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

I completely forgot the RTC meet tonight on Manston etc – just as well if the councillors and civil servant farce of whether there is or isn’t a consultation last year, this year or next year - but happened to wander past and chatted to Richard Styles the Town Clerk. I mentioned him that the report and accounts and latest budgets are still overdue some 4 weeks after requesting them – and some 3 months after them being signed off by RTC. I suspect a bit of shuffling of feet over actual costs, Custom House contracts and civil servant salaries and pensions. Better to delay and hide them from the public. How bizarre a council delaying publishing its own report and accounts for public funds. I mentioned a strange letter form RTC requesting business donations to the Xmas lights “or Ramsgate may go dark”. He looked at me as though I’d suggested killing his first-born that the public and business provide £60M in tax in Thanet – plus national tax – so why would we provide a voluntary tax given ...

A farcical public meeting on Manston and now a farcical consultation-but-not-a-consultation. As usual all the public opposed to whatever nonsense the TDC councillors are suggesting. And now councillors and civil servants scrabbling around to get out of the mess. Just embarrassing. No explanation for over a year’s delay since the first request by Infratil. Stale old men relying on secrecy, pass the buck and petty committee procedure while Infratil do what they like. No explanation for the repeated breaches of the 106. No explanation on how many deaths from the lack of monitoring. Nor the delay on a night flights consultation since last July. Nor why it would be 12 weeks of consultation – you may remember the EUJet farce of a consultation that began when TDC was closed continued after the planes began flying - rather than the specified 26 weeks. Empty burble and flannel now they’ve been found out. A bust airport. Bust as Wiggins. Bust as EUJet. Bust as KCC USA. Bust as BAWC. How many mor...

With cargo flight bombs now an AlQaida option – again Manston is wide open. Random night flights. Egyptair. Banned African flights. Unchecked cargo. Offroute flights etc etc. A few minutes fly time from Canary Wharf. It's a wonder a few bombs aren't hidden under a couple of pallets of heroin from Amsterdam or some Sudanese Kalashnikovs from Ostend. Shouldn’t flights be pulled - the last major terrorism alert in Summer 2007 still had flights coming in plus banned flights. Shouldn’t there be an aviation blacklist for blatant breaches of airport operations and safety: Infratil’s Directors seem to do what they like. Why have noise and air monitors been removed and flight breaches deliberately ignored by our councillors and civil servants - for years? And silence on the East Kent drinking water supply under the runway. Over a year of fudge and delay since the BAWC night flight application with Matt Clarke and Latchford and Ezekiel last July. The same sort of delay as with the Albio...

http://www.ruudleeuw.com/ostend.htm “Bulgaria and Slovakia are major sources of arms to be transported to war zones. Airports from where the arms' transfer is organised or effected are mainly Burgas and Plovdiv in Bulgaria, Bratislava in Slovakia, a number of Russian airports, Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates and the airport of Ostend. The arms are subsequently delivered to the Sudanese airport of Khartoum, to Sierra Leone, Angola, the Congo or other war zones. All the airports mentioned above are still visited by aircraft from Ostend.” Info above (simply Google “gunrunning Ostend”) on gunrunning in and out of Ostend. Manston – less so now – used various known gunrunners for the “Ostend hops” eg DAS, MK etc etc (plus aircraft already banned from EU) and in the last 7 days there’s been another unmarked and rather tatty 747 flying in and out. Plus various smaller aircraft. Presumably also EgyptAir. And several out-of-hours flights and unchecked flights. Infratil’s new Director C...

Just another farcical public meeting on Manston again. As usual all the public opposed to whatever nonsense the TDC councillors are suggesting. Empty burble from Mike Harrison – the Chair of the Airport Committee no less - about there might be a consultation or not a consultation and maybe in a month or two. Nor – supposedly - could they say what their own opinions are. How ridiculous to elect silent representatives. Just embarrassing. TDC and KCC only seem to operate on silence and lies - and RTC much the same. A no explanation for over a year’s delay since the first request by Infratil – other than the sound of bucks being passed and councillors ducking the public protests then. Stale old men relying on secrecy, pass the buck and petty committee procedure while Infratil do what they like. No explanation for the repeated breaches of the 106. No explanation on how many deaths form the lack of monitoring. Nor the delay on a night flights consultation since last July. Nor why it would be...

