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

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...