Eastcliff Matters

Guardian 5th August 2011

2011-08-07T12:12:00.002+01:00

Ramsgate is the most foodie of the Thanet towns, and with its royal marina and water-facing alfresco cafes, flirts successfully with that semi-mythical beast: continental cafe culture. For Regency glamour, plus unparalleled views over the harbour, book a veranda room at the Royal Harbour Hotel (01843 591514, royalharbourhotel.co.uk, doubles from £98). Top dining tips include the much-acclaimed Eddie Gilbert's, above a fishmonger's on King Street (01843 852123, eddiegilberts.com), and the arguably more glamorous Age & Sons (01843 851515, ageandsons.co.uk), a three-storey conversion in a courtyard behind the seafront, with all-day deli, cocktail bar and upstairs restaurant specialising in local fish.
In recent years Ramsgate has clambered on board the arts bandwagon, and this year's second annual "Summer Squall" (ramsgatearts.org) runs from 26-29 August: highlights include an installation in Ramsgate Harbour which will bring a 65-year-old steam tug back to life through sound, and the 1950s 22-seat Vintage Mobile Cinema.

Mayor Ramsgate Charity Bar-BQ

2011-07-07T00:11:00.002+01:00

The Mayor of Ramsgate’s Charity Committee
Invite you to a superb relaxing evening with a BBQ at the Phoenix Club Mess at the Fire School Base, Manston.
On Saturday 16th July at 7.00pm.
YOU WILL ENJOY A SUBSTANTIAL BBQ COOKED BY THE MESS CHEF (INCLUDING STEAK) IN THE LUXURY SETTING OF THE COMBINED MESS AND GROUNDS WITH VERY REASONABLE BAR PRICES. THERE IS A VEGETARIAN OPTION AVAILABLE. THIS IS AN IDEAL OPPORTUNITY TO BRING FAMILY AND FRIENDS FOR A RELAXING EVENING LISTENING TO BACKGROUND MUSIC.

PLEASE REPLY TO THE ASSISTANT TOWN CLERK AT THE MAYOR’S OFFICE, THE CUSTOM HOUSE, HARBOUR PARADE, RAMSGATE CT11 8LP BY TUESDAY 12TH JULY USING THE REPLY SLIP BELOW AND ENCLOSING PAYMENT. PLEASE COMPLETE THE REQUIRED SECURITY DETAILS BELOW AS THE VENUE IS A MILITARY ESTABLISHMENT. PLEASE ALSO REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR PASSPORT OR A PHOTO DRIVING LICENCE AS IDENTIFICATION. FOR MORE INFORMATION PLEASE RING 01843 598751 OR 01843 601233.
COST PER GUEST IS £18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
REPLY SLIP

I ENCLOSE A CHEQUE FOR £____ PAYABLE TO THE MAYOR OF RAMSGATE CHARITY COMMITTEE FOR THE BBQ ON
THE 16TH JULY 2011. THE TOTAL NUMBER OF GUESTS ARE ______PLEASE STATE THE NUMBER OF VEGETARIAN OPTIONS REQUIRED ___________. ARE_______.
PRINT NAME ___________________________. TEL NO- _____________________.
SECURITY DETAILS
DRIVERS NAME PASSENGERS NAMES CAR REGISTARATION MAKE COLOUR

0871 626 88 55

2011-06-27T09:13:00.000+01:00

VOTE FOR RAMSGATE TUNNELS TODAY
9 AM TO MIDNIGHT
0871 626 88 55

YOU CAN VOTE 10 TIMES FROM EACH PHONE LINE
11p from BT landline

TDC Funding Blunders

2011-06-25T09:18:00.003+01:00

In a report by Thanet Councils Auditors, originally secret, but made public on the insistance of Labour Councilors, it has been revealed that Thanet District Council has been forced to repay hundreds of thousands to European Regional Development Fund
The Thanet Gazette published an excellent report in to TDC's Governance & Audit Committee's report on the ERDF expenditure between 2000 and 2006. It is now available to read and download here:
http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/published/c00000114/m00002364/ai00010354/$europeanregionaldevelopmentfund.doc.pdf
The council received £5,575,715 in government grants, but has since been forced to repay £603,340.
The low point in the Councils performance concerns the Thanet Innovation Centre.
The report says: "This was the council's single biggest reclaim and the partial repayment related to the authority not fulfilling all of the grant conditions and failing to notify the Government of the South East (GOSE) of changes in the management approach following the original grant letter, that were considered substantial changes by GOSE".
The reports says that instead of filling the business centre with innovative companies, it used space for companies that "are not innovative start-up businesses" and its own staff. The report also said the council had not maintained records of jobs created by the grant.
A business owner inside the centre said: "The council could have spent that money on improving the centre which would attract new businesses in."