Why the delays and silence from our politicians and civil servants on the pollution, corruption and construction in Thanet? Our politicians and civil servants have failed us: · major pollution incidents and cover-up: highest cancer rate in South East · Third World death rates: 18 year death gap from rest of Kent · deliberate pollution from Manston and Thor · collapse of Margate · utter waste of tax-funds Vote Garbutt for Mayor May 2011: Independent Green – directly elected Stop the Pollution: • Close Manston airport: built on the polluted drinking water supply - and repeated safety breaches by TDC and Infratil • Thor mercury factory near Hornby – publish EA toxin cleanup details: should have closed in 1988 but remains open • Demolish the derelict and polluting Richboro power station • Clean up Pegwell Bay: one of the two most polluted sites in Kent * Close Manston MOD Fire station: thousands of litres of chemicals into the water supply * Limit Thanet ...

Night Flight blight The meeting on Ramsgate’s consultation for night flights at Ramsgate town council was much the same. A council room overflowing with people complaining about night flights, cancer, asthma, the drinking water etc. And councillors silent or biting their lips to speak up in favour of night flights. After the meeting one councillor mentioned how wonderful Manston was back in the 1960’s when it was an RAF base and base for Invicta airlines. In the 1960’s. Funded by tax-money. Trailing jet fuel. And a few airshows to keep the public quiet. And then it collapsed. And Manston as a private airport has collapsed over the last 10 years. Even Charles Buchanan of Infratil now says private planes won’t keep the airport open. It can only be 24hour cargo. If that. A bargain basement junkyard of an airport. Kept open by removing the safety measures and endangering the public. Elections next May: no vote sin poisoning your own citizens before now – and until then. A year after the la...

A front cover article in KM for Canterbury and Herne Bay: “shocking report reveals the air we breathe is getting dirtier”. 5 permanent monitors in Canterbury just for road traffic. Worth remembering that Manston airport will provide - banned - fuel discharge over Herne Bay and Canterbury. Thanet also has discharge levels over 4x EU emissions – and monitors removed by Infratil and TDC. I’ve written to Kent Police as I’m concerned that the flight paths are repeatedly breached and the operating times. Last night a plane landed over the town at midnight: blatantly breaching both regulations. I don’t know how Kent Police/Customs monitor aircraft cargo if planes are landing outside of the airport operating hours. Nor why the public haven’t been protected. There doesn’t seem to have been a Police investigation for detailed statutory duties to monitor and record air pollution: benzene, carbon monoxide, lead, sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide. So why, for an airport due to expand, did Infrat...

Here’s details of Spain’s corruption trial for Malaga council that left the “once-charming beach resort carpeted in concrete” and “developers bungs for cash for votes”. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/27/spain-biggest-corruption-trial-marbella But silence from our cockroach civil servants. Nothing on the mysterious Pleasurama tax haven with no viable construction plans – who was the civil servant in charge of Kent’s largest seafront development? Silence on the 0% payrise frauds for m the Toxic Two of Samuel and White – where are the before and after payslips? Nothing on the fake noise and air monitoring at Manston – removed 4 years ago from a school and tower block and repeatedly lied to the public. Silence on the Double Donation to both parties for ChinaGate and Ramsgate Labour’s largest-ever donation. For Thanet’s largest-ever construction project. With plans released one week before a vote. Repeated breaches of the design guidelines for construction, breaches of building fo...

The NHS Cancer summary document for East Kent has been sent to me: cancer the biggest cause of death, and East Kent in the lowest quarter of cancer treatments. Seems to me the NHS hasn't been doing its job very well. And Infratil and TDC allowing breaches of the flight paths and removal of monitors have allowed unnecessary increases in cancer deaths, ill-health etc. Seems to me TDC have deliberately endangered the public. After all, that's why flight paths and monitors are specified around airports isn't it? Yet since 2006, Infratil and the Gang of Four and Ladyman and Gale and Sandys remained silent. Enforcing the 106 is but a matter of a phone call to stick to the routes - yet for 5 years this has been ignored. For an airport funded by KCC and TDC and slated for expansion. And silence from our 56 councillors. Maybe they thought a cargo airport was a good idea. And one on the drinking water supply too. Not one public statement on the removal of the monitors. Who exactly of...

