Tuesday 29 December 2009

New Year. New Council

Hard to know which was the biggest failure of 2009:

#The on-off, never-seen Ferry
#Manston and on-off BAWC cargo night flights
#Manston: removing the air monitors prior to the on-off, never seen night flights consultation of August, September, October, March maybe May
#Manston: the missing noise monitors
#Tax haven Pleasurama on-off, never seen whatever the plans were – only until 4th Jan to register tax haven duties and income with Customs
#ChinaGate on-off, never seen warehouses or something after 12 months
#The on-off, never seen reconstruction of the Granville Folly
#Ramsgate Town Council established but grinding to a halt in ceremony, protocol and inaction
#The missing EKO and ChinaGate expenses and timesheets, TDC £2M office refit from disabled grants
#Dreamland: another year derelict

The only certainly is the 0% pay rise fraud that were £30,000 increases and delays on providing the TDC payroll costs.

Do councillors not review these at Cabinet or Council meetings? – obviously not or where are the minutes? And if they’re not reviewing the £2M civil servant wage bill nor the above points what are they doing?

Maybe it’s tired pensioner politics: somewhere out of the rain, a cup of tea and do what the civil servants tell them.

Maybe it’s an acceptance of bungs, fiddles and maladministration: harder to jail elected councillors but certainly easier to do so for civil servant involved in these kinds of maladministration and grease.

Not good enough for some of the worst deprivation in Kent, the highest cancer rate and a 17 year health gap between the rest of Kent and one of the worst UK councils.

Time to:

#Sack the Gang of Four: no good and failed.
#Close Manston and clean the water supply
#End ChinaGate
#Clean up Toxic Thanet and the contaminated land: Richboro, Thor, Manston and Gasworks
#Build Pleasurama: with green technology, an ice-rink and below the cliff
#Establish a “2nd Pfizer” for employment
#Cancel the New Road dual carriageway on farmland and improve the closed airport boundary road
#Review TDC and KCC and Quango payroll, expenses, cars, pensions
#Launch the Van Gogh Museum at the derelict former Cavallino building
#Publish all MP expenses monthly and establish recall for MP’s and councillors


And work out how many dead or their lives shortened through breathing unmonitored aviation fuel and mercury.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change in May 2010

Thursday 24 December 2009

It's Xmas. So time for a TDC consultation.

Offices closed. Public distracted. A good opportunity to “bury the bad news” or at least something unpalatable.

Here’s two:

#The Tourist office consultation
# Air quality in St Lawrence
http://www.thanet.gov.uk/news/latest_press_releases/air_quality_views_needed.aspx

Here’s an overview of some things for Santa for Thanet next year:

1. A tourism office closure programme described as “improvements”. Not dissimilar to “improving-air-monitoring-by-removing-air-monitors”. More “Little Margate-ism” again. The sooner each town directs its own c.£16M expenditure from the £60M District taxtake the better – or will it simply be wasted on admin and process? Fixing the plywood on the window of the tourism office would be an improvement – not really showing the town at its best for visitors
2. Thor mercury cleanup: what have the council been doing? 750 of them and 130,000 residents and there’s no cleanup schedule?
3. The Van Gogh Museum at the derelict Cavallino building in Harbour St to celebrate Van Gogh, Coleridge and local artists. Let’s hope the Regeneration Department is busy organising funding and grants
4. Richboro: time to blow up the derelict cancer towers
5. Asbestos in schools and computers in schools: where is the detail and cleanup schedules? Where is the ratio of computers to children?
6. Manston: a copy of the existing vision and a revised version is below
7. Cancel the New Dual Carriageway: more farmland destroyed for traffic jams as East Kent becomes the East Midlands - a land of car parks, business parks, retail parks and office parks - but not park parks
8. Good to see Vattenfall looking to fund improvements to Pegwell Bay and the Hoverport built on coal ash as part of the world's biggest windfarm
9. The “2nd Pfizer” programme for full employment: malaria vaccines and nets production
10. The Kent Film Office and Studios developments for Margate and Ramsgate

Dreamland of course will be derelict another year and the Turner will open - facing the derelict site.

