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

Well, not a proper survey a bit of a partial one from Steve Ladyman and local Labour councillors - and the latest flight reports from Infratil. Key points from Infratil and TDC's latest report are: #50% of flights over towns ie breaching safe flight routes #No air monitoring #No community fund payments #2 flights taking off during the night hours – plus others landing #Noise levels c.84-89 decibels: into the danger zone - as you'd expect from low-level planes And in the Ladyman airport postal survey: # no mention of lung cancer # no mention of runway on water supply # no mention of existing water pollution eg Pegwell: one of UK’s dirtiest rivers # no mention of removal of noise and air monitors You can’t develop an airport by removing the safety measures can you? It seems you can. Labour urging low-paid jobs, Tories urging big business investment, civil servants fudging the safety data and enforcement to keep their jobs. Hey presto everybody's happy. Until the pollution lev...

Now the truth comes out. Let's ignore 2 747 cargo flights over central Ramsgate yesterday at rooftop height: tonnes of aviation fuel vapour straight on the heads of the local population. And noise and air monitoiringf removed by TDC and Infratil. Never even the much-promised mobile monitors. So the only monitoring will be via the lungs of Thanet's population - with the highest lung cancer rates in Kent. But no, not that. The Environment Agency and the Stour River - or Pegwell Bay as the estuary is known. Now officially one of the top 5 most polluted rivers in Britain - according to the EU and the Environment Agency itself. Clearly the outfall pipe from Manston airport for aviation fuel and chemicals straight into Pegwell Bay won't help. Nor the open sumps through the road system that drain directly into the Bay. Nor the whole airport built on the drinking water supply - and chalk - the most polluted in the South East. Thor mercury rains the other way despite being closed-bu...

The Thanet Times has detailed how Thanet’s councillors have now requested Infratil to clarify the confusion over their night flight request. I wonder how much council time and money has been wasted on this farce – after all Infratil announced the request with TDC at a press conference only a few weeks ago. There was no confusion then or now: # extending night flights by an extra 90 minutes from 6am to 11:30pm # allowing an unknown “Brian quota” of flights by noise rating at any time night or day Clearly the burble and backtracking means Infratil is not only a dead duck but TDC looks the same way. Certainly KCC have now walked away from the airport built on the drinking water. And mere cargo flights form Ostend. Removing noise and air monitors and pretending that monitoring has been done. No wonder cancer levels are the highest in Kent. And only Infratil could assume that a trainee air traffic controller to supervise training flights by trainee pilots over towns is a good thing. Have ou...

I thought I’d tweak the TDC vision as some of it is very good although there are a couple of areas that seem both lengthy, unachievable and reliant on the airport without factoring in the cost of polluted water and lung cancer: you can see the original here. TDC’s first draft vision: http://www.thanet.gov.uk/council__democracy/thanet_vision.aspx?lang=en-gb I couldn't resist the bit about sailor clothes shops. Thanet Vision 2020 Thanet Thanet’s economy has been renewed, following the ManstonGate and ChinaGate debacles. Thriving offshore wind-farms have brought a few jobs to Ramsgate, with new solar power and creative businesses attracting more residents and visitors into Thanet. The district is more prosperous and the average income in Thanet is now slightly more than that of Kent. The introduction of the high-speed rail link in 2009 led to minor improvements in the rail network in East Kent. New dual carriageways were tabled but removed as part of a “East kent-East Midlands” philos...

Night flights for Thanet. Lung cancer for all. http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000144/M00001793/AI00003333/$Annex1DraftConsultationPlan_v1.docA.ps.pdf A bit of nonsense with the draft airport consultation plan – it’s got the sticky fingers of the Gang of Four all over it. The airport's dead in the water but the longer they drag it out the more paycheques they collect. By my reckoning the 6 month consultation period actually boils down to a postal vote and 6 days of roadshows – with one half day in Central Ramsgate. Yet bizarrely 2 days in Margate. Maybe that’s to fully explain that the air pollution drifts over all Thanet causing lung cancer for everyone. And as far afield as Canterbury, Sandwich, Deal, and Herne Bay. And have we all not had enough of our District council being simply a political football. One election term all the money’s spent in Margate. The next it’s all spent in Ramsgate. No wonder most people think politicians are scum. Their only remit is delay,...

Best wishes to Hilary Jephcott reported in the local papers who's standing on the 4th Plinth artwork in Traflagar Square tomorrow to raise awareness of breast cancer. She's had surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and is on the road to recovery. The Plinth artwork by Angel of the North sculptor Antony Gormley will be able to view at www.oneandother.co.uk from Thursday (possibly live too). Memorial balloons can be bought and the names read out. Thanet has the highest lung cancer rate in Kent and an early death rate of 11 years earlier than the rest of Kent which is a massive statistical skew. TDC provides an estimate of 1,750 deaths although the rationale for this is not clear. Let's hope the cancer charities, NHS and other authorities are watching to improve these shocking death rates. Presumably various increased cancer tests and screenings will be available from GP's and hospitals. I'd hope too that lung cancer from tobacco can be restricted in Thanet with the...

http://bhopalwater.com/ # http://www.bhopal.org/ The first link doesn't always work but can be clicked through from the 2nd link. Samples of "Bhopal (B'eaupal) Water" provided to Dow Chemicals to have a taste. Dow refused a taste. I would too. It's poisonous. Even droplets on your skin. Even breathing it in. Clealry Thor isn't as dangerous as Bhopal where 20,000 died straight away and then many more thousands each year from polluted water and soil: genetic birth defects, cancer etc. Only 2-3 workers died at Thor Margate and a dozen at Thor South Africa. Althougfh Thor margte didn't close in 1988 as it should have done. The Environment Agency issued permits to pollute - or at least store chemicals. Hence the Thor Margate fire in 2007 and the water at the site has spread beyond the factory. The Environment Agency are cleaning the site they say...by using Thor. Silence from councillors. Silence from civil servants. Silence now from MP's Silence from Kent ...

