Tuesday 30 June 2009

Time for 10% recall of politicians and civil servants

Poisoned water and a cargo airport without any controls.

Bloated salaries and featherbedding for the liars and cheats that pass for some of our civil servants and councillors.

Some of the worst deprivation in Western Europe - and the worst council in Kent and Britain.

A disastrous council.

End the incompetence.

End the corruption, lies and delays.

A failed council.

No wonder nobody votes any more except by their feet: 30% turnout and 3,000 empty and derelict properties.

Do we have another 2 years of failure from the Gang of Four?

Sack ‘em. No payoffs. No pensions. Sack ‘em.

Removing noise monitors from an airport.

Refusing to provide mobile noise monitors in the towns.

Shredding complaints forms.

Wasting public funds on fraudulent 0% but 25% pay rises

Poisoned drinking water.

Time for a 10% recall vote and vote of no confidence for councillors and civil servants.

Time to publish all salaries, expenses and costs by department: if it's good enough for MP's and the Royal Family - where are TDC's costs, and the quangos?

Time for citizen webcams and mobile phone footage from the council chambers and meetings if webcams are impossible.

Time for Elected Police, NHS, Fire and Civl Service officials.

Time to close Manston and remove the dumped jumbo jets from the water supply before Infratil go bust and leave.

Time to publish the Thor toxin reports - if any have been done.

Jobs for life or jobs for four years or jobs for pensions are over: Thanet should lead the way and reform the incompetence and failure that we've accepted as one of Britain's bottom 10% councils.

What has been going on at TDC and KCC and our MP’s and quangos?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Recall.

Time for Change

Saturday 27 June 2009

Poisoned water. Say it ain't so Leader Carter. Say it ain't so.

Here’s the EA pollution report to TDC just last month (!).

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/EAWater/ThanetDCPresentation2_files/frame.htm

Most polluted water supply in Kent and South East: beware of pesticides etc such as: Atazine, Simazine and Diuron.

Check garden sheds, farm supply, shops, council industrial spray sites.

Do not use them.

They cause cancer and pollute the water supply.

Do not use them.

The chemicals again are: Atrazine, Simazine and Diuron.

The water supply is only 1M - 40M below the soil: 2-3 spade depths to little more than an on-end swimming pool depth.

As you can see from the slides showing the aquifer the reason Thanet’s towns are built in a thin strip around the coast - is that the rural land to the West of the towns is the aquifer: an underground water reservoir.

Building on these fields or “nibbling” at them, or siting the most polluting infrastructures (a cargo airport and fuel and stores and petrol stations) increases the risk of polluting the water from spills or general seepage.

But also, building prevents and reduces rainfall soaking into the land - and replenishing and cleaning the underground water reservoir.

This is exactly what our civil servants and councillors have been doing though. Hence the most polluted water supply in Kent.

The South East of England has less water available per head than Syria. The EA presentation shows 77% of that water in East Kent comes from underground supplies.

These are polluted: ask Harvey to visit Thor: harvey.bradshaw@environment-agency.gov.uk

Do not use dangerous insecticides, pesticides or herbicides. Alert TDC of the danger of fuel spills, oil spills etc. Check if action has been taken within the service standard of 3 days.

Copy your email to: paul.carter@kent.gov.uk

Do not dump oil, paint or asbestos. If these are dumped – they need removing the same day or next day.

The presentation also refers to hydrocarbon inputs: this is civil service flannel for petrol stations, fuel tanks, oil stores etc.

The EA presentation bizarrely does not mention Thor, nor Richboro, nor Infratil nor Sericol - dumping mercury, aviation fuel, dumped jumbo jets and chemicals into the soil, water supply and sea.

There is no mention of outputs.

These would be lung cancer, throat cancer, genetic birth defects, damaged internal organs, internal bleeding and early death or lives spent in hospitals and GP surgeries.

These outputs are not good.

Except for the NHS and Undertakers: lots of jobs there.

Here’s what the Cato Ridge workers at Thor mercury said after it “closed but not closed” at Margate:

http://www.ban.org/BAN_NEWS/foreign_mercury.html

Ask your councillor their view on the Thor pollution, Infratil, pollution, Sericol pollution and Richboro site: why are these not mentioned in the TDC reports to KIACC, TDC reports to Council and council questions?

How fast and thorough is the cleanup? Decades more of “pilot schemes” or recording the decline and failure.

Ask your councillor for a – full and accurate - weekly report on Thor, Infratil and Sericol – where are the toxin reports?

If the civil servants can’t do it – which they can’t – and they can’t issue the paperwork to the private sector – which they haven’t or won’t - to take charge then the public should take control of the sites and civil service pay.