On the 29th, when the Report comes before committee, I will want to be assured that lessons have been learned across the organisation, but also have detailed questions concerning how some grants came to be made and precisely what has been done to recoup the money.

Points in the report:

1.1 The Council had grants approved of £5,575,715 through the 2000-2006 ERDF programme, for which, The Government Office for the South East (GOSE) was the accountable body.

2.2 The table above demonstrates that of the total funding received (£5,035,463), 12% of funding had to be repaid to GOSE (£603,341), the details of these reclaims are set out below.

3.0 ERDF Reclaims

3.1 Project 002/036 – Encouraging Social Inclusion – Main/Trans - £1,806 + £1,093

3.2 Following an Article 10 audit of both projects by GOSE, some expenditure claimed through the project for salaries could not be evidenced and as such the grant in relation to this expenditure had to be repaid to GOSE.

3.3 Project 006/028 – Business Networks and Cross Working – Main/Trans £17,443 + £20,159

3.4 These projects related to grant payments, however the sums made ineligible by the audit related to match funding that was originally added to the claim by the claim preparer, so the authority was able to claim back 100% of the grants paid out. There was no evidence on file of where the match was meant to come from and so could not be subsequently evidenced.

3.5 Project 011 – Thanet Museum Strategy - £63,702

3.6 The authority had claimed £63,702.48 in grants paid out to 2 museums, however the authority could not evidence what the museums had spent the funds on, despite attempts to contact the museums in question.

3.7 The authority sought to reclaim the grants from the museums, but between the time of the grant being paid out and the time of the audit, both museums had closed and the owner of one had passed away, meaning the authority was unable to reclaim the grants.

3.8 Project 015/158 – Thanet Tourism Grant Scheme Phase 3 & 4- £52,960 + £81,890

3.9 Both phases of the scheme faced issues when audited and there were three main reasons for grant repayment, these were:
• The hotel had been converted into apartments within 5 years of the grant being paid;
• The hotel was never eligible for a grant, as the grant was approved retrospectively or was for work to restaurants or other facilities that were not allowed under the scheme;• The hotel closed within 5 years of the grant being awarded. 3.10 The Council managed to reclaim £10,000 of the total repayment of £134,850 on
the scheme.

3.11 Where the hotels were never eligible for the grant, payment was made to the hotels in error and so a reclaim could not be undertaken.

3.12 Despite the Council pursuing other grant recipients, many of the owners were no longer traceable, because the hotels had been demolished / closed or the companies that the grant had been paid to, had ceased trading.

3.13 Project 016 – Margate Harbour & Turner Centre - £22,635

3.14 Some expenditure, which attracted grant of £22,635 was identified as ineligible by an audit and was subsequently repaid to GOSE.

3.15 Projects 031/033 – Organisational Development Grants Main/Trans - £16,237 & £42,363

3.16 Both projects had an Article 10 audit by GOSE and as a result it was identified that most organisations that had been paid grant, did not provide the authority with any evidence to support what the grant had been used for.

3.17 The authority subsequently wrote to all grant recipients and obtained a large amount of information which helped secure some of the grant. However, as the audit was not until 5 years after the grants had been paid out, a few of the organisations had ceased trading, some were un-contactable, some had passed away and some did not respond, leaving the authority with an incomplete audit trail.

3.18 The grant offer letter with each grant recipient stated that they were only required to maintain records for 5 years from grant award, though the authority is still required by GOSE to have access to records until 2014.

3.19 The External Funding Officer identified £12,935 of grants that were still within the 5 years and should be sought for reclaim, however the legal department have confirmed that as the second payment was made to these grant recipients confirming that the authority was satisfied with the project progress and evidence at the time, that it is not possible to progress a reclaim against these recipients.

3.20 Project 034 – Marketing and Communications - £9,924

3.21 The reclaim on this project related to expenditure that the authority had tried to claim twice, which was identified through an audit at a later date.

