport and drinking water supply? Still no news from the Environment Agency on the toxin results at Thor: clearly they haven't done any for Thanet's water which is the most polluted in the South E...

The Audit COmmission is the GOvernment'sauiudiot or for TDc and KCC accounts. Until now each year in Jully the public had a one-time chance to request copy invoices, bills, statements etc for a council's accounts - and object to them. WIth FOI and EIR this is largely irrelevant as the public can request them at any time on emial, a visit in person or by post. Here's my ojection to Andy Mack, the AC auditor for TDC: Hi Andy Can I object to TDC’s accounts as there seems issues around: #rating and collecting airport fines #arms length organisations funded/staffed by TDC eg EKO and £70k salaries #drinking water and sea water contamination costs #publicly stated 0% salary increases that were actually £25k increases #cost of preparing the contaminated land register especially for Thor mercury and Richboro #Is a £2M reserve on a £20M budget too high? #What are the 3 year financial strategies: there seems only generic statements on providing annual plans at some stage – and target...

None of us know exactly how polluted the water is: ask Harvey: Harvey.bradshaw@environment-agency.gov.uk as the EA and TDC and KCC seem unable to confirm. It is the most polluted in SouthEast England by the EA's own admission so some dat amust exist. Based in Allingham I’m sure East Kent's future is less of a concern for Harvey. Unless the public-funded (by you and me) Kent Tops Travel coaches could bus loads of Thanet people up there to look through the Environmental Registers or to County Hall for the next Cabinet meeting. Or Harvey could come to us at an emergency session of TDC or Ramsgate Town Council. Funny how all the emergency council sessions are to rush through night flights or the ChinaGate no-one-can-say-exactly-what-it-is but it's the largest-ever Planning application. Warehouses. Dozens of cargo warehouses. For a huge cargo airport built opposite Ostend cargo airport and on the drinking water. But why doesn't Harvey email the toxin reports under EIR the P...

Those nice people at Wagtech http://www.wagtech.co.uk/ have sent me a quote for their HM1000 Heavy Metals Analyser which tests for mercury, arsenic, lead. copper and other nasties in the water. It analyses them down to 0.1 parts per billion and gives a printout or computer graph. As you'd expect these days: full information displayed online almost instantly. Shouldn’t Andrew Pearce at the Environment Agency buy a dozen or two of these and not only get the EA to actually used them (where are the toxin results from 20 years of EA supervising a factory that closed-but-didn’t-close in 1988 despite being banned in the UK and Africa after poisoning workers and the water table) and also hand them out to schools, hospitals, volunteer groups? I’m not telling my granny how to suck eggs but if the toxin results are covered up and even EIR requests ignored then the EA hasn’t done any and, given the expertise of TDC’s Planning Dept and councillors, no-one’s being checking there either. The Gan...

Julian Brazier MP for Canterbury and Herne Bay wrote to me to confirm he is opposed to night flights. He cannot explain how noise and air monitors were removed or the mobile monitors failed to be provided for 5 years. Even with CCC and KCC as consultees. He was "astonished" to hear the airport is built on the East Kent drinking water supply. He understands the Environment Agency carries out pollution testing at Infratil and Thor mercury. As if. Steve Ladyman remains silent - yet last week in Parliament asks for "Route Development Funds" presumably as a taxpayer abilout for the $1Bn Infratril. Silence was the reply. Laura Sandys remains silent. Roger Gale remains silent. TDC's councillors remain silent. Paul Carter is a no-show. Brian White is a no-show. Richard Samuel refuses to answer questions. What have they been doing to allow repeated major breaches of the 106, the most polluted drinking water supply in South East England and still the pollution continues. ...