A double page spread on pages 24 and 25 various pollution incidents in China which seem all too familiar at Infratil and Thor: “authorities closed a chemical plant in central China after two locals died of cadmium poisoning. Chinese newspapers exposed a long-running scandal of political collusion that allowed the plant to flout environmental standards”. How many died at Thor before it was closed-but-not-closed in Margate in 1988? Two? More? A dozen or so in Cato Ridge when it was closed there in 1994. “Mass protests broke out over “cancer villages” near polluted waterways in Eastern China. A series of campaigns began to win compensation for villagers who became ill living next to filthy canals and rivers full of factory discharge and effluent.” Infratil missing noise and air monitors removed by Infratil and TDC from a school and tower block. No mention of it in council meetings. A strange unity of silence from councillors. Richard Samuel the Head of TDC and Chair of KIACC repeatedly pr...

The new East Kent EKSLP strategy is circulating for TDC Cabinet approval and seems very sensible. It does largely tie-in with the new TDC “Cleaner, Safer, Greener Thanet” strategy. I’ve never seen so much activity from MacMillan cancer support in the area. Plus a Ramsgate cancer victim on the 4th plinth in Trafalgar Square: seems lots of hi-profile activity to reduce the early death rate. TDC have conjured up a figure of c.1,750 deaths but I’m not quite sure what that relates to. To put that in context that’s nearly all the UK deaths from traffic accidents each year. But just in Thanet. I don’t understand why the coroners reports aren’t issued and perhaps linked to Google maps: the death rate around asbestos factories was highlighted by the same addresses coming up again and again in the coroners reports. When the factories were closed, hey presto, the death rate fell. I’ve had some nonsense on Thor mercury and Richboro and other contaminated land sites from TDC: apparently there isn’t...

The 3rd meeting of RTC last night and a series of rigged questions, bewildered silence, off-agenda items and one heated debate over the cost of a bouncy castle. I've made a formal compaint to Dave Green as Mayor below. Clearly the towns that burn down aand fall down are entrusted to councillors and civil servants by the public. If they can't do thje job then new ones are required. Hi Dave As Mayor I wanted to write to you expressing concern over last night’s RTC meeting chaired by you. The vote of no confidence below was provided some 3 weeks ago and was not present on the agenda for councillor debate. Clearly there were several instances of bureaucratic gamesmanship eg restricted public speaking and various other items eg ChinaGate, Pleasurama and Thor mercury simply left off the agenda Please advise how this vote of no confidence has been raised with TDC and RTC. I would alert you that if there is a repeat of this kind of advance censorship then I will recommend a vote of no ...

No, not the Flybe plane yesterday that on a Sunday circulated over all the Thanet towns. It looked to be a 737 with a few tons of kerosene fuel; to shed over the people and beaches. The musicians on the Broadstairs bandstand had to pause every so often as it circulated. Clearly someone better at maths than I could work out exactly how many tons of fuel and likely cancer effect. Factor in that this Sunday afternoon promenade for a single pilot would deliver nothing to the Thanet economy except work for nurses and undertakers and you do wonder what our councillors and civil servants have been doing on public time and money – to protect the public rather than their careers or aviation fantasies. As Infratil and the Gang of Four’s Manston plans limp into oblivion wioth the smell of death upon them, and marked only by the ring of another bomb scare at TDC forcing the civil servants out into the fresh air, the time must be ripe for a consultation. Not on night flights, that would be a “water...

Nein to ChinaGateway: it seems extremely foolish for Kolonel Latchford to be still marching in step with the China Gateway crew. Dodgy trips to China for fake conferences and Tesco bags of receipts. Fake dual political donations for Thanet’s largest-ever Planning application and huge public protests that resulted in it being approved by being kicked into the long grass. Herr Kolonel seems to have forgotten the 130,000 people that own ChinaGateway already. And if ChinaGate is such a terrific idea then build it at Richboro on the contaminated land. I’d certainly like an FOI/EIR copy of any contract signed by EKO which merely comprises the good Kolonel with other TDC and KCC officials if costs are a problem at TDC why these secretive and extra-costly mini quangos comprised of the existing council officials? Unless the air is to lend a veneer of objectivity to the Planning process and hustle it all though. People may remember “Save Wye” and David Hewson’s book “Saved” on the planning hustl...

With every Chinese takeaway. A side order of lung cancer too. A video link to Ken Wills of CGP (now CGI China Gateway Investments) for ChinaGateway: I think for just Manston now rather than Wigan and Dover too. Not sure if it’s funded by CGP as a division or a separate company. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjvHeqW3JcY The Chinese delegation is a mix of UNIDO the UN poverty agency – bizarrely bailing out Kent rather than Bangladesh: SEEDA did sign up for this but then the Chairman got fired. Not good. UN Poverty Agency for Kent. Not good. And the Chinese Friendship Cultural Committee – a government quango: a little like the Arts Council but with human rights abuses. Clearly though this is less any grand political event and more a quick deal on the public’s ChinaGate land around Manston for cargo warehouses. No-one’s quite sure as no-one quite knows what it is. Vague talk of Jobs!!!!!!!!! Thousands. Millions. And bizarre talk of Chinese mobile phone manufacturers in Kent. Sounds to me ...