These toxin reports plus full water and air quality records need posting on the home page of TDC and KCC websites, GP surgeries, libraries, hospitals, beaches and rivers.

These need monitoring at every council meeting.
Are our councillors attempting to create a cargo airport on the quiet without enforcing the necessary controls for public safety?

Of course.

We have cheerleaders rather than reformers of the council.

A cancer job and cancer life for everyone who wants one.

Remember, the airport noise monitors were removed by Infratil and TDC. They have never been fully replaced and mobile noise monitors have never been provided.
This is not accidental. This is deliberate.

No noise monitors means no noise data. Means no problem in increasing flights.

An airport company and a council do not remove monitors for a few hundred quid and fail to replace them by accident.

The Board of Infratil do not request removal - by accident.

KCC when notified by MP’s and MEP’s do not replace the monitors - by accident.

Geoff Wild the public’s County lawyer and his 86 KCC lawyers do not refuse to remove dumped jumbo jets - by accident.

Civil service and political careers are locked into failure.

The TDC civil servants are running rings round the councillors and public.

Fake consultations over Xmas and short notice. Unscientific public opinion surveys. Misleading and downright false public statements and briefings. Political decisions to switch flights over the different towns as the complaints rise.

Perfect for expanding flights over the towns of East Kent.

And polluting all the water.

Say it ain’t so Leader Carter.

Say it ain’t so.

But more importantly tell us what you will do.

Do you not have the monitoring records for Thor, Infratil, Richboro and Sericol?

Can you get them?

Is it impossible?

Time to close Manston.

Time to protect the water.

Time for Change.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Thursday 25 June 2009

Water bowsers for Thanet?

Water bowsers in the streets?

I don't know. Could be.

We need to see the Environment Agency and TDC and Southern Water testing results: drinking water, contaminated sites like Infratil and Thor, sea water.

Clearly nothing has happened at Thor nor Infratil for major pollution: andrew.pearce@environment-agency.gov.uk

They need siting in Ramsgate Town Hall with KCC for the next few years.

Still no contaminated land register from TDC.

The EA presentation (see Michael's bookshop site) to TDC (only last month) showed (slide 7) Thanet as the most polluted water in Kent.

Thor mecury water pollution has spread beyond the factory site.

Infratil repeatedly polluting - and the airport sits on the drinking water supply.

The outfall pipes need sumps/sealing.

The toxin results need publishing. What is happening at the site?

NHS on alert: hospitals and GP's - especially around Thor and Infratil locations.

Police at the Thor gates.

Suspend flights: a crash or spill wipes out the water supply.

Check the petrol stations around the water zone.

Check the farms/supply shops/municipal and industrila spray contractors for pesticides: the EA report contains various banned substances - Dioron etc

I don't know about filter kits for home or schools.

I don't think boiling water removes mercury or any of the other nasties.

Bottled water will help (although this isn't ideal for babies/some illnesses- speak to your doctor or NHS Direct I don't know).

Thanet has the most polluted water in Kent: action needs taking urgently.

Wednesday 24 June 2009

Matt Clarke of Infratil to speak at Manston?

G'day.

At Rotorua aerodrome most of the councillors never complained.

Jobs. Sheep farming. Tourists. Jobs. Night flights. Sometimes.

Not any pollution. No. None at all. Well, some, but jobs.

I'll let Paul Carter answer that.

Look at the shiny plane!

Oh. Drinking water supply. Under the runway. And all round the airport

And I'm drinking it too?

I'll let Paul Carter answer that.

And Thor mercury?! In the water! We only removed the noise monitors with the council.

We only polluted some of the drinking water. It wasn't me.

Deaths? Cancer? I don't know.

I've this letter from the Environment Agency since 2005: water. pollution. danger.

I'll let Paul Carter answer that.

Dumped jumbo jets - a few. I think they look nice rusting in the sun.

Can we fix another meeting?

Monday 22 June 2009

Paul Carter to speak at Manston?

What is there to say?

Yes we have no noise or air monitors and we don’t care?

Yes we allow dumped jumbo jets, night flights and overflights of the towns and we don’t care.

Yes we do care but not enough to do anything.

Yes we'll say we're doing something. Is the meeting over yet?

Yes we’ve built the airport on the drinking water supply?

Yes the water supply is polluted?

Yes TDC is one of Britain’s worst councils and in KCC’s area?

Yes 70% of council tax in Thanet is provided to KCC: £60M

Yes KCC has a £2B budget

Jobs! Jobs!!! Jobs!!! Look at the jobs created since EUJet went bust. Look.

A cancer job for everyone at Manston.

