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

Another call over the postal vote muckup. But very concerned over Ramsgate Town Council the other day. Every council has to hold the Town Meeting to report on what they’re doing etc. I turned up a bit late. And there was 2 members of the public. 2. Also John and Liz as KCC councillors. I would mention John’s looking at reducing signage which is really important in a tourist town and has sorted out a lot of the Westcliff truck drivers – with a ferry and police force it seems incredible they can’t do it themselves when they see HGV’s parked by the beach. Tax waste on repairing HGV car parks or chewed up grass verges makes the Port seem pointless. The remaining Gang of Four have failed us. And at the RTC meet were only 8 or 9 of the Town Councillors themselves. I left after a few minutes as it seemed rather pointless. It seems very foolish after a year not to have Albion House redecorated (the upstairs could be used as the MP office saving on overbuilding or tax-waste) – and be paying fro...

Don't forget to boycott the election. Show our politicians how they've failed us. The hung parliament means the election will be rerun in 6 months anyway. Good to see the Gasworks being cleaned so as not to poison the public, also Dreamland with a CPO (the cry for TDC has to be "Get on with it!"): 3 years derelict and destroying the area - and successful launch of the Turner with "massive public policy failure". I'm very concerned at the noise and pollution and cost and value of the Port which seems far better suited to the "Landings" tourism project and foot ferry than an HGV truckstop for lorry drivers to crap in a bag and throw on the beach and park on the verges again. A horrific meeting last night at RTC's annual meeting which I'll write more later as it does seem to have turned in on itself. But a very interesting email and reply below on why Thanet's and UK democracy is rather flawed as the main parties collapse and mess with...

Why bother voting? The same tired parties and candidates: not one Thanet policy between them just general points on “reducing crime” and “increasing employment”. You don’t say. If Messrs Ladyman, Gale and Sandys could do that wouldn’t Thanet be in better condition than it is? 30 years from Mr Gale of watching Margate burn down. 13 years from Mr Ladyman of Ramsgate falling down. 3 years from Ms Sandys parachuted in to Thanet from Tory head office to say nothing. And the election will result in a national hung parliament and will have to be restaged within 6 months or so – like every previous hung parliament. The same farce all over again. Let the other 1,300 MP’s and Lords vote on minor tweaks to give Britain a US-style governance and constitution - after 250 years. Use your vote in Thanet well. Don’t vote. Simply don't cast your vote. Or spoil your ballot paper - think of it as “None of the above”. Although spoiled papers are often excluded from the turnout figures and "none o...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/apr/19/doncaster-council-failing-and-dysfunctional Doncaster council is described as “dysfunctional” over at least 15 years of incompetence and now has direct rule by Ministers and the Audit Commission. This comes some years after the “Donnygate” corruption scandal - which seems very tame in comparison - with councillors and civil servants fiddling expenses and 21(!) of them convicted. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2002/mar/13/uknews Certainly for far less amounts than MP’s expenses – now nearly 400(!) MP’s have repaid c.£3k each. One quote today from Labour’s whistleblower Ron Rose who described the Doncaster councillors and civil servants as: “even being able to drag Zurich down to Third World status” And the Audit Commission (the Government’s inspector of c.440 UK councils) said: "The council is not properly run and as a result it is failing in its legal obligation to make arrangements to secure continuous improvement in the way in wh...

Kent on Sunday letter on pollution and policing Manston below. Kent Police have also rung to arrange a meeting tomorrow which is positive - although this would be after a meeting with Special Branch and the local Police. It does seem as though you're in more trouble with Police action from shoplifitng a bag of sweets than breaching all the regulations and pollution safeguards at an airport. Rather than "citizens in uniform" there does seem a police expectation that other public bodies don't require investigation which is clearly nonsense and certainly not the casse if MP's like Damien Green are arrested even within Parliament. Let's see what they've to say. If you'd like to raise a concern over Manston or TDC then drop Mark a line for the official complaint: mark.brotherhood@kent.pnn.police.uk He's a DS in "Frontier Operations" I thought the Border Agency now handled frontiers or maybe the Coastguard - unless its frontiers of speace for K...

I'm not standing in the election: best wishes to the candidates and public. There's also a letter on P.23 of Kent on Sunday today detailing some of the air pollution from Manston.

I've been asked to take part in a study by the University of Buckingham on the environmental impacts of Manston - it should make a useful case study for future airport expansion: see below: The intention of this research is to establish what the likely major environmental impacts of expansion at Kent International (formerly Manston) Airport will be. According to the airport’s Master Plan the aim is to expand from servicing less than 50,000 passengers per year in 2010 to servicing 2.2million passengers per year by 2018 and 4.7million by 2033. With regard to the Kent International Airport (KIA) Master Plan for Expansion: To view the Master Plan please visit: http://www.kentinternationalairport-manston.com/KIA%20Master%20Plan%20LR.pdf What do you think will be the major environmental impacts of expansion at KIA? ...The exisiting water pollution, noise and air pollution are already detailed. Infratil and TDC the local council have also removed the noise a...