A note below to Bill Hayton KCC Chair for the local KCC meeting: as always more interesting for what's left off the agenda and avoided. Why the silence from our councillors and civil servants on Thor and Manston - not one public statement. How bad is the pollution? And so much for democracy eh? 10 tonnes of grit and waster in the Ramsgate waterpumps last week according the Southern Water cleanup chaps - no wonder the drains flood and how long since the drains were checked and cleaned? 10 tonnes. Now only the Toxic Two of Samuel and White remain with former Deputy Leader of ManstonGate and ChinaGate retiring from politics at the elections in May. Why don't you write to Bill Hayton though: bill.hayton@kent.gov.uk and ask for not just these items to be discussed - but copies of the toxin reports and a KCC Cabinet discussion. And add your comments to the night flights petition: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/nonightflights/signatures?page=12 Hi Bill Can you advise on the points...

Manston: "shot down in flames" warning of Infratil and council failings on front page of newspaper http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=other&refresh=7y1Bg0Y85s1X&PBID=84956776-5fe0-4064-a733-83aabf1dd4b7&skip= Fake consultations, repeated 106 breaches, public endangered, removal of noise and air monitors from a school and tower block over years, failure to replace etc etc. And an airport built on the drinking water supply. How stupid would you have to be to do that. And then want to expand the airport. And criminal to do it by removing all the safety measures. No monitors. No data. No problem. Delay it for weeks and monhts and years. That's a lot of people with cancer, asthma and so on because of Infratil and the Toxic Three and the silence and collusion of Gale and Sandys and our 56 councillors. When the monitoring would have revealed all the the dangerous spikes in air and noise quality. They knew monitoring was required. They kn...

Aren’t there several missing gaps in Thanet’s public finances whitewashed by our senior civil servants and councillors: 1. Where are the Ramsgate Town Council accounts and staffing costs? 2. Where are the £1M EKO accounts/million pound memo and invoices and staffing costs and expenses? 3. Where are the details of the missing or waived fines for night flights and overflights by Infratil? 4. Where are the Infratil control tower flight log and radar transponder details to check their claims? 5. Where are the before and after payslips of the 0% payrise fraud for Messrs White and Samuel? 6. Where are the Pleasurama costs and contracts after the tax haven mystery 7. Where are the Vattenfall windfarm and building contracts and revenues? 8. Where are the Turner £1M running costs allocated and over how many years? 9. Where are the missing disabled grants and costs: spent instead on office refurb? 10. Where are the Ramsgate Tram shelter monies and repairs? 11. Where are all Messrs Gale and Sandy...

I see the glass carbuncle for the harbour slipway has been provisionally approved. Along with the Granville Folly and glass stump for developer profit. And glass B&Q Turner Centre, in Margate. And Halfords Big Box for Vattenfall. We seem to have incompetent councillors and civil servants who having destroyed the towns are unable to put sensible policies in place without grasping at anything and shouting "jobs" or "land sales" before the election. As with the jiggery pokery of trying to sell Albion House to safeguard civil servants pensions and then sleight of hand with the public petition to preserve it we have the collapse of Socialism or Conservatism and the rise of Cretinism. Imagine if Bath was peppered with these boils - our stale councillors and civil servants couldn't even run a bath. Let alone safeguard listed buildings.

A sudden agenda announcement for a meeting all about Manston: 3 ways to describe the same thing: KIA, Manston and a Manston Parway rail station of some sort. The usual charade for decisions taken – even Roger Gale doesn’t bother mentioning the Parkway now. And “Bold Steps” is some vague nonsense of linking Kent planning to Essex in another quango – and nothing done in the meantime. No mention of overflights and 106 breaches endangering the public. No mention of missing monitors. No mention of the drinking water supply under the runway and contamination. No mention of 18 year death rate. No mention of Thor mercury and water pollution which is Andrew Pearce’s responsibility with permits to pollute and discharge from Manston and Thor etc – and copies of toxin levels, maps etc. No mention of KCC and TDC staffing levels and costs. No mention of 0% fraud. No mention of recall and local referendums. No mention of why KCC are investing public funds in tobacco, booze and guns. Mere c...