Don’t show me the figures that prove it.

No I can’t mention the Tesco bag of receipts for ChinaGate and political donations.

No I can’t mention the 0% pay rises but £25,000 pay rises for TDC.

Both of those would be admitting fraud and besides what’s wrong with the developer funding the largest-ever Planning application and pay rises that aren't but are.

And no I definitely can’t mention the noise and air monitors being removed: that would be fraud and manslaughter if anyone’s died or been poisoned.

Gulp. There hasn’t has there?

And the radar too? A DVD player for compensation? Oh heck.

KCC suing Infratil? Erm. We can’t because you pay us so we’d have to charge you more to safeguard you. Yes that’s it. Even if we don’t. Oh.

A crash with noise monitors and radar missing or not working? Gulp.

It hasn’t happened yet and it might never happen. That’s why the radar’s not working. Would I be liable personally as Head of KCC? Erm. I’ll ask Geoff Wild the County lawyer who you pay for in case I’m respnsible …Oh heck.

Geoff? Where are you Geoff? Could we say we're liable but not liable?

It’s Ladyman’s fault or Gale’s. Ask Laura. No don’t. Ask Roger instead. Not about expenses.

No the £110M in bank charges at KCC can’t be redeployed to Thanet. We need that to pay the banks to handle the Government funds and public’s council tax funds.

No Geoff Wild the County lawyer can’t issue permits to remove the dumped jumbo jets on the drinking water supply: he and his 86 KCC lawyers are busy on bumf. Noise monitors get in the way anyway.

Could we say there's "appropriate" noise monitoring? Geoff?!

No we can’t waive the 5% lowest-council-tax-increase-ever with 0% inflation.

We always raise tax.

Oh heck.

No KCC cannot employ more of the public as regeneration fails at the coast.

We’re hoping Manston will take off as a Big Project that fills up the shortfall of 20,000 East Kent jobs because if it doesn’t then we’ll… erm

No Manston couldn’t be developed like Kings Hill: we only do that in West Kent.

East Kent needs a cargo airport opposite Ostend cargo airport built on the drinking water.

Oh heck.

Look at the success of EuJet and Planestation And KCC’s US flights. That proves that it’s viable as an airport. Despite them all going bust. Yes. Even the RAF made a go of it by closing it. Oh.

Is the meeting over yet?

Paul Carter to speak at Manston.

Brian White and Richard Samuel and the Gang of Four are too busy to attend after their 0% pay rises.

Silence from councillors: if they speak then somehow they’re “predetermining” or some such cobblers.

Could the public be put at the end of the agenda so we run out of time? We could have another meeting some other time. Yes. That’s it. Dissemble and delay.

The planes are still breeching the 106? Erm.

Ramsgate Town Hall is fully booked so the airport lounge has to be used for public meetings.

This meeting’s in public although usually they aren’t: much better to do these things behind closed doors.

But there will be 6M passengers at Manston : 6x the Kent population and all of the London population flying from the airport that’s the furthest away from Maidstone and Boris Johnson’s Windsor-Heathrow constituency.

New terminal being built – only cargo sheds built instead. Erm it's not a 24/7 cargo airport. No. And an EU freight border post? Erm for passengers?

We've done a consultation over Xmas! And amongst ourselves. 100% of KCC Leaders are in favour of a cargo airport in Kent.

CGP ChinaGateway new CGP Jet Summit back-to-front building built on the water supply not brownfield land.

Paul Carter to speak at Manston.

Don’t all rush at once and leave the tar and feathers at home.

Bring Paul a souvenir of Thor drinking water though.

But will Paul:

#Fund webcams and websites for TDC and RTC?
#Ban night flights and overflights and enforce the 106
#Remove the dumped jets
#Sack the Gang of Four
#Return the 0% pay rises
#Return the ChinaGate dodgy donations
#Instigate Police patrols at Manston and Thor
#Publish the Thor toxin reports
#Publish the “scores on the doors” of KCC and TDC depts staff numbers, payroll, costs, expenses, investments/shares
#And quangos and arms length companies like EKO and Serco
#Publish TDC all councillor costs and expenses
#Announce KCC’s investment plans for Thanet given the failure of Manston

Paul Carter to speak at Manston.

More meetings planned.

Onward ever onward.

Meeting after meeting after meeting for polluted drinking water and cancer jobs.

Jobs!!!! There aren’t any but let’s pretend there will be or could be.

Just don’t look too closely.

Back to the 1970's. Cargo airports. Mercury factories. Dole-by-sea.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Saturday 20 June 2009

Killer Kent: mercury poisoning and aviation fuel

A bizarre set of notes from the Environment Agency. They’ve now confirmed under EIR that they have presented to TDC last month on Thor and Infratil and so on.