And if you’re bored of turkey, in-laws and telly here’s a long document on the Thor pollution at Cato Ridge in South Africa with several mentions of the Margate factory closing in 1988.

Except it never closed. "Permits to pollute" from the Environment Agency and no checks at all by TDC. Not even a contaminated land survey.

Just the June EA presentation on "How not to Pollute your water supply".

What has been going on?

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/documents/davis.doc

And why no mention in Parliament? No mention at County Hall? No mention at Cecil Square?

Keep quiet? Keep your head down? Don’t tell the public? Don’t clean it up? A cosy club of incompetence?

It’s as if Thanet’s citizens deserve nothing better than to be lied to and poisoned by our politicians and civil servants.

And still the planes fly over the town.

Still the cancer rate soars.

And still the coffins pile up.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Current 2030 Vision: Manston park and Airport

Manston is the commercial centre of Thanet. Kent International Airport has established itself as a major cargo base for the UK receiving 300,000 tons of freight per year, particularly from nearby continental markets. Scheduled passenger services run daily to popular UK and European destinations.

Manston Park has drawn in businesses from around the world. The airport has been a catalyst for the businesses which have set up in the business park, and it is also developing significant airport-related activities for airlines that cannot find room at other London Airports.
Residents have taken advantage of the thousands of jobs created over the past 21 years.

New 2030 Vision: Manston Park and former airport

Manston is the green heart of Thanet. Kent International Airport collapsed as a major cargo base for the UK receiving 30,000 tons of freight per year, day and night, particularly from short-hop flights form Ostend, loaded onto trucks and then driven to Heathrow or around the M25.

Scheduled passenger services collapsed without taxpayer subsidy from an RAF base or council funds except for the Summer Holiday Coach Service to Gatwick and Heathrow.

Manston Park has drawn in businesses and visitors from around the world to the Blue Flag beaches and parks to see how brownfield sites and major water pollution can be cleaned up. The TDC and Infratil “MonitorGate” scandal of deliberately removing noise and air monitors and fudging health and safety data has been a catalyst for reform.

Infratil’s Board faced significant airport-related jail time for corporate manslaughter in Kent if the courts cannot find room at other London jails.

Residents have taken advantage of the thousands of lives being improved and created over the past 21 years without suffering from lung cancer or genetic birth defects.

A wider understanding of the “cancer cause” resulted in rapid clean up of Richboro, Thor, cargo ships off Margate, Pegwell bay and the Gasworks to reduce the 17 year early death rate in Thanet compared to the rest of Kent.

The council moved slowly and with full regard to due process so not many of the public died over the 20 years of planning.

Monday 21 December 2009

Thor mercury explosion and discharge

An extract from the latest report on Thor mercury near Nash Road estate and BandQ:




Incident occurred on 19th December 2007. Synthetic route (from Germany) was being scaled-up (by the persons interviewed) and ***********from the Wincham site). Uncontrolled events lead to reactor overpressure, separating the reactor lid and breaking a glass vessel containing toluene (about 50 Kg). Explosion and fire destroyed the plant. Nobody was hurt.

Date(s) of Investigation
dd/mm/yyyy
20/2/2008

Persons Interviewed
Include their job title or role (e.g. Safety Adviser, MD, or TU Rep)
**********Wincham Cheshire).

***********Margate)
Decision for David Gregory (Inspector).

Description of the Incident

Explosion of pilot scale chemical reactor. No injuries or fatalities.

Agents Involved

Stage 1.
Pentaerythritol
Phosphorus trichloride
Toluene (solvent)
HCL gas (evolved)
Intermediate Bicyclic phosphate (CAS: 873-93-8)

Stage 2
Intermediate Bicyclic phosphate (CAS: 873-93-8)
Dimethylmethyl phosphonate (DMMP)
Iodine (catalyst)
TL1171 CAS: 3001-98-7 (product)
Underlying Causes
E.g. lack of management systems, safe systems of work.
Failure to adequately assess and characterize the chemical reaction hazards and engineer the pilot plant.