East Kent has a health differential 18 years younger than the rest of Kent – similar to Burma or Haiti. Also with: • An airport on the drinking water supply • Removal of noise and air monitors • Airport runoff draining into the road system and sea at Pegwell Bay • Thor mercury banned in 1988 but still operating 20 years later • Richboro power station derelict for 15 years • Asbestos in buildings • Oil tankers refuelling close to shore Clearly this is a major failure of public health - if not the “Kent system” of public health protection. How has this happened? When were Kent Public health briefed on these issues? What action has been taken? Should there be a coverup or should there be dismissals and/or jail sentences? Why the silence from Gale (other than assuring the public the airport and Thor was well run and any water pollution was due to the public pouring paint down the sink), Sandys, Latchford, Samuel, White and 56 councillors: is it not important? Looks like Party and Civil ser...

Last night not one but 3 security guards stand looking at a car park of HGV's funded on the rates - and then another half dozen lorries parked on the nearby promenade. No doubt having the usual crap in a bag and throw it on the beach. What is it for? To tax-fund a lorry park and derelict promenade? Should the Police be diverted for lorries parked a dozen feet from a specially-provided HGV park? And why is the proposed Vattenfall building nothing more than an office block. Weren't these alrady built and stand empty? And you hardly need a warehouse for deliveries of turbines that stand in the sea. Retail parks. Business parks. Car parks and lorry parks. But no park parks. Stretches of tarmac. No proper paving. No grass verges. No flowerbeds. Certainly cheaper and easier for the council to repair. Maybe add some bits of offcut fencing from a motorway centrasl reservation. All these things that aren't just for beautification but important for Climate Change. And even more so in...

BBC TV rates Thanet as 295th out of 324 areas of England as “least resilient to economic woe”. weblink http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-11164337 The debate on the spending review last Thursday night on BBCTV highlighted the terrible state of Thanet and the likes of Paul Carter of KCC and Laura Sandys MP were there to discuss public services etc. Nobody could quite explain how even through the good times, and several decades, Thanet, and East Kent, has been the Third World part of Kent: the bottom 10% of UK councils for TDC worst drinking water in South East and Southern Water: Manston airport and derelict Manston RAF Fire Station highest lung cancer rate in South East collapse of glory projects such as Manston cargo airport and EKO pollution of Pegwell Bay and derelict brownfield contaminated sites Thor mercury – banned but open Ships polluting Margate and the Blue Flag beaches 3,000 empty homes: dying 18 years earlier than the rest of Kent In a nutshell it seems to me: an ab...

Kent’s faced a strange set of anniversaries this week: the beginning of the Blitz 70 years ago on Tuesday and tomorrow the anniversary of the New York 9/11 attacks. The Blitz has still left its scars on Kent – whether it’s the folk memories of the raids on Ramsgate and Canterbury or still bomb-sites. But AlQaeda? What’s that to do with Kent? Suicide Attacks such as 100 dead in Pakistan this week or incidents in Iraq are confined to the Middle East. Islamic insurgents such as Jemaah Islamiah are confined to sporadic attacks across the Thai-Malay border, Indonesia or the Philippines. And the networks dismantled to a few hundred prisoners in Britain and even less in Guantanamo. But Kent certainly boasts rich pickings though for a Jihadist: whether it’s Dungeness, Dover Europe’s largest Port or even the birthplace of Christianity at Canterbury Cathedral. Perhaps more disturbing is Kent’s open front door at Manston. The last few years have seen banned aircraft flying into Kent from Ostend a...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3ObqcRAh9M Arts event in Trafalgar Square today to highlight 10 years on from UN Millennium Goals to end poverty and disease by 2015. Over 167 children die from diarrhoea fronm dirty water and cholera - every hour. 100 years of democracy and £60M in council tax-take each year and "Third World Thanet" has Manston airport and Manston Fire on the drinking water supply. Derelict Richboro power station and pollution of Pegwell Bay. Thor mercury toxic site near Hornby unknown. Broken and blocked drains with excrement. Padlocked public toilets - closed, demolished and shorter opening hours. If you told me I wouldn't believe you. In Kent. In England. In the 21st century. I wouldn't believe you. Time for Change. Time for every public body to adopt the UN Millennium Goals. Time to clean our grubby towns. Time to open and increase our toilets. Time to demolish and clear Richboro. Time to plant trees and flowers and grass verges. Time to publish ou...

