Friday 29 July 2011

Kent in freefall. Thanet Ground Zero Year Zero.

A few miscellaneous points:

1. A nice letter from the new head of Kent Police Authority on how over flights at Manston may or may not be a Kent Police responsibility with a few drops of whitewash still on it and the swish of buck-passing.

2. Will the regular Sunday afternoon Manston illegal over flight land and take off without Customs or Police? If it does I hope they leave a nice bag of heroin or cocaine from Amsterdam for the Police Xmas knees-up.

3. A couple of good points by KCC: the Environment Plan is rather good - although the danger of pointless housing estates and roads badged as eco-tarmac etc will no doubt remain.

But 10 out of 12 Kent districts failing the government’s economic guidelines.

4. On a similar point the real KCC Cabinet of Murphy, Jacobs, Balfour, Beatty, Costain, Carillion remain quiet awaiting the next Big Council-Big Construction glory project of bridges, airports, motorways, housing estates, retail parks and business parks with public land, public funds and public officials.

5. The TDC Vision below: Manston, Westwood Cross, EKO etc - a developer’s wet dream that barely lasted 30 months rather than 30 years and with 9,000 empty houses in Kent, EKO and Westwood Cross now confirmed as a bog-standard shopping centre on farmland but described as fourth town centre to circumvent Planning guidelines and funding and prop up the construction industry

6. Silence still on Thor from the Environment Agency - what is stored there, what are the contamination levels, is Morgan Sproates still the TDC liaison, which councillors and MP’s have been briefed and with what information? Public services that are simply irrelevant and designed to fund and represent themselves and their careers.

7. The review of the Port and Marina in Ramsgate seems to have drifted away. As do the plans for Pleasurama-Bungarama.

8. Silence on civil servants staffing by department, expenses and pensions - 5 years after FOI. But the Daily Telegraph reveals spending of £171M on 1,500 KCC credit cards. Only slightly less than the Environment Agency with £215M and c.9,000 credit cards and the MOD with a whopping £1Bn on 14,000 credit cards. The waste must be mountainous.

With £2.3Bn spent at KCC and £60M spent at TDC and town decay it seems utter incompetence. A few bits of political jiggerpokery with shifting funds into key politicians constituencies but mainly the old West -East Kent dumping ground.

Anywhere far away from Maidstone.

To be fair to KCC, for a 90% one-party council since 1930 it’s more representative than it should be, but there is a failing in no public scrutiny or direct election of council. Only 1% of the public are Party member so no wonder election turn-out crumbles and the construction industry takes control for land permits. And every problem requires a new building or a road.

9. Good to see Richboro scheduled for demolition - although a Bonfire Night demolition would make it more of an event for Thanet’s dwindling activities - along with a school completion to press the plunger and describe Future Thanet. And the solar panel site and boules court clean-ups are positive.

And the rest of the activity for Thanet - and Kent? I can assure having read all the plans there’s nothing. We’re at Ground Zero, Year Zero - funding failure, waste and irrelevancies.

Nothing.

£2.3Bn worth of nothing.

750 TDC civil servants.

15,000 KCC civil servants.

84 KCC councillors and 56 TDC councillors.

Nothing.

An Olympics in London> 4 year sof nothing. Only now a few Olympic teams announced. Nothing for after the Olympics. A once in a generation opportunity lost.

And Infratil simply lead the civil servants and councillors by the nose.

I doubt apart from Paul Carter any of the TDC councillors have met Charles Buchanan and simply jump through hoops on ignoring the overflights and quibbling over the 106 restrictions that were deliberately ignored and paying off the civil servants for schtum.

As with Thor mercury banned 20 years ago.

And we wonder why 4x higher emissions than the EU restrictions and cancer are the result.

And your children and grand-children will pay the price.

Even you.

Cancer is the gift that keeps giving. Through the blood. Through the bone. Through the generations.

The flights continue. So will the cancer. What did you expect?

Kent in freefall and Thanet destroyed.

A lost generation.

A lost decade.

Ground Zero. Year Zero.

Time for Change.

Wednesday 27 July 2011

Garbutt for Mayor: after Manston

Manston crashes and burns.

What then?

Carter in jail.

Buchanan in jail.

Infratil's Directors extradited for trial - that rarity of a free passage back to UK for the Kiwi Killers.

Sandys and Gale mere irrelevancies.

TDC and the Environment Agency in ashes.

Kent governance in freefall.

Manston can only have the runway dug up. The warehouses and buildings demolished and cleared.

The MOD Fire base and fires moved.

A WPZ water protection zone and SSSI site at Pegwell Bay with the highest monitoring to safeguard the aquifer.

A Margate Town Council and review of Ramsgate's £20M council tax contribution and the need for 750 TDC civil servants, 15,000 KCC civil servants, silence on staffing, pensions and expenses for £2.3Bn and 56 councillors for failure.

So many years wasted.

So little done.

So much of it abysmal.

Such stagnation and waste.

Time for Change.

Monday 25 July 2011

Garbutt for Mayor: close Manston, end the cancer.

Coughing one up for Infratil.

An NHS campaign on lung cancer: East Kent's biggest killer with 428 deaths.

You do the maths on what's attributable to the airprot - with monitors removed.

http://www.easternandcoastalkent.nhs.uk/whats-new/latest-news/its-not-always-only-a-cough/

And yesterday - even on Carnival Day - 2 illegal 747 overflights, one unmarked at 12 noon and 6pm and a Cityjet plane circling several times.

As Mayor I will instigate jail proceedings for Buchanan and Carter.