Action required by Client
To cease pilot scale operations before the site is decommissioned.



What has been going on?

A chemical explosion on a factory site next to a housing estate.

When the site was meant to have been closed in 1988 after poisoning several workers and the soil and water.

And the relocating to Cato Ridge in South Africa to do the same there.

Nothing from our MP's or councillors. Or even the police other than stay inside and close the windows. And earlier this year maintaining that all is proper and correct at Thor and Infratil.

Clearly it's not.

TDC removing air and noise monitors at Manston with Infratil. And now a notorious polluter continuing to merrily cook up chemical explosions on the polluted site.

20 years after it was meant to close.

Heads down at TDC. Deny. Pretend everything's fine. Lie. Not our problem.

Where are the Cabinet and Council minutes on cleaning up these toxic sites?

Where are the cleanup schedules?

Where are the soil and water sdamples?

Where are the injury and death forecasts?

Nothing.

What a mess.

Time for Change.

Thursday 17 December 2009

Death by Council in Toxic Thanet

Why exactly are the Gang of Four still clinging to their roles and pay cheques for failure?

Where are the noise and air monitors that were “improved” at each consultation for expansion by being removed?

Why exactly will the councillors not discuss the cleanup at Thor, the Gasworks and Richboro and the cleanup schedules?

Are the civil servants running rings round them or is it keep quiet in the cosy club of incompetence that passes for Thanet governance?

The MP's and councillors and civil servants can't claim they didn't know of the problems. Where are the Cabinet and Board minutes on fixing the problems?

Are they sat in Margate twiddling their thumbs while the towns are contaminated and collapse?

Of course.

The worst council in Britain - rated by the Government itself

The highest mortality rate in Kent with an 11 year and even 17 year death rate gap.

The mysterious 1,750 casualty rate.

The most polluted water supply under the airport.

Time for Roger Latchford and Sandy to resign: who is competent enough to replace them?

Time for Brian and Richard to be sacked: for £250k plus expenses can we afford to have them letting the towns crash and burn?

Time for a review of the performance of Ramsgate Town Council: an effective town council as before 1974 or a ceremonial and minor duplicate of TDC as after 1974.

For £60M of tax take and 0% fake payrises and £25k Chinagate funds for Ramsgate Labour it can't be the money that's causing the collapse of the towns and closure of museums.

They're simply no good or just haven't a clue.

Except selling off land to cover their salaries and costs and waste.

And silence from Ladyman and Gale and Sandys.

Except their expenses.

As MP I will:

1. Close Manston - and estimate the death rate
2. End ChinaGate
3. Sack without pension or payoff any civil servants who are unable to clean up Toxic Thanet
4. Recall and refund the 0% and ChinaGate frauds and expenses
5. Publish the tax haven contracts - and all council (and KCC and quango) contracts and costs
6. Publish all MP costs each month - to the penny

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change in May 2010

Tuesday 15 December 2009

The missing Thanet receipts and cleanup

Still no news on:

# TDC payroll and cars and expenses
# ChinaGate receipts and timesheets
# EKO £500k receipts and invoices
# Infratil and TDC noise and air monitoring records and flight log
# Thor and Richboro site visits and cleanup schedules
# The Pleasurama tax haven contracts and payments
# 0% salary increases payslips: before and after

Impossible.

Can’t be done.

Must be delayed.

And then it’s still impossible.

“Commercial confidentiality” doesn’t apply: all costs etc are disclosed. If you don’t want them disclosed then don’t do business with the public sector.

“Data protection” doesn’t apply: that’s for data on the public held by civil servants not civil servants costs.

If you don’t want civil servant costs disclosed then work for the private sector and fund the public sector.