Not mentioned by councilors or civil servants or MP's at all. No statements about Manston built on the drinking water. Nothing. There is the front page of Your Thanet about banned aircraft flyting onto Manston - so much for UK airspace etc. And why was there a Jumbo jet flying into Manston at 2am and 3:30 am on Sunday/Monday? the airport closes at 11pm. Do they just fly in or did Infratil know? Did TDC know? The ERA newlsetter features 4 pages on overflights and asks for a "Planespotting report" for Octobber: eraeditor@yahoo.co.uk I think Manston will be bust by then: there's only Cargolux and a couple of presumbly half-empty Flybe. And it is built on the water supply. But our councillors never mention that. There is a useful "Who are the Guilty Men" article in ERA for the next election Airport Committee: Mike Harrison Alasdair Bruce Peter Campbell Richard Nichioloson Jo Roberts Cabinet: Robert Bayford Roger Latchford Simon Moores Chris Wells Martin Wise Not...

With widespread concerns over water quality, when will TDC – or NHS - publish the toxin reports and pollution damage for Thor mercury, Richboro and Manston? As well as the raw data for seawater quality and sewage discharges. As with removing the noise and air monitors with Infratil and banned and illegal overflights of the towns, it’s as if our politicians and civil servants are deliberately endangering the public by remaining silent. No wonder the death rate for East Kent is a shocking 18 years earlier than the rest of a Kent - and on a par with Haiti or Burma. Our pensioners are not even making to enjoy their pension by dying off at 63 years old rather than 81 - leaving 3,000 empty homes and dozens of shops. Elections, P45’s, pension removals and jail may be some incentive for our failed public services to improve but it will be the public that bear the cost in early deaths and ill-health – and paying for the privilege through normal taxes as well as the toxic cleanup and extra hospi...

Manston: front page of the newspaper the illegal overflights. No mention of the cancer cost. Where are the grandmothers of the dead? Where are the mothers of the dead? Where are the coroners reports? Silence. On Thor. On Manston - the drinking water and dumping in Pegwell and missing monitors. On Manston Fire station. On Richboro. Silence from Gale and Sandys and 56 councillors and KCC. The resignation of the Chairman of Southern Water. And more red alerts on bathing water quality. It's meant to be like this.

It’s been 3 months since the lection and Parliament has been on hols for a month or two. What has been done in Thanet? Where are the Thor toxin results or are MP’s not allowed to see those or make them public? Where are the Richboro toxin results? Why is Manston Fire station lighting fires and putting them out with drinking water? Has an extradition request been put in for the criminal Infratil Directors? Where are the payslips to compare before and after the 0% payrise. We seem to have only silence. And to be fair silence from Roger Gale. And silence from 56 Thanet councillors. How strange. Unless they’re mere Party hacks. MP’s for their Party rather than the public of Thanet. Thor mercury or the civil servants don’t come before the public. Nor the Party. And we fund all these people to highlight public concerns – especially major problems. Even basics like MP’s expenses being published or Ramsgate Town Council accounts being available on the website haven’t been done. How can the pub...

No details on Thor mercury factory toxins in Margate, UK (why open when banned in 1988 - and Thor itself handling the cleanup) - also Thor sites around the world and mercury storage and processing in Almaden, Spain and Algeria. http://www.chem.unep.ch/Mercury/Pretoria-proceedings-finalPDFwriter.pdf http://www.rsc.org/delivery/_ArticleLinking/DisplayArticleForFree.cfm?doi=a909597g All reported on by UNEP and Royal Society of Chemistry - and ignored. Why the silence now from Kent County Council, Thanet District Council and Environment Agency. Obviously it's career-damaging for civil servants not to close a banned factory. And is the site now being used simply as a dumping ground? Where are the toxin level reports? The number and type of containers there? Photos of the barrels and warehouses? The discharge amounts and type? The sampling sites and dates for toxin samples? Names. Signatures. Or was it simply not done. Silence from Kent Police. No site visit for a banned factory? Silence...