3.22 Project 037 – Thanet Innovation Centre - £250,000

3.23 This was the Council’s single biggest reclaim and the partial repayment related to the authority not fulfilling all of the grant conditions and failing to notify GOSE of changes in the management approach following the original grant offer letter, that were considered substantial changes by GOSE. The authority has since agreed with GOSE some key changes in the management of the centre in order to overcome further reclaim.

3.24 The partial grant repayment specifically related to the authority running the facility (for VAT reasons) instead of the management being vested in a specialist Board - which resulted in a lower level of business networking than had been envisaged in the grant offer, that TDC had too large a percentage of tenants in the centre that were not innovative start up businesses and that the authority had not maintained fully detailed records of the jobs created and their longevity (including after tenants had moved out of the centre).

3.25 Project 085 – Stimulating Innovation and Entrepreneurship - £1,797

3.26 The reclaim related to ineligible accommodation costs that were claimed through the project, that were subsequently identified by audit.

3.27 Project 451 – Delivering Margate’s Creative Quarter - £21,331

3.28 This was the last project running through the 2000-2006 programme and finished on 31st December 2008. Unfortunately some of the expenditure claimed related to an invoice that covered a period after the project end date and the rest related to a grant offered at a rate of 45% of total spend, to a grant recipient, however the authority could not reclaim any grant, due to an error on the grant offer letter to the individual company, which stated 31st March 2009 as the end date for the project.

3.29 The authority did manage to attract additional grant from KCC due to invoices provided to them to assist in match funding their own ERDF project. The funds from this meant that TDC could repay the grant without any adverse impact on its own budgets.

3.30 Under this scheme, a grant of £68,750 was paid towards refurbishment works of 16 Marine Drive and 42 High Street. Works started in 2008 but the scheme has not been completed due to the withdrawal of the developer’s private sector funding. Action has commenced to recover the grant monies and GOSE has agreed that should any funds be recovered, that these could be recycled to support works that meet the original objectives of the programme.

Labour Night Flights Resoution

2011-06-12T17:03:00.002+01:00

Thanet District Council, as the local Planning Authority has a clear duty to produce a Local Development Framework, against which local businesses, developers and residents can plan their future in terms of land use and environmental impact.
It is clear, that the Council has failed in this duty with regard to the future development of Kent International Airport. The environmental agreement that controls the conditions of use of the airport (section 106) was devised in 2000 and was anticipated as being updated every 3 years. In the intervening years it has served the community well, allowing development of the airport, but protecting residents from the worst environmental impacts. However, the aircraft industry and environmental standards have moved on. A new agreement is required, and the airport owners need a clear guide to what is acceptable.
The airport owners have produced a master plan of how they would like the airport to develop. It is aspirational as one would expect, and optimistic with regard to predicted traffic and jobs created. In the absence of planning guidance from the Council, the danger is that the master plan will become mistaken for Council policy.
Through inaction, the Council has allowed a myth to develop that all that is required is some minor adjustment to the conditions of the old s106 agreement that will allow the relaxations of environmental control that the master plan requires. As far as night time flying is concerned it is clear from reports commissioned by the airport and separately by the Council, that the environmental impact would be severe. This reinforces the legal opinion obtained on at least two occasions that night time flying represents sufficient intensification of use as to require fresh planning approval.
The local Labour Party has been pressing for the issue to be addressed, as it should be, through the Planning system for years now. We argued through the Council’s airport working party and Scrutiny system that a clear policy of no night flights was the only policy acceptable at Kent International as at so many other airports.
On Tuesday Clive Hart, our leader, and Alan Poole, our deputy leader moved the following resolution to be debated at the next Thanet Council Meeting:
‘The Council adopts a policy of not allowing scheduled, pre-planned or otherwise timetabled flights between the hours of 23:00 and 07:00. That a period of 1 hour at either end of the flying day be allowed for late/early arriving flights only. That a penalty be applied to any flights arriving during the 1 hour periods. No take-offs will be allowed between 23:00 and 07:00 hours and a schedule of exceptions to the above be prepared to include ‘mercy flights’, and flights for medical emergencies, coastguard movements etc’.

Lets Re-Open Ramsgate Tunnels

2011-06-07T12:51:00.002+01:00

Lets Re-open Ramsgate Tunnels

There are over 3 miles of tunnels underRamsgate which became an underground city and saved the lives of hundreds of Ramsgateresidents during the Blitz in World War II.

