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 abysmal council for overall planning and regeneration
a disastrous 1974 decision to try and merge 3 distinct towns (and a similar attempt with the Westwood Cross 4th town centre nonsense)
a derelict RAF airbase built on the drinking water supply
shoddy CAA and council air and noise monitoring
terrible town planning with rampant overbuild and shoddy standards
“District dumping” with West vs East Kent
frozen politics: Red vs Blue on town lines and no Margate Town Council
airport cancer
pensioner 1970’s culture and industry
KCC culture of “London’s Patio” with highways and Costain and Balfour and Murphy and Jacobs
public sector culture of secrecy and tax “n” waste and awaydays, masterclasses, seminars, briefings, memos and bumf
public apathy at the failure to reform and rubber-stamp consultation
295th out of 324 areas in England. Abysmal isn’t it?
Time for Change.
Time to call in the Pleasurama development – for an icerink
Time to call in the shoddy harbour and Port developments for an overall review.
Time to demolish Richboro and Arlington House for proper regeneration.
Time for a 2012 swimming pool.
Time to close Manston and Thor and Manston Fire.
Time to stop an £80M New Road.
Time for cancer specialists at QEQM
Time to protect Pegwell Bay and our coast.
Time for a new economy.
Time for a KCC Cabinet member of the Coast and deprivation.
Time for Margate Town council and fewer councillors and double-hatters
Time for free windfarm electricity for every house.
Time to stop ships anchoring and refuelling and polluting off Margate.
Time for refurb and repair rather than New Road and empty houses and office parks, business parks, retail parks but not park parks.
Time to stop the corruption and pollution and construction.
Time for Thanet to be Kent’s Green Lung.
Time for Kent to be England’s Green Lung.
Time for Exciting East Kent.
A place with clean air, clean water, clean streets, clean beaches and clean fields.
Time for Change
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Terrific shop display and comic in Canterbury on polio: down to last 2,000 cases in only 4 countries: Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India from world epidemic in 1988. Must be possible for UN Millennium Goals on HIV, TB and malaria:
http://www.rotary.org/en/EndPolio/Pages/supporters.aspx
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