Front page of Your Thanet on the pollution into Pegwell Bay from the airport. Very shocking. http://www.yourthanet.co.uk/kent-news/Pegwell-Bay--can-it-take-any-more-pollution--newsinkent39158.aspx?news=local A UNESCO wetland – like the Camargue or Nile Delta and the scum and scoundrels at Infratil have simply tapped a drainage pipe into the road system and dumped aviation fuel and chemicals into the Bay. No doubt damaging the shrimps and washing gunge around our Blue Flag beaches. And all supposedly banned and regulated by TDC and the Environment Agency. It's not that they didn't know - simply doing nothing. Year after year. The ludicrous £80M New Road Scheme – yet only £3M for Dreamland - for half a mile of dual carriageway and 12 foot high earth berms is yet more white elephant glory project road building through farmland. And still the planes fly onto the water supply. The last rump of flights: one Flybe every day or so and a Cargolux every day or so – no doubt the minimum t...

LD lines goes bust on the Dover-Boulogne route today. One ship will be withdrawn and the remaining one possibly freight only as the Channel ferries consolidate. Not good for Ramsgate Port – a council review tomorrow – as the passenger service never materialised as the ship didn’t fit and apart from c.20 HGV’s per sailing there are few Port jobs not funded by the taxpayer. Weeds on the ferry terminal roof say it all. The Marina should go from strength to strength but without a passenger service to Ostend or Boulogne then Ramsgate Port is pointless. The air pollution form the ships looks heavy and presumably the warehouses are largely empty. And Pegwell Bay carries the scars of the failed Hoverport and is in need of extra pollution attention. Yachties complain about cold showers in the toilet block compared to other marinas. The first new Vattenfall building is bizarrely built into the warehouse whole the 2nd new on is a Portakabin with more car park near the empty NCP. The suggested new...

And a 3rd plane - presumably Cargolux - landing at quarter past midnight last night: over an hour since Manston airport should close. Do the CAA and Police check these flights or do Infratil just breach the operating guidelines as and when they feel like it? Why bother smuggling bags of heroin from Amsterdam - just fly a 747 in from Luxembourg on a Sunday and offload pallets of it for London or shoot up to Glasgow the drugs capital of Europe - careful not to fly into Canary Wharf by accident though And an airport built on the drinking water supply is this the CAA at its best? And why are Infratil and TDC allowing breaches of the operating hours and flightpaths? If you're interested innthe water supply then email lisa.beeching@environment-agency.gov.uk and ask for the Southern Water and Environment Agency reports on Manston, the water reservoir, Manston Firestation and Thor mercury: dates, toxin levels, signatures etc. They keep refusing to provide them to me. Similar fudge and s...

Who is in the radar tower at Manston allowing these breaches of the specified flight paths? Where are the CAA-required flight logs to check the flight paths and fines? How do the Police and Customs check on these random and banned flights? And why does Flybe fly in to Manston from over the Channel end and towns? Isn't it supposed to be flying to Edinburgh? Isn't the reality that Manston has no control tower obvere the weekend and the last Flybe and Caregolux flights are simply to keep ther airport operating license open. The flights are of no value whatsoever. Except to pollute and endanger the public.

Your Thanet letter (P.14): With Margate having a life expectancy 18 years lower than the rest of Kent: dying at 63 instead of 81 years old, we are now on a par with Haiti or Burma. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy Should we be paying council tax to be killed off this early? More importantly where are the toxin details for Thor, Richboro, Manston fire station and cancer deaths from Manston airport? Even more importantly are the fools who created this toxic inheritance for their children and grandchildren likely to be the ones to get us out of it? And on P.2 the news that TDC haven't deployed the mobile noise monitor this year. Presumably in previous years too. And still we have overflights of the towns that are specifically banned. We've had our councillors and civil servants quietly agreeing to waive all the specified safety requirements for Manston. For years. Thank goodness we know we cannot trust them. Why haven't derleict sites sucha s R...

Clearly the water in Thanet has been mismanaged by TDC, the Environment Agency and KCC over a number of years. 1. Manston airport built on the East Kent drinking water reservoir – under the runway. Plus – supposedly banned - overflights of the towns 2. Thor mercury on Margate Road: supposedly banned and closed in 1988 but remained open – and still does? 3. Manston Fire station: a leftover from RAF days - again on the drinking water supply - and setting fires to be put out with the drinking water 4. Manston runway drainage tapped into the road system - and the whole lot draining into Pegwell Bay – a UNESCO site 5. Tivoli Brook – discharge concerns: possibly Thor mercury 6. Viking Bay – discharge concerns: possibly Thor mercury 7. The siteing of petrol stations on the water supply and near the shoreline 8. Richboro: a derelict power station of the 1950’s crumbling into the sea for 20 years 9. Oil tankers and cargo ships berthed off Cliftonville and the Blue Flag beaches 10. No full and ...

