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

Good news with Pfizer announcing 50 extra jobs for a research lab with a company called Peakdale Molecular: http://www.peakdale.co.uk/ Worth a couple of points in that: 1. Far more jobs created in Thanet by this one move than years and decades of TDC and KCC activity 2. I’m hugely supportive of Pfizer as an excellent local company – particularly compared to rogue polluters like Infratil and TDC - and with my manifesto aim of a “2nd Pfizer” eg Glaxo etc this should ensure not just full employment at Pfizer (I’d like to understand what office and lab space is available on site: to much of what passes for regeneration in Kent is simply road or office construction when we’re hardly short of either) but also a pharma hub linked to schools and universities and Kent Science park 3. Redevelopment of brownfield sites such as Richboro would be ideal for future expansion – it’s clear to me that TDC is simply hoping to ignore contaminated sites such as Richboro and even Manston in the hope that so...

Unpopular for civil servants - maybe. Although they might prefer to work for a less stagnant council than TDC. But there’s only 750 civil servants in Thanet and c.30,000 in KCC compares to the 130,000 people in Thanet and 1.3M in Kent. Why is it so difficult to sack civil servants? Why are local politicians even reluctant to discuss it? It doesn’t have to be all of them. Just the incompetent ones. There seems an expectation that civil service failure is acceptable. Or that council tax should ever increase to support that failure. Or that public funds are simply to fund more civil servants. Why should the Kent public fund RTC (plus the other town councils), TDC (plus the other Districts), KCC, GOSE and SEEDA pus miscellaneoius Quangos? Civil servasnts all of them. And not doctors or nurses or teachers. Why not publish all the salary costs, pensions, cars, expenses, offices, benefits and allowances by person - and the public and councillors can take a view on the cost, requirement and va...

A meeting last week with the BBC to discuss a documentary on Thor and the Manston pollution and monitors. It seems extraordinary that the council and police don’t have this as a regular agenda item for cleanup, all the details published online and a police car at the gates. Thor was due to have closed 20 years ago. At the time of the chemical fire in 2007 it was actually expanding with scientists brought over from Germany to expand production of chemicals. The Cato Ridge site in South Africa became infamous as a toxic dump –to this day – poisoning the water supply and killing several of the workers and residents. Thor is on a par with Union Carbide or Dow as notorious corporate polluters. Easy for the politicians and civil servants to skimp on the inspections, rubberstamp the paperwork and turn a blind eye. A report in the Gazette details the latest Environment Agency report on the water supply with “hydrocarbons” that’s “petrol” to you and me and damaged sewers leaking “effluent” th...

Clearly an announcement of Ramsgate-Edinburgh flights is the death throes of Manston and Infratil. Very few people would be turning that into a regular tourism slot I’m sure. The flights even take off on a Friday lunchtime and return on a Sunday lunchtinme: barely a day in Edinburgh or Thanet. Little yield except cancer – and Flybe are notorious for their “ghost flights”: flying empty or hiring actors(!) to fill the planes to keep slots open. And the Ramsgate-Ostend cargo flights can only yield cancer, asthma etc. Especially as the flight routes away form the towns are always breached. So aviation fuel is dumped at low-level straight onto the local population. Add in Infratil and TDC removing the noise monitors in 2006 – a Board Director of Infratil no less, so clearly Health and Safety issues in the aviation industry are expected to be rather feeble. While the local council and councillors seem to have quietly agreed not to mention this - and certainly not to provide replacement monit...

A further reply from Matt Clarke of Infratil who now confirms that Infratil did remove the monitors - although they didn't. Just embarrassing. And he points the finger squarely at the Gang of Four of Samuel, White, Latchford and Ezekiel for removing the monitors. After 3 years of fudged information TDC were still removing air monitors as late as July - and the last announcement of night flights. No monitors. No data. No pesky public health problems. What were our MP's and councillors doing allowing the removal of noise and air monitors (and not replacing them) at an airport slated for expansion? Allowing the cancer rate to rise and hope the jobs would compensate for the early deaths? What other pollution problems are they trying to cover up? Still no clean up schedules for Thor mercury - a factory supposedly closed 20 years ago - nor any information on clean up at Pegwell and Richboro some of the most polluted water in Britain, nor the gasworks with arsenic and cynaide deposits...

Seems as though young Matt at Infratil is keen to place the blame for monitors and pollution at TDC's door. And we have only silence from all our MP's councillors and civil servants. Were they really conspiring to downgrade monitoring at an airport slated for expansion? And for the last 3 years? Removing monitors, fudging the data and the process, ignoring KIACC complaints and so on. This from our MP's, councillors and civil servants who are funded by us and live and work amongst us. Silence from Richard Samuel - the TDC CEO and Chair of KIACC when the forst monitors were removed Silence from Brian White - the 106 monitor and airprot expert Silence from Roger Latchdford - no calls for night flights since July? Silence from Sandy Ezekiel - for 3 years no mention of monitors? Silence from Roger Gale - excepot a call for an airport parkway station Silence from Steve Ladyman - only an airport survey with no mention of cancer Silence from Laura Sandys - an airport? Silence from ...

Very shocking that Kent NHS confirm lung cancer around Manston is higher than surrounding areas of Heathrow. Not surprising though if the monitors are removed and the 106 is breached to allow low-level flights over the population dousing them in aviation fuel. I've written to Justine Greening who's the MP for Heathrow: **** Hi Justine As MP for the Heathrow area, I’m writing to you following the Sunday Times article yesterday on falsified DofT and BAA documents relating to Heathrow. You might want to refer to the fact that Infratil airports here at Manston airport in Kent and owners of Prestwick in Scotland and Sydney and Auckland airports have repeatedly removed noise monitors, faked air monitor data with the assistance of the local council for expansion – so that East Kent now has a lung cancer rate worse than the surrounding areas of Heathrow. And Manston is built on the drinking water supply – a fact that Paul Carter the Leader of KCC ignores in pushing to move Boris Island...

Last week there were at least half a dozen overflights of the town I understand. All of them – as with the hundreds each year since Infratil began – banned under the 106. Yet Infratil even reworked the 106 themselves to allow the training flights. While the radar has never worked beyond Infratil’s vague promises of doing something sometime. And with the removal of the noise and air monitors, all of this is extremely dangerous to public health – especially as the pollution levels are not being fully recorded. The NHS has sent me their latest information which confirms Thanet has higher lung cancer levels than…the areas under the flight patch around Heathrow. Europe’s busiest airport. Thanet must be receiving high levels of aviation fuel discharges at low levels directly onto the local population. And we have silence from our MP’s, silence from KCC, silence from Thanet’s councillors and silence form the Gang of Four. Not a public statement at all in all these years. Except support for ai...

Unbelievable isn’t it. The first town council in 35 years and its selling the Council chambers of over 100 years. Its only act in 6 months is to agree to the sale of Albion House – where all the Town Council’s have sat. And to move a couple of hundred yards away to the Customs House. Absolutely ridiculous. We seem to have elected a Town Council that’s little more than TDC in miniature. With the sale of Albion House – which the public own already via TDC and RTC – what benefit is there? Certainly the sale costs could then be set against moving to the Customs House(!) or more likely to drop into TDC’s accounts to be used for whatever purpose. Albion House would be lost to development much as the Old Town Hall beofre it, and the public would then be paying RTC to fund its use of the Customs House. Let’s hope the various costs are published, the developer details and the vote on the move. We’ve had a delay of 2 years to establish the Town Council and now it’s simply selling off its own ass...