They are still there and could become a fantastic Venue, Tourist Attraction and Heritage Resource.

WATCH MERIDIAN 6 pm on Monday 27th June and

VOTE FOR RAMSGATETUNNELS

Your vote can win us the money to getstarted on this exciting project"

http://www.ramsgatetunnels.org/

Natural Break or Ditching Andrew?

2011-04-07T19:40:00.004+01:00

So, the ridiculous posturing in front of camera in a PR attempt to convince us that the Government might reconsider its plan to introduce a commercial system into the NHS is meant to quieten things until after the elections.

Meawhile, staff are being lost at an alarming rate from the Primary Care Trusts, GP consortiums are being established, services are being trimmed and waiting lists start to grow.

Is the central proposal, that GPs in consortia can manage ( not just spend) 60% of the NHS's £103bn budget and that in doing that they should use "any willing provider", public or private, really for review?

Lets be clear what the core objections to the Tories plans are:

Its not opposition to competition - NHS professions work hard to improve against targets to be the best in the world.

Its not opposition to innovation - The NHS has a proud history of innovation in medical science and technology.

Its not opposition to efficient use of money- The NHS is one of the most efficient in the world precisely because it hates wasting money on pseudo market bureaucracy .

And its certainly not opposition to democratic accountability including involvement of health professionals.

The core objection is that Lansleys proposals will fundamentally change the relationship between patients and GP's and will open the NHS to competion on price resulting in fragmentation and unfairness.

All evidence shows that making financial profitability a fundamental consideration in NHS contracts is costly because of the wasteful accountancy, bid writing and debt collecting. Its medically inefficient because it distorts where scarce resources are placed, and unfair because NHS foundation trusts and private orgaisations will "market" their best opinions, most modern tests and shortest delays to those able to find the extra cash.

The NHS is certainly not safe in Lansley's hands.

AV

2011-04-03T11:00:00.003+01:00

I have very mixed views over the AV referendum.

The arguement that AV would allow more voters to vote how they really feel is powerful.

On the other hand it would give extremist parties a platform and probably result in more hung parliaments, neither of which I could support.

It does however preserve the constituency MP. I could never support any system that threatened that.

Mark Nottingham

2011-04-03T09:12:00.002+01:00

I think I have been more than tolerent of threads I have put up on this blog being distracted into discussion of the Nottingham situation. The problem is that nobody who knows the real situation can comment until the Party's internal procedures are exhausted. That includes the right to appeal any decision. Please do not comment here until indicate it is constructive to do so. I will remove any further comments.

Loose Talk

2011-03-31T07:55:00.002+01:00

Remember Vince Cable's “I’ve declared war on Murdoch” gaffe
73 civil servants will move from the business department to the culture ministry in a process that begins this weekend. (Media competition is transferring as a result of the Vince Cable loose talk). It will cost £260,000, of which £250,000 relates to an IT contract at DCMS signed on a per desk basis.
I cant think of anyone who's reputation has corroded faster than Vince. Will he quit or be pushed?

Radioactive Disaster?

2011-03-15T08:59:00.002Z

I'm sure we all watch with horror what is happening in Japan following the earthquake.
Japan despite perhaps being the best prepared country in the world for withstanding earthquake shocks is still devastated by the tsunami.
Now we have the added horror of nuclear reactors overheating through lack of cooling.
I'm no expert on nuclear reactors, but I remember the argument a number of years ago between the British Advanced Gas Cooled reactor and the American Pressurised Water reactor. The PWR won, largely on economic grounds, but the engineers at AERE Harwell where I was working pointed to the cooling system as the PWR's most vulnerable design fault.
My own work for the Medical Research Council seems a lifetime away now. It concerned the biological and genetic effects of alpha particle emitting metals such as Uranium and Plutonium. It looks from the explosions shown on the TV news as though debris from the reactors is being spread across the countryside. The immediate concern will be with the shortlived gamma and beta emiting isotopes of Iodine Caesium and Strontium, but if any of the core has been vapourised then the long term effects of lung and bone cancer plus genetics effects could be dire indeed. It could be 10 or 15 years before we know.

The Frustrations of Opposition

2011-03-12T07:27:00.002Z

Budget Car Crash Next Year
There is little doubt that the 24% cut in Thanet Council's budget over two years will have major impacts on staffing levels and services to residents.