And now some 2 months into the job McGonigal the new TDC CEO is looking to be more of the same Buggins Turn: none of the accounts, from a trained accountant and Director, include the missing fines nor details of Infratil's public secotr subsidies from SEEDA etc or business rates.

Silence on EKO invoices, Pleasurama costs and 0% fake pay rises and schtum payments.

Your money. Approved by your councillors. For failure and cancer.

Infratil may be deliberately polluting the public but TDC are simply going along with them.

Which councillor is repsonsible for the airport? And which cvil servant?

After another ludicrous night flight debate our coucnillors seem irrelevant.

And Kent Police cowed - certainly there'll be no Police or Customs inspections on a Sunday at Manston.

And silence from Gale and Sandys - depsite signing off the absurd Parkway plan as late as January this year and Carter and Buchanan schlepping around Westminster to expand the airport on the rates.

Thanet's problems stem from incompetent coucnillros, civil servants and MP's - creatign problems.

And 750 TDC civil servants and 15,000 KCC civil servants simply recording the problems.

But the election's a year away. Anothe rlost year for Thanet's lost generation.

Coucnil tax strikes and recall of MP's seems relevant - where are they? What are they doing about Infratil and the fake accounts and missing monitors?

Time for P45's

Time for Jail.

Time for Change.

Friday 22 July 2011

Garbutt for Mayor: Cancer Manston Jail

No noise monitors in place for 5 years.

Fake consultations.

Gang of Four sacked and paid off for schtum.

The latest ludicrous debate on a night flight ban - and overflight ban - that already exists.

A Parkway glory project of £10M until last month.

Who is the civil servant at TDC and KCC responsible for the airport?

Who are the councillors?

When did they know the monitors were removed - what have they done to replace them?

Silence from Gale and Sandys - mere Party bystanders and cheerleaders for Paul Carter, Alex King and Geoff Wild.

We now have Manston without any regulation or monitoring at all - other than Charles Buchanan doing what he likes.

No monitors. No fines. No problems.

And no details on the cancer costs: already 4x EU pollution levels.

Rare cancers.

Time for a Police enquiry and witness statements.

Time for jail sentences.

Time for Change.

Monday 18 July 2011

Garbutt for Mayor: Corruption-flavoured Kent and McGonigal's maths

A note to Katherine Kerswell at KCC:

As CEO of KCC a 4 star council and CE of SOLACE the Chief
> Executive's trade union can you advise on Kent's corruption
> scandals:
>
> * Manston: missing monitors and fines
> * c.£200K schtum pay-offs for Messrs Samuel and White of
> the Gang of Four
> * two paygrade hikes just before dismissal for Richard
> Samuel
> * 0% pay rises for Samuel and White that are over 10%
> increases: can the before and after salary slips be
> provided?
> * election payments of c.£20k and £18k to Messrs Samuel
> and Gilroy as heads of council - presumably only minimal
> expesnes are allowed and these costs ar epart of the
> £100k-plus job desciption?
> * chauffeur costs for KCC - only Cabinet ministers have
> chauffeur cars?
> * costs of Top Temps and KCC taxis: these seem to be
> KCC-funded companiesfor KCC-only use
> * Pleasurama-Bungarama: the largest seafront development in
> Kent with no plans and registered inthe Cayman Islands for
> unknowen Directors/payments
> * Dreamland and Tesco: mystery fires and now mystery plans
> for supermarkets by the same company
> * EKO: mystery KCC and TDC joint venture: can the invoices
> be provided?
> * Sue McGonigal as new TDC CEO also the FD and 151 Officer:
> creatign and signing off accoutns through the above
> activity
>
> I'm astonished at the depth, delay and blatant approach
> over this corruption - are you?
>
> Will the funds be repaid and the Police called in?

And now the ludicrous situation of a ludicrous "debate" on night flights given they're already banned, and civil servants issuing lawyer letters on the rates to silence councillors in the council chamber.

A murderous farce while Infratil fly and pollute.

Time for jail for Carter and Buchanan.

Time for Change.

Thursday 14 July 2011

Garbutt for Mayor 2011: jail Carter, jail Buchanan, extradite Infratil Directors

A directly elected Mayor to close Manston and jail Carter and Buchanan and extradite Infratil's Directors.

A directly elected Mayor to reduce the number of councillors and ciivl servants.

Both local Thanet MP's and Parties seem to shy away from discussing why the 106 has not been enforced by the Gang of Four.

And total silence from councillors on the cancer cost and missing fines, nor how they will support flights given it's on the East Kent drinking water supply - a Police investigation is the way forward.

Councillors with specific questions to answer - aside from the Party Leaders are: Hayton and Harrison: both Chair of the Airport Committee through the last few years of Infratil and TDC removing monitors, Moores, Chair of the 0% salary review for two of the Gang of Four, and Ezekiel bizarrely standing again rather than following Latchford's sensible move into retirement.

And as late as January this year Sandys and Bayford trotting out behind Carter's FOI-released construction plans with Buchanan for the £10M Parkway on the rates.

No votes in poisoning your own citizens. That's jail.

No votes in covering up what happened to the monitors.

No votes in waiving the fines for 106 breaches.

Time to recharge the Party head offices. Time for a Police inquiry into the civil services corruption around Manston, EKO, Pleasurama and ChinaGate.

4x EU emission levels, monitors removed and lied for 5 years. A mortality rate 17 years lower than the rest of Kent.

And TDC and KCC and our MP's and Environment Agency grub around with fake payrises, lies and silence.

Poisoning their own relatives for Party and civil service positions. Their friends. Their children. Their grandchildren.

They've failed.

A bottom 10% council. A bottom 10% council. The same tired old faces.

Time for less cancer.

Time for less lies.

Time for Change.