Except their documents never mention either of them.

What they have presented is a general update on the dangers of polluting your own water supply. You don’t say.

Thanet’s supply is so polluted it’s pumped in from West Kent.

While as the chalk allows cracks and fissures to the water table which sits only 1-40M under the soil it’s very susceptible to spills and leaks from pollutant sources.

Like an airport – which sits right over the water supply – and a mercury factory: banned in Kent and Africa.

For killing the local population and workers and polluting the water supply.

Yet the EA refuse to release the toxic reports on how cleanup is progressing.

Either they’re very slow at searching their filing cabinet or there aren’t any reports.

With Thor supervising its own cleanup for the EA - have a guess.

In fact the EA offered to “walk me through” their information in a meeting but couldn’t email the information they hold.

Sounds like a flannel job that our MP’s believed – or say they believe - on the public spilling paint in the water supply – but definitely not a Cargo airport, ChinaGateway or Sericol or Infratil.

Nor a chemical fire at Thor.

The only question now is what have our sheep-councillors and P45 civil servants been doing?

And why are our MP’s not releasing the EA information? Isn’t Westminster for Thanet?

Perhaps the greatest improvement to Thanet politicians and civil servants is the recall: as with the formation of RTC but slightly different, a petition of 10% of electors can remove a politician for laziness or stupidity or empty politicking and rule-booking as seems to be Thanet’s lot.

No wonder the area has some of the worst deprivation in Western Europe.

Perfect for a cargo airport, mercury factory and industrial solvent plant. Plus a car-wrecking factory, a derelict power station.

And Planning to kill off its citizens by concentrating all the nasty stuff in one place.

The Pensioner-politicians go first: touring mercury factories can’t be good for the health at their age nor drinking aviation-water to prove it’s safe.

You can’t boil mercury out of the water: it builds in the body tissues of fish and humans.

Pensioners go first then young children or the ill as the toxins take effect.

If you’d like the EA toxin reports ask Paul under “Your Right to Know: EIR”: paul.leinster@environment-agency.gov.uk

Has anyone seen the contaminated land register of toxin factories, petrol stations with buried fuel pipes or stores, asbestos sites? Ask Brian: brian.white@thanet.gov.uk

Filed next to the noise monitor reports?

Is it pointless asking the politicians and civil servants we employ?

It’s good for them to delay matters: more pensions and salaries before dismissal. Good for politicians too: 4 or 5 years before the next election.

Certainly tar and feathers is not ideal to increase the pace, nor hundreds of citizens waving bricks rather than placards.

And MP’s expenses and Fred the Shred means salaries, pensions and costs can be repaid.

Yet we can always find new politicians and civil servants if these ones can’t be bothered.

TDC is in the bottom 10% of the UK’s 440 councils after all: bumf and flannel doesn’t improve an area it merely records the decline.

But let’s ask them: “where are the toxin reports on the sites you control? How polluted is the soil and water and air? When is the fastest it can be cleaned up? What other dangerous sites are there? How much are we paying you?”

Thor closed in 1988 but was then kept open by the EA and councillors and MP’s

I’ve received the Deal Town Council corruption report: the usual petty shenanigans of bickering and childishness – yet TDC’s audit dept who produced the report sought an exemption under FOI and then under EIR.

Strange given the EIR Public Interest Test ie is it in the public interest to withold information from the public?

Bizarre as we pay them to do this stuff on our behalf.

And in Killer Kent there are clearly major problems with Planning and the Environment and Toxic Thanet is the result.

Isn’t it fraud to declare 0% public pay rises that are actually £25,000 increases?

Is KCC or TDC liable?

No wonder the water’s polluted and the museums closed: for £15M salaries out of the TDC £20M budget we’re funding a council to fund itself.

70% of council tax goes to KCC’s £2B budget and 30,000 staff: we seem to be funding the public sector quite literally at the expense of the private sector.

And the public sector is incapable of producing anything other than bumf – so the only jobs are cancer jobs outside of Maidstone.

Or reports: Margate: 2M visitors now zero.

Or signposting: pass the parcel to other quangos and government departments.

# Sack the Gang of Four – no pensions, no payoffs: are we really still paying for Samuel and White – and giving them payrises for failure? Our politicians are mere empty cheerleaders as the civil servants run rings round them.