The Labour opposition to the current Conservative administration has warned for a number of years that staffing levels were out of control and that because of this and reckless pet projects, the Council's financial reserves have been depleted to a dangerous degree. It is frustrating to be proved right as the Council approaches the car crash that will hit next year after the local elections.

Labour Proposals
In a genuine attempt to mitigate some of the worst of the coming damage the Labour group proposed two cost neutral changes to the Conservative budget. These were:

Pay Freeze
To impose a pay freeze on all staff whilst we are in the situation of staff redundacies, and to use the money saved to reduce the number of redundancies in service areas seen as priorities by residents.

Cut in Allowances
The second suggestion was for Councillors to take a 20% cut in special responsibilty allowances, and to use the £20k per year generated to reinstate the community grants that councillors can use to support community groups in their wards.
This was constructive stuff from an opposition group, a genuine attempt to help.
It is a a real shame that it was rejected out of hand.

Thanet Budget Woes

2011-03-08T07:19:00.005Z

How one judges the budget set by Thanet Council, depends upon your perspective.
The Tory Liberal Government have imposed a massive budget cut upon Local Government.They refuse to listen to those telling them they were wrong to front load the cuts so severely.

Last year I warned that Thanet Council’s general reserves were dangerously low. Especially so with the economic storm we knew was coming from the Global Economic disaster. Labour has warned for a number of years that staff numbers were out of control.

Given that, and the looming election in May, there was a need to produce a budget that hides as far as possible the damage to services that a combination of Tory Government and Tory Council inevitably produce.

In those terms, this years Council budget is quite skilfully done.

This year will be painful enough for those staff handed redundancy notices, but most of the pain has been pushed into next year, well after the local election.
Lets start with with formula grant receive from Goverment, £11.6M this year, a 5.3% reduction. Next year £9.7M a further 16.9% reduction. Under Labour Government, this council has been receiving large grants under Community Cohesion, Stronger Safer Communities, Working Neighbourhood Fund etc. These have all been removed.

Then there are our reserves. Last year, General reserves fell below the level thought to be optimum. Of course the promise to replenish them came to nothing, with them standing now at 8.76% of the net revenue budget. They should be at least 10%

With no usable general reserves, this year the administration has raided the earmarked reserves. These stood at £8 million pounds in April 2010, and will be depleted by £2.2m this year and by a planned £3.5m next year. They will then stand at £2.1m. Nearly £1m of which is for pensions, housing benefit and Waste vehicles.

So where will the cash come from to fund £2m or 16.9% cuts next year. Does anyone feel that Mr Pickles will bail us out?

Should we raise council tax? Its what the Tories usually do the year after an election, look at the Governments hike in VAT, and what KCC did two years ago. Unfortunately, Council Tax will have to rise 2.5% nexr year just to replace the central government election bribe we received this year.

Should we raise charges? There must be a limit to what the market will take. The administration plans a £0.2m increase this year and £0.4m next year. Expect a huge rise in parking charges next year.

Whats left, of course, are savings, or efficiencies, or what I prefer to call service cuts and staff sackings.
£1.9M next year, £2.2M in 12/13, £1m in 13/14, £1.1M in 14/15

This assumes expected savings from cuts this year and outsourcing of services performs to plan.

This is the future for Thanet under this Tory/Liberal Government and a Tory led Council

Kent Police to Axe 1,500 posts

2011-02-16T08:08:00.001Z

Kent Police axes 1,500 posts to tackle 20% budget cut

Plans to lose the equivalent of 1,000 staff and 500 officers have been set out by Kent Police as the force tackles a 20% budget reduction.
The force presented a new policing model under which neighbourhood policing would rise by 50% from 800 officers and staff to 1,200.
The Kent Police Federation criticised the move and said losing 500 officers would bring "real problems".
Under the new policing model, Kent's six policing areas would be reduced to three.

2011-02-08T11:59:00.001Z

Hi -

My name is Barbara and I am 56.