“Crown copyright” doesn’t apply: that’s copyright funded from public funds for the public.

It’s very simple. All public costs and information is available for disclosure. FOI and EIR means every piece of local government and national government information is available: as soon as possible and no later than 20 days.

You might make an exception for certain pieces of military or MI5 information at certain times.

But while we’re awaiting Thanet’s state secrets here’s the credit card receipts from the son of the Congo President who’s accused of siphoning off public funds from the oil wells in Congo into shopping for clothes.

Global Witness Director Patrick Alley said: “The High Court ruling is a spectacular victory for the right of Congo’s citizens to know about how public officials are managing their country’s wealth and for freedom of speech in general. Public officials like Sassou-Nguesso should explain their financial affairs, not try to use the courts to block public debate.”

The documents can be viewed at:

http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/556/en/congo_is_presidents_son_paying_for_designer_shoppi


The difference between this and MP’s claiming for moats or bell towers or civil servants funded by developers I’m not sure that there is a difference.

I do know though that all costs, documents, reports, emails, notes by government are funded by the pubic and ultimately approved by the public.

And they are now required by law to be made public.

So will our MP’s and civil servants publish all their costs each month?

So where are the EKO receipts?

Where are the Thor cleanup schedules?

And where are the Cabinet and Council meetings where these have been discussed and approved?

And which councillor and civil servants knew when the monitors were removed?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Monday 14 December 2009

Pegwell Bay and windfarm construction

This is an article on the £27M cabling contract for the Vattenfall windfarm

http://www.cnplus.co.uk/news/subocean-wins-23m-windfarm-contract/1867639.article

That’s a big contract: £27M just for part of the cabling.

I noticed yesterday by the Jet petrol station on the Pegwell/Richboro foreshore that Carillion were digging concrete-lined trenches.

How does the cabling get from those trenches out to the windfarm of the North Foreland without digging up the seabed of Pegwell Bay a RAMSAR and UNESCO site?

A Planning error as foolish as building a petrol station on the floodline and draining the airport’s aviation fuel into the Bay.

Or building the airport on the underground water reservoir.

And is the cabling contract is £27M and the windfarm is the world’s biggest windfarm – which presumably costs a lot more than £27M - why has Brian White accepted only £175,000 for a developer contribution? That will hardly cover the 0% pay rise fraud.

And which councillors approved this?

It looks to me like Thanet’s natural assets are being sold off on the cheap and the civil servants are running rings round the councillors to boost payrises out of the £60M council taxtake.

And the Sunday Times yesterday described the decibel levels of windfamrs were downgraded to 33 decibels (still a lot less than the c.120 decibels for jet engine noise). How is TDC monitoring the noise.

Especially given Infratil and TDC removed the noise monitors and never replaced them. And removed the air monitor just 4 months ago - at the time of the fake night flight consultation.

We can guess can’t we.

Time for a consultation on the performance of our civil servants and councillors. Especially as Thanet is rated one of Britian's sworst councils. By the Government itself.

Time for resignations and P45's for failuire from the Gang of Four. No payoffs. No pensions. No public sector jobs.

And we have "death by council" with toxic sites such as Thor and Richboro. And now a 17 year health gap between Thanet and the rest of Kent.

Our civil servants and councillors make Thanet the laughing stock of governance. And mere fraud and waste of what assets we do have.

What have they been doing?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change

Friday 11 December 2009

Time for Resignations and P45's

TDC rated again as one of the UK's worst councils.

Meeting "minimum standards".

We seem to have a service of crooks, cretins and liars.

And death by council.

Double the cancer rate.

Poisoned water.

Noise and air monitors removed.

Fake 0% pay rises for failure.

Fake £500k EKO quangos

Still no ChinaGate expenses.

Tax haven developers.

What has been going on?

Silence from councillors.

Silence from Civil servnats.

Silence from MP's

When will we have credible explanations and how these problems will be resolved.

Resignations.

P45's.

No payoffs.

No pensions.