# Close Manston: jail Infratil’s Board

# Clean-up Thor this year: seal the site with Police

# Remove asbestos from Richboro and schools

# Political reform: “recall” for councillors and MP’s

# Civil service reform: scores on the doors by dept, bank account reserves, investments: 100% of funding transparent for councils, quangos and national depts. – release the payroll Excel

And where are TDC councillors costs and expenses in Killer Kent?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Friday 19 June 2009

MPs expenses and Thor mercury and Infratil

Clearly the “redacting” or “censoring” of MP’s expenses released yesterday just shows the whole approach of MP’s and the civil servants to the public.

Desperate to cover up wrongdoing they censor everything on the forms: making themselves look even more foolish.

If the “censored/redacted” forms were the only ones released – as they were meant to be – then none of the information on moats, and duck houses and flipping properties would have been revealed.

Surely our MP’s must:

# release monthly reports of costs with receipts from now on
# detail family salaries
# require the same transparency from civil servants and councillors

But where are TDC’s costs and expenses: the most incompetent and corrupt council in Britain doesn’t feel able to release its costs? Why not?

If museums are being closed but there are £100,000 salaries and £200,000 MP's then the public need to know what's going on for these lavish salaries for failure.

All public organisations: quangos, councils, Police, Parliament departments etc etc need to issue monthly updates of their costs and expenses.

As we’ve seen with MP’s expenses any abuses or perceptions of what’s within the rules or not will quickly be resolved by the public.

Just like TDC’s 0% salary increases that are actually £25,000 increases, or the ChinaGate developer-funded trips for the Gang of Four: these are as close to fraud as you can get in terms of deliberately misleading the public on how public funds are spent.

As we’ve seen with RBS’s “Fred the Shred” or the £500k repaid by MP’s, there’s no reason why pension payoffs and expenses can’t be witheld or returned.

Salaries at TDC need far greater scrutiny by our sheep-councillors: the civil servants are running rings round them.

And with Infratil and Thor we have the bizarre situation of our councils pretending that there is noise and air monitoring, pretending that there are toxin reports, pretending that there is a contaminated land register and pretending that they’ve actually been doing something.

So incompetent are they that they’re drinking the stuff and breathing it like the public but think that their careers are more important or they’ll move sloooowly with “due process”.

Our pensioner politicians may have retired to the coast but the mercury may yet hasten them onward. Leaving only their children and grandchildren to pick up the pieces.

Although any toxins always affect the youngest first: genetic birth defects, toxin buildup in weaker immune systems and so on.

Thor was banned in 1988.

Even our MP’s are so incompetent they actually believe – or say they do - that the water problems are due to the public pouring paint down the sink – and not aviation fuel from an airport built on the drinking water supply nor a mercury factory banned in UK and Africa for poisoning the public.

Thanet only seem to get cancer jobs: why is that?

No sign of toxin reports from EA: have our councillors and MP’s requested them? Andrew.pearce@environment-agency.gov.uk

No sign of Police supervising the cleanup at Thor: mercury contaminated soil or water drifting around and out of the site is very dangerous. As are the chemical fires.

No sign of Infratil and the EA cleaning up Manston: when they’re gone who’ll remove the 4 dumped jets and clean up the soil and water?

As with Richboro no doubt attempts will be made to simply leave it.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Thursday 18 June 2009

Sack the Gang of Four. Close the museums. Poison the water.

One of those is a good idea.

Messrs Latchford, Ezekiel, White and Samuel seem to have no policy other than selling off assets to fund their own strange 0% salary increases with bumf window-dressing and fake consultations for failure.

Yet with Infratil and TDC continuing to refuse to return noise and air monitors nor effective radar since 2006 – is this also typical of the Infratil’s Board working procedures at Lubeck and Prestwick?

No monitors. No data. No problem.

Presumably mobile noise monitors would be moved to where the planes and people aren’t – to help mask the failures of regulation to safeguard the public at the airport.

And why such inaction from Kent County Council?

70% of council tax and 0% of effort it seems.

It’s as if Messrs Gilroy and Carter are twiddling their thumbs while Thanet burns.

Let’s hope jobs for cancer or mercury don’t result in corporate manslaughter charges for our public or private organisations.

Nor an air crash over the towns of East Kent. Or Western Europe.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Monday 15 June 2009

Thanet Council. Open for Dodgy Business.