...to poison the drinking water. Dumped jumbo jets on the drinking water. The whole airport built on the drinking water supply - and slated for expansion as a cargo airport. Doh! Allow repeated breaches of the 106. Allow Messrs Samuel and White to remove the noise and air monitors. What have our councillors and MP's been doing? And who are the Thor and Manston councillors? The civil servants must be running rings round them: they can't even produce the expenses and costs for the civil servants. They allow fraudulent 0% but 30% payrises. £60M in council tax. £40M sent to KCC. £15M out of the remaining £20M in TDC salaries and expenses. £350k for councillors. £2M reserve. Isn't that barely £2M to run the towns? From £60M? A council funding itself to record its own decline and failure. Rated one of the worst in Britain by the Government itself - and Kent councils. Time for P45's. Clear out the rat's nest of incomeptence and deceit. Sack the Gang of Four: they have no i...

1. With the 2nd Ramsgate Town Council (RTC) meeting upon us soon isn’t there unfinished business for Mayor Dave to drive the agenda forward? 2. Axe Pleasurama – end the waste of time and funds on mystery tax haven developers. For all we know they could be funding councillors or civil servants. A building above the cliff-top and below the floodline is typical of TDC but let’s hope not for RTC 3. Axe ChinaGate – only the Gang of Four have benefited from the developer donations and trips and Tesco bag of receipts 4. Suspend Manston cargo flights to protect the water supply and enforce the 106: clearly night flights and loop training flights and overflights are not acceptable to the public and jobs in and around the flightpaths/towns across East Kent 5. When will the Eastcliff Bandstand be properly finished? 6. All council votes recorded by councillor for transparency? 7.Recall the fraudulent 0% but 30% salary increases 8.Recall of failed councillors and civil servants and MP’s – as in USA...

Julian Brazier opposes night flights. Paul Carter isn't sure until Boris tells him. Geoff Wild and Stephen Dukes take the council dollar and keep schtum. Brian White and Richard Samuel confirm they have been monitoring but not monitoring. Pay rises all round voted from our sheep-councillors. Steve Ladyman and Silent Sandys aren't sure but they'll say what you want to hear. Matt Clarke and Rowland Gunn of Infratil know that noise monitors are required at aiports but removed them. Tell me again why we're paying £60M for TDC to send £40M to KCC and of the £20M left spend £15M on their own salaries. And of the £5M left hold £2M in reserve. Isn't that 90% of council tax spent on nothing. Except to poison their own citizens.

Geoff Wild the County Legal advisor funded by the taxpayer - and his 86 KCC lawyers - have been aware of 4 dumped jumbo jets on the drinking water supply at Manston. But do nothing to remove them. Why? They're certainly aware of them. They know it's both wrong - and endangers the public. Nobbled by the politicians or idle? Geoff's a legal big-wig according to the Legal Society and with 86 public-funded lawyers they can't all be idle. Maybe they think their role is to give wriggle room to the politicians. Ask Geoff: geoff.wild@kent.gov.uk You're paying for him. And his 86 lawyers. Can't the private sector provide 86 lawyers far cheaper and better? Is the first duty of government to grow itself? Or are the faked noise reports from the noise monitors removed by TDC and Infratil redacted? Filed with the Lydd noise reports. Are we witnessing the death throes of democracy in Kent to be replaced by pseudo-bureaucracy funded by the public but working against it. Answers...

Planestation bust with a multi-million pound accounting fraud EUJet bust within 4 months stranding 30,000 UK citizens abroad Infratil: night flights and loop training flights And now only 6 cargo flights scheduled each week - presumably from Ostend International cargo airport just over the Channel With Manston built on the underground water supply for East Kent, polluting the sea and Infratil and TDC removing noise monitors from a school and tower block what have our councillors and civil servants been agreeing to? A cargo airport by stealth: planning permission for a passenger terminal but cargo sheds built, and a EU border freight post. And now even that's collapsed even with removing all the safety controls. Surely Britan White and Richard Samuel as Planning Director and former KIACC Chair when Infratil removed the nosie monitors will also be no-shows at TDC? While MP's Julian Brazier Shadow Air Secretary supports Manston but opposes night flights and didn't realise it w...