No public sector jobs.

All seem viable to me.

The Gang of Four of Samuel, White, Latchford and Ezekiel couldn't run a bath let alone 3 small towns.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change

Thursday 10 December 2009

Airport crashes and burns

Coventry airport closed.

Kemble airfield expands as a breaers yard for derelict aircraft.

With Heathrow or Gatwick or Stansted slated for expansion – if any – then regional airports make little sense.

Ever tighter environmental restrictions, noise control, air pollution.

Unless you’re Manston of course.

Built on the water supply? No problem.

No effective radar? No problem.

Removal of noise monitors? No problem.

Removal of air monitors? No problem.

Council to fudge consultations? No problem.

County council happy for an airport far away from them? No problem.

Council to pay for the airport’s consultation? No problem.

Council to pay for an extra council quango of councillors? No problem.

Dumping jumbo jets on the water supply? No problem.

A Masterplan of 2M passengers. Up from zero. And more than double the whole population of Kent? No problem.

And a cancer rate in Thanet double the UK average. Either 11 years or 17 years early death rate compared to the rest of Kent. Even the official figures aren’t sure exactly how bad it is.

The only question now is which councillors and civil servants decided to remove the monitors.

And when will Manston close.

Will it be this week? Will it be next week? Will it be over Xmas? Will it last to the next February night flight farce consultation?

Will the councillors and civil servants wait for a crash?

When exactly will the Gang of Four of Latchford, White, Samuel and Ezekiel explain what has been going on at ManstonGate and ChinaGate and Thor mercury to the 130,000 people that elect them and fund their salaries.

For 0% salary fraud and no regeneration at all we seem to be paying for criminal incompetence at worst and mere bumf at best.

Will they be hanging on for 2011 election? Will they be hanging on for the May 2009 election?

They won’t need a payoff or pension for poisoning the public will they?

What exactly is the point of the Gang of Four now?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Monday 7 December 2009

Cancer East Kent

Another front page article on cancer in East Kent.

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=7Yk1y0D26Ga0&PBID=d7d2b9a4-64e8-44e3-9e11-33b67854552c&skip=

Clearly smoking would affect cancer figures a little. But most people don’t smoke.

So why would there be over double the national average of lung cancer.

And a specialist cancer ward.

A mortality rate dying at age 69 rather than 81 like the rest of Kent?

Certainly an airport – especially if you remove and don’t replace the air monitoring.

What were the civil servants and politicians thinking?

No-one would know?

No-one would mind?

They could “lose” the paperwork?

They’d keep their jobs and pensions anyway?

Hustle through fake consultations?

Even fake 0% payrises?

Polluted water wouldn’t help. Nor contaminated land like Thor and Richboro and the Gasworks – all that dust blowing around.

Here’s the estuary airport protest site funded by KCC with suggestions that Manston should be used instead.

Looks like dumping all the toxic waste far away from Maidstone.

Which councillors and civil servants thought it would be a good idea to build a cargo airport next to the towns and on the water supply.

And remove the noise and air monitors.
Let’s hope the “cleaner, greener, safer” Thanet strategy isn’t just mere lip-service.

Although it certainly looks that way as still the planes fly over the towns.

And none of our politicians or civil servants seem able to enforce public safety.

If it doesn't reach 2M passengers or can only do so by removing the safety checks what are the plans?

Building on the runway? But the water's already polluted.

Extra safety checks? But that was promised. The water's polluted.

And none of the other contaminated land sites are even being discussed by our politicians and civil servants.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Saturday 5 December 2009

Lung cancer double in Thanet

Front page of the Thanet Gazette.