# Pleasurama: British Virgin island tax haven company – no details of Directors or funders for Kent’s largest seafront planning application

# Manston airport: noise and air monitors removed by Infratil and TDC

# Infratil and Environment Agency: airport built on the drinking water supply and polluting the sea with aviation fuel

# Thor mercury factory: closed in 1988 by Health and Safety but not closed and water and soil polluted

# Richboro power station: derelict 30 years with 1950’s brown asbestos technology

# Asbestos in schools and public buildings: 100 deaths in Thanet in 10 years

# KCC and Environment Agency: widespread water and soil pollution: no cleanup in 20 years

# China Gateway: TDC and KCC arms-length company of TDC and KCC officials - and donations to both political parties for Thanet’s largest-ever planning application

# China Gateway: China trips funded by the developer for SEEDA cargo warehouses on the drinking water supply

# Thanet water supply: polluted and extra water pumped in from West Kent

# Missing tram shelter insurance money: 0% but £25,000 pay rises for our £130,000 council officials - and extra self-assessed payments and expenses for councillors on committees

# No TDC councillor costs published as yet – nor MP’s family wages

# Military Arches: listed building semi derelict and Granville collapsed

# Westwood Cross: road to nowhere and out-of-town shopping centre near-the-town-centres

# TDC sleaze report on Deal Council witheld from public

# No Kent TV broadcast of TDC council and committee meetings

# Regeneration by fireball or carpark: Pleasurama, Dreamland, Ramsgate Lido

# No KCC Cabinet scrutiny of failed councils


Sack the Gang of Four. Recall the councillors and MP's. Suspend payoffs and pensions.

TDC is rated in the bottom 10% of all 440 UK councils by the Audit Commission: the Government's own auditor.

Ramsgate Town council but still no Margate Town Council.

Time To Change Thanet.

Friday 12 June 2009

Airport noise and air monitors? Too much fuss.

Good to see the No night flights petition here: http://nonightflights.blogspot.com/

Yet despite bizarre “0% but really £25,000 pay increases” and fraudulent public statements on public money, the Gang of Four’s Richard Samuel and Brian White still seem incapable of providing noise and air monitoring for Thanet. Or Herne Bay. Or Canterbury. Nothing for Deal. Or Sandwich.

Too much fuss and bother putting them where people are, and monitoring the effects of air and noise polluition.

With NHS funds due to be cutback let’s hope the Gang of Four are not going around pulling the plugs on the heart monitors or life support machines.

Certainly with the new EU noise maps required around airports it would be sensible to put the noise and air monitors in the wrong place or not provide them at all.

Or as at Manston remove them.

No monitors. No data. No problem.

While the Environment Agency so far refuses to provide each month’s records of toxic waste sampling from Thor mercury – even the seawater testing results for May have gone astray.

Kick the problem into the long grass and hope the public forget it about it seems to be the civil service way.

Yet aviation fuel and mercury are such simple compounds: kerosene and mercury – they’re very easy to test for in water or soil.

A little like radiation, they light up the tests straight way.

We seem to have some political nobbling along the lines of the dual dodgy donations for ChinaGate.

Maybe the political party in power doesn’t want to release the results or put them in place because there goes the last regeneration policy.

While the opposition keeps quiet too - maybe it’s embarrassing for ”their” MP.

Maybe the civil servants are running rings round the councillors.

Maybe the councillors have “gone native” and think they’re the civil servant's representatives rather than the public’s representatives - or the Party machine’s representatives.

Perhaps the biggest electoral reform in UK is a “call-back petition” where MP’s and councillors do not have 4 years do as they please but can be recalled by a public vote of 10% of the population. As in USA.

A few feeble late flight donations for village hall chairs and the largest-ever CGP donation to local Party funds, and the sheep-councillors rubber-stamp the public’s land and safeguards away.

For 85 jobs in a region of 250,000 people. Because it was an RAF airbase once.

Yet Kings Hill ex-airfield has been developed with thousands of growth jobs and houses.

Ask your councillors and MP’s to sign the “No Night Flights” petition – and where are the noise and air monitors and Thor mercury test results?

If the tests have not been done then why not - and where are latest test results?

Or do we not bother with proper Health and Safety monitoring at international airports and mercury factories and Blue Flag beaches in Thanet?

Manston is a white elephant kept open solely for Ostend cargo flights with public funding from TDC, KCC and SEEDA – with no accounting of the health and safety impacts of 250,000 people for 85 jobs and a few political careers.

Rather like business mergers, public sector “glory projects” are usually too slow and ineffective in regeneration: look good on the political and civil service CV though.

Though less jobs than we thought.

Different jobs from what we were told.

No other plans in place except cookie-cutter planning like Westwood Cross: a bog-standard out-of-town shopping centre for Milton Keynes. But near the town centres.

An international cargo airport with a few passenger flights – but near the Ostend international cargo airport.

And one hour’s drive from some of the world’s 3 largest airports, the world’s largest container port and the South East’s only Channel Tunnel.

Lots of jolly outings around China and Britain though.

Jim Braithwaite of SEEDA works 3 days a week and his taxi bill alone is £50,000 per year.