The A-bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6th and 9th August 1945 killed over 110,000 civilians at once. A flash so bright it burned peoples’ shadows into the pavement. And the same number dying slowly over the next 5 years from burns and cancers. Yet, perhaps as never before, a nuclear free world beckons with North Korea, now declaring its nuclear weapons and missiles, facing renewed sanctions as a nuclear pariah again threatening Seoul, Tokyo and perhaps even the Russian nuclear fleet in Vladivostock and Beijing itself. While the closure of Futenma airbase in Okinawa represents the end of the last main US military umbrella in East Asia. With Japan and Taiwan foreswearing nuclear weapons only North Korea remains as the last block to the nuclear free regions of South East Asia and the South Pacific. President Obama may have gained a Nobel Peace Prize for reducing nuclear weapons with Russia but the dangers of a Jihadist bomb with Iran and Pakistan has never been greater. Or worse, the r...

The top 200 civil servants meeting in Margate identified an 18 year health gap between Margate and the rest of Kent. That’s a huge skew for such a small geographic area isn’t it? 18 year difference. Dying at 63 instead of 81 – these are Third World death rates aren’t they? Haiti or Burma or Yemen according to this table. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy What went wrong? Are macro-environment factors an issue: nearby Manston airport and pollution 4x EU limits, Thor mercury banned but remained open for 20 years and derelict Richboro power station? The new Margate Task Force seems the same amalgamation of Fire, Police, Council etc – and a newspaper poll records 80% of the public not believing it would make a difference. It looks as if the wheels have come off the County.

I’m sure Osama is a bit busy at the moment to fly in to Manston. But if EgyptAir can fly into Manston from Ostend - and land at 3am - then maybe he could pay Manston a flying visit. Flytime from Cairo is about 4 hours so the 747 must be setting off - even as Manston is supposedly closed from 11pm. Osama himself could fly in at night, flick the transponder off and just keep going until he hit Canary Wharf. But who’d want to fly a jumbo jet into Canary Wharf at night and risk missing it? With public disregarded surely EgyptAir plus half a dozen Lear jets full of semtex could be used. In broad daylight. Maybe on the weekend. Not quite as spectacular as the World Trade Centre but there you go. As the RAF – hopefully - shoots the jumbo down somewhere over Kent then away the jets go into Parliament. 130,000 people in Thanet have been endangered for an airport glory scheme by nincompoops. A 24 hour cargo airport. By removing the safety measures. And built on the water supply. Opposite Ostend ...

The collapse of Manston means they carry the can for failure. A payrise. A new jobtitle. A pension increase. A nod and a wink. But where is the criminal investigation into removing noise and air monitors? Removed from Clarendon school and a tower block. And never replaced. Mobile monitors specified and repeatedly requested by KIACC. But never provided. The only question is did they decide to do it themselves or did the politicians request them to do it and keep quiet. Can they expect a further lavish payoff and pensions from the taxpayer - to keep their silence. Certainly with the council-approved 106 detailing all the health and safety requirements at Manston – but almost none of them implemented for year after year – and no council approval to remove them it looks as though the full responsibility is theirs. And silence on Thor mercury and Richboro - what exactly are the pollution levels? Or will our silent councillors speak up on their behalf? Who did authorise the removal of monito...

A video below on airport pollution and protests in USA. http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=7392927 Toxic fumes. Lung cancer. All the things you’d expect. Yet there we have a councillor speaking out about the toxic effects: illness, early death and so on: "We'd like to see the jets be banned now. The toxicity from those jets with no buffer zone is literally killing our folks in this area. It is a huge, huge health issue," said L.A. City Councilman Bill Rosendahl. Yet at Manston silence. Clearly an airport produces pollution. That’s why TDC and Manston have produced the 106 operating guidelines: noise monitors, air monitors, mobile monitors for the town centre, flight zones away from the towns, night flight bans and so on. So why have these been removed? Noise monitors removed by TDC and Infratil in 2006. Banned flights eg Antonovs: too dangerous for European airspace Mobile monitors never provide for the town centres. Air monitors sited...