As you'd expect in Toxic Thanet:

* air and noise monitors removed from 24/7 cargo airport by TDC and Infratil
* ChinaGate cargo warehouses plan on the Manston water supply
* 6 dumped jumbo jets on Manston water supply left by KCC and TDC
* RAF base without monitoring or similar deceit
* Thor mercury near Nash Road housing estate, B&Q and Hornby: closed-but-not-closed for 25 years
* permits to pollute and discharge into Pegwel Bay
* Pegwell and Stour most polluted river in UK after Medway
* Richboro cancer towers derelict
* The mystery of toxic Tivoli Brook
* Ramsgate and Margate gasworks derelict for 10 years
* The fake EUJet and Night Flights rubber-stamp consultations
* The EA report on "not polluting your water supply" to TDC in July
* Old Sericol site pumps switched off

No mention from councillors. No mention from civil servants. No toxin and cleanup schedules.
No Cabinet minutes. No Chief Executive and Board minutes. No Forward Plan details.
No Leader report details. No Chief Executive report details.

Removing air and noise monitors twice isn't an accident. Nor is not replacing them.

It can't be money. There's £60M in tax take at TDC and £22M in salaries. Plus £2Bn in tax at KCC.

Both MP's state from the EA seminar in June that the airprot and Thor are "well-run and there is no safety or pollution risk".

Shush.

It's not for you to know. Pay your tax. Shut up.

A report on Bhopal: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8388355.stm

The highest lung cancer rate.

Dying at 69 years old not 81 years old.

The most polluted water supply.

Thanet not Bhopal.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Thursday 3 December 2009

Aviation fuel monitoring at Manston

A further update on the Kentmere Avenue at Manston airport.

The largest monitor covering the airport: here’s the picture off the Kent air quality website:

http://www.kentair.org.uk/monitoringnetwork.php?view=sitephotos&site=ZH3&bulletindate=03/12/2009#details

Like a rather large telephone box or a shipping container: this is the monitor that’s now switched off.

The diffusion tubes are literally test tubes with a dab of cotton wool and tied to lanp-posts – usually used in their dozens and hundreds to monitor traffic pollution.

Here’s the Medway newspaper front page on serious traffic pollution in Medway which is monitored by diffusion tubes – for cars not jumbo jets.

http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/Launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=fG1705Po2c0Q&PBID=95f0fcf6-68e7-4ec6-a688-2d9be9749147&skip=

As you can imagine airport monitoring – especially an airport slated for expansion and built on the water supply and near an urban population of over 100,000 needs to be tightly monitored.

All the more bizarre to switch the Kentmere monitor off in August – at the time of the night flights announcement.

And here’s the data reading for the diffusion tubes at Manston:

http://www.kentair.org.uk/pollutionlevels.php?view=graph&site=ZH3&bulletindate=03/12/2009#details

As you’d expect fairly easy for them to go off the scale with the pollution levels.

Imagine if the 30 flights a day were happening: the pollution levels – but the monitoring switched off or removed.

And even as late as August and the night flights charade the main monitor switched off.

It would still be easy to work out the aviation fuel yield on the towns from the flight logs, the plane fuel tanks and height and wind speed.

Now you don’t need to be a genius to work out that the civil servants and politicians have decided to switch off monitors, removed the noise monitors, never provide the mobile monitor – and never replace any of the monitors in the last 3 years.

Maybe I’m old-fashioned but I thought they all worked for the public rather than Infratil?

I thought the greatest good for the greatest number was the point of public service?

I thought cancer jobs weren't a good idea. Hence monitoring.

I thought regeration was a fgood idea - so as not to rely on one industry or one employer.

Or relying on quick-fix ideas: "we're 2,000 jobs down let's expand the airprot to create 2,000 jobs".

"And do nothing else".

I thought noise and air and water monitoring was done to protect the public? That's why we elect politicians and pay for civil servants isn't it?

Obviously not.

What jiggerypokery will be going on with the monitors at Heathrow and Gatwick and Lydd?

And not one public statement from any politician or civil servant on the missing monitors.

So we can guess.

Jeopardising their own public. Their own families. Their friends. Their neighbours.

And still no news on the bathing water data, Thor, Richboro, the gasworks – are the toxin results available? Has the cleanup begun? When will it be completed?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.