Richard Samuel is paid £130,000.

John Bunnett is paid £100,000.

Brian White is paid £100,000.

Mark Seed is paid £100,000.

Expenses and other allowances extra.

For emptying the bins and polluting the water.

Thor mercury was supposed to close in 1988 after the Health and Safety Executive reported widespread mercury contamination and ill-health.

The factory was closed in South Africa for killing several workers and poisoning the water in Cato Ridge – here’s a few Google links:

http://www.greatnewsnetwork.org/index.php/news/article/thor_to_pay_r24m_for_mercury_waste_clean_up/

http://www.greenleft.org.au/1993/121/5129

http://www.afrol.com/News2001/sa017_mercury_waste.htm


Ask Geoff Wild the County Legal Eagle about corporate manslaughter and endangering the public: geoff.wild@kent.gov.uk – he’s on your payroll to look after County legal matters for you.

Like the dangers around airports and mercury factories. A lot of lawyers at County Hall funded by the Kent taxpayer.

Thor mercury was supposed to close in 1988.

Why was it still operating until a year or two ago?

Who is issuing permits to allow work to continue?

Why is Thor mercury contracted by the Environment Agency to supervise the cleanup for them?

As MP I will close Manston and seek the arrest and extradition of the Infratil Directors – as with Thor mercury before them.

Also statements from the civil servants as the Gang of Four are sacked: no payoffs, no public pensions, no gravy train public sector jobs.

Let’s hope the SEEDA-China chaps don’t hear about the dodgy ChinaGate donations: in China they’d be executed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Xiaoyu

Thanet. Open for dodgy business.

Even an Election Ferry.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Thursday 11 June 2009

New Ramsgate Town Council: change or more of the same?

The first meeting of Ramsgate Town Council sounds positive to begin changes and improvements to Ramsgate.

I thought I’d jot down some of the key points to be discussed:

# New Mayor/Chair: the largest number of public votes – or a show of hands by the public - seems as good a system as any – the days of the political parties self-selecting should be gone

# regular monthly public meetings and minutes – transparency and accountability

# councillor roles/manifestos

# recall/dismissal of councillors and civil servants for poor performance

# rebates/reduction of council tax for poor performance

# Police/Ambulance/Fire/Coastguard updates and elections

# Thor mercury: how poisoned is the water, copies of toxin reports and what’s the cleanup schedule

# Sericol chemicals in the water: same

# Infratil chemicals in the water/sea: same

# Infratil Manston 106: update on breaches, fines, monitors etc – presumably KIACC will be held at Town Council meetings

# TDC/KCC funding for RTC

# Contaminated land: update on the missing register

# Museum reopening: confirmed dates

# Derelict buildings and Listed buildings: update

# Pleasurama: contract updates and details of SFP Ventures

# ChinaGateway/CGP: details of party donations and approval process

# Harbour dredging: update and regular schedule

# Councillor expenses and civil servant staffing levels and cost by dept: monthly costs/expenses update

# street sweeping and drain cleaning schedules/rota

# public toilets cleaning/repairs schedule

# missing Tram Shelter insurance money update


It’s almost like a series of basic repairs to a town isn’t it?

Clearly our councillors, civil servants and MP’s have done little except watch the towns fall down or burn down.

Can they reverse the trend? What have we been paying council tax for?

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Tuesday 9 June 2009

Elections and Accountability

The elections are over.

5 more years of whoever is in charge.

Maybe 4 or less if the unusual system of calling elections willy-nilly isn’t improved to fixed terms like in USA.

KCC votes are largely wasted: Conservative for 70 years there has never been a year when it hasn’t been run by Conservatives. The latest trouncing of the opposition parties confirm that overwhelming fact.

That can’t be good for democracy.

While the turnout of c.30% in all the various elections means that 2 out of 3 people don’t vote.

With splits between the main parties, the winning party is elected on about 20% of the vote.

With 99% of people not belonging to a political party it does seem that democracy becomes more constrained each year.

The Rowntree Trust confirmed that the problem with politics...was the parties themselves: unrepresentative, unresposnive, few different polices, block voting

The last main reform of politics must be to open the public sector books: council tax levels form 50% of KCC’s budget for example, with the rest from national taxation.

With staffing and cost levels across each department the value of the services provided must become clear very quickly.

The public sector is looking as unaccountable and out of control as trade unionism in the 1970’s.

With the new Ramsgate Town Council the staffing levels look high already being based only on the main political parties spread of wards and positions.

Presumably one of the first acts of RTC will be to call for a vote of no confidence in TDC and provide details of its budgets and activities.

