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

A guest blog by Joe Thomas below, and my thoughts on UN Road Safety Week later on: Air pollution is now one of the most pressing environmental concerns. While nine out of the ten most polluted cities in the world lie in India and Pakistan that leaves no room for complacency amongst other countries; partly because they too have their own issues and also because we live in a connected ecosystem. What Is Air Pollution? Air pollution is a complex topic as so many factors are responsible for the poor quality of our air. However, simply put, air pollution is any chemical, physical or biological change which causes the atmosphere to become dirty and thus risks not only our own potential for survival but also that of other animals and plants. Air pollution can also be further divided into two distinct categories; visible and invisible. Both can lead to an alteration of the delicate balance of our atmosphere and cause problems to health on a local scale and also damage to the ecosyst...

Kent is now adrift with an almost total collapse in governance. Neither at County or District or town level are there any policies at all. The horrifying news that 200 children escaped from KCC Social Services Jimmy Savile Care homes – with 53 still missing is only matched by East Kent’s rape statistics of 67 rapes last year and zero arrests. And that with KCC bleating about a few hundred extra refugee children taken in from the Calais Jungle - or £20M of savings on a £2BN budget and excessively padded staff rosters and reserves. And still no tax cuts even considered, even attempts to breach the 1.99% limit, nor full FOI. Zero in Year Zero and Ground Zero of a failed Kent. And this week Dover and Ashford cited as Kent’s worst Crap Towns again. Carter and the Toxic Three have created a Retard Nation in Kent. And the Medway slumtowns record Britain’s worst primary schools again – and CCU in the bottom third of UK universities. As KCC Leader I will ensure at least one top...

Dear Editor It’s good to see the Gazette letters page expanded – can we have more of Frederic Stansfield with the previous weeks view that Manston requires large cannon pointing across the Channel presumably at Paris or Berlin or Moscow. It’s certainly no more daft than LibDem Russ Timpson’s space-cadet view of Manston as the Cape Canaveral of Kent. But surely not one but four lengthy letters from Save Manston SMA and SUMA and Why Not Manston, and with two letters from Riveroak’s PR agency and Riveroak’s lawyer, is a bit much even for the pro-Manstoners? I’d hope you’d print this somewhat lengthy letter to stimulate debate on a non-airport future for Manston. For my view (since at least 2004) is that the runway should be dug up to protect the East Kent drinking water aquifer under the runway. And Infratil’s directors should be extradited from their last airport in Wellington, New Zealand (Asia’s most dangerous airport?) to face corporate manslaughter charges from removing the p...

A quick post on the inefficient and frankly lazy councils we have: RTC first. Below is a series of emails between me and RTC asking for how many grants etc they've applied for this year. You have to read it form the bottom up for time-flow ie latest email at the top. To save you time, it's 2 grants (awaiting the latest excuses) - both prepared by volunteers not the actual civil servants(!). You couldn't make it up and Richard Styles excuses as Town Clerk are special. This on top of his lengthy note (see previous blog) that they'd put some flower pot planters out as justification for a year's worth of activity for £400k. Two other brief points: * shoddy publicity for RTC Remembrance Day: a note on the bulletin board jut this week * no news as yet on the Xmas tree in the own and Xmas events - you can guess...last year's tree was particularly weak looking like roadworks. And only in EK could you leave the town Xmas lights up all year... Time for Change...