With polluted drinking water, sea pollution and a cargo airport breaching all the safety guidelines as Ramsgate falls down and Margate burns down it’s hard to see what TDC have been doing.

No water results published, No noise or air monitoring. No manifestos for elections. No public policies. No street cleaning rotas. The shredding and fudging of complaints. 0% but £25k pay rises and huge monopoly money council salaries for monopoly public services.

The reality is that £15m of the £20m budget is spent on salaries so there is no fund for renewing the area. And each election the funds and activities are rotated between each winning town in a microcosm of the East-West Kent split.

The new EKJAC merger of public services at Thanet, Canterbury and Dover may simply create a larger TDC. The District authorities simply seem pointless and Kent is small enough to be a single county authority with its individual towns.

Thank goodness salaries and pensions and other costs can be detailed and the public decide if they should be paid for the services provided.

And TDC’s and RTC’s councillors are the only ones in Kent without all costs published and the only ones not broadcasting public meetings on the web.

A lack of transparency goes hand-in-hand with the dismal showing of TDC and KCC in the area.

As we’ve seen with MP’s expenses and the cosy arrangements, without public scrutiny the parties and civil servants have simply failed to reform.

The MP’s simply bolster this failure with talk of paint down the drain for polluted water or missing monitors or widespread pollution or dodgy donations for ChinaGate.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

Wednesday 3 June 2009

No complaints system at Manston: front page newspaper article

It comes as no surprise that there's no credible or effective complaints system at Manston as reported on the front page of Your Thanet today- given the removal of the noise monitors and absence of air monitors.

No monitors. No data. no problem.

No complaints system. No complaints.

Perfect.

Yet this is hardly new. Infratil removed the monitors with the assistance of TDC in 2006: from a tower block and a school.

Infratil have owned Manston since August 2005: complaints are still not accurately recorded - only a telephone answering machine?

Richard Samuel and Brian White of TDC have sat on KIACC for the same period including a spell as Chair.

What have they been doing in this bizarrre game of Emperor's New Clothes with public safety?

Imagine TDC approving the fire alarms on a building by removing them. And then reporting each month that the fire systems are fine and data will be provided next month.

For months.

And years.

On public time and money.

Next there'll be suggestions of the public not Infratil paying for these basic airport safeguards for Infratil to do business. As an airport.

Or that they're "appropriate measures" by not being in place.

Clealrly there has been a political blind eye turned by several councillors and civil servants to allow the airport to develop without the required safety procedures.

Where are the Council minutes on removing noise monitors?

As the Dept of Transport rightly confirmed in 1993 Manston can't develop from an RAF base to a commercial airport as it's too near the towns. The commercial trade-off for 85 jobs at present and 250,000 people around East Kent simply doesn't fly.

All the required safety measures - if you use them - restrict it.

Especially when the cargo airport is opposite Ostend cargo airport.

And Manston is built on the East Kent drinking water supply.

And Infratil have repeatedly been polluting Pegwell Bay.

None of this comes as a surprise to KIACC or councillors.

Clearly the Tories have fallen in line with the KCC's Cabinet's wish for a glory project and the Labour councillors maybe do think that 85 jobs can become hundreds of forklift truck drivers or night flight cargo handlers.

Infratil don't: they've confirmed the airport is bust. No jobs for the current 85 staff.

As happened with EUJet.

And Planestation before it.

And the RAF base airlines before that.

And even the RAF itself.

Maybe along with MP's expenses and China Gateway and the elusive Election Ferry the regeneration problem is the councillors and civil servants themselves clutching at foolish and old-fashioned straws.

Are we employing a mix of fools and yesterday's men?

Even to the extent of endangering their own costituents with lax safety controls - as at Thor too.

Have they even failed to control public sector costs: spiralling wage increases and museums being closed? Or public services reduced into the voluntary sector?

Car parks seem the only council regeration plan: cheap to make and produces an income. Maybe some warehouses with SEEDA money.

Less and less but paying more and more.

Hurrah for Roger Gale and Julian Brazier though: they've agreed to David Cameron's demand for MP's to publish all their expenses by doing so - after the elections. Although Roger may need to "hire someone extra" to help him apparently.

And you thought EKO and fake 0% salary increases was bad value.

Along with MP's costs: no announcement on TDC councillor expenses and salaries as yet.

Nor the Scores on the Doors of the cost of each public sector department. And quangos.

100% funded by the public, the information should be made available to scrutiny.

Vote tomorrow and remember there's no votes in poisoning your own citizens.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time For Change.

Monday 1 June 2009

No manston noise or air monitors: no votes in poisoning your own citizens

Wot! No noise monitors or air monitors at Manston?

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.