From the age of 15, I have worked every day of my life, apart from a few years when I stayed at home to care for my disabled husband until his death in 2003.
Since 1995, I have thought that I would retire in 2018, when I will be 64. I have based all my plans for the future on this.
Last week, I discovered that the Government have moved the goalposts, so that people like me have to wait two additional years to retire. But we don’t have to accept this cut – will you join me in signing a petition against this decision?
http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/handsoff
I now have to wait an extra two years to retire - in April 2020, when I will be 66.
I feel robbed - robbed of 2 years of freedom, and robbed of more than £10,000 that I would have received as my state pension. The basic state pension will be my only retirement income, and I have no extra means of coping financially. I will have no option but to try and carry on working.
I agree that women and men should get their state pension at the same age, but this was already happening. There is simply no need to impose this physical and financial burden on women like me, purely because of my age.
Almost 5 million people are going to be affected by these changes. And there are 500,000 women out there who will have to work for more than a year longer, and 33,000who, like me, will have to work for an extra 2 years.
If you are one of these women who will have to work longer, or if you want to support me and other women like me, please take a moment to sign my petition.

http://www.unionstogether.org.uk/handsoff

I have osteoarthritis in my thumbs and wrists now, which makes the lifting and cleaning work in my job harder: I’m not sure how I’ll manage to the age of 66.
This move is unfair and unnecessary and it is not too late to tell the government that we will not accept it without a fight.

Thank you for reading my email,

Barbara

Kent Freedom Pass

2011-02-01T10:35:00.004Z

We the undersigned petition the KCC to Retain the Kent Freedom Pass at an yearly fee of £50 per child and permit ages 16 - 18 in full time education to apply
The Kent Freedom Pass cost will rise to £100 per child. This disadvantages freedom of independence for young people in utilising valuable public transport. This ...ePetition runs from 25/01/2011 to 16/02/2011.

Manston Parkway is Unsustainable

2011-01-26T21:33:00.003Z

Kent County Council's have a bid to the Regional Growth Fund in support of Manston Airport. The bid is in three parts.

Work to the railway line to London to bring the journey time to under 1hour.

Subsidy to an airline to run daily flights to a European hub airport,

A Parkway station off the new road near to Cliffsend.

I fully support the first. I have no problem with the second if someone is willing to fund it.

I complement the interest KCC are showing in Ramsgate, though I wish they had spoken to us first.

I have serious problems with the Parkway Station.

The plan is bonkers - the new station will have journey time of 8 minutes to the airport but Ramsgate Station could easily be rebuilt at a much lower price to allow access in the same time. In fact I suspect, a shuttle bus could do it in 8 minutes when traffic is clear now.

64 minutes Ramsgate to St Pancras could be easily achieved at the existing Ramsgate station.

The second issue is a station that could be marketed as improving access to the airport. This is a multi million pound exercise that would deliver only marginal benefits compared to the current situation. They are trying to justify it by arguing it is necessary to allow the faster journey time to London but that is a fallacy.

Thanet people are fortunate that 80% can walk to a station. Why would they want to use their cars a drive to a 'parkway' unless they are forced to? The plan would simply lead to people from Broadstairs and Margate starting their journeys by driving to Ramsgate - and going through Westwood in the process!!!

Of course, Infratil will offer to throw in £500k. Wouldn't you in return for a £20m investment in your private, for-profit enterprise? If they put that investment into improvements at Ramsgate station and a shuttle bus service they would save the tax payer from making any further investments.

I believe they should make the line improvements talked about in the paper and invest in ramsgate station (which they can call Ramsgate-Manston Station if they need to market the airport connection) by allowing passengers to exit on the Warre Rec side of the line where a shuttle bus terminal would operate and then use a new service road to allow the buses to exit via the swimming pool car park onto Newington Road and then Manston Road. I suggest you drive it and see how close this would come to 8 minutes - I expect swimming pool car park to the terminal would even beat that time.

Also if they want to increase car parking at Ramsgate Station they could then use the swimming pool car park - especially if they are still intending to move the swimming pool.

Last but not least, Network Rail had plans on their books to rebuild Ramsgate Station at very modest price by comparison to a new station. It would be modern, comfortable and give access to an airport shuttle bus in the way I suggest and then the existing station building could be converted to a 'business centre' making a contribution to local employment. The tax payer would save money, the airport would be just as well served, local people would keep their station and it would create new jobs.

Manston Discharge Consent

2011-01-18T22:49:00.002Z

Should Manston Airport discharge surface water into the SSSI at Pegwell Bay?

The airport has been operating without consent for years, something I queried with the EA 3 years ago. Infratil have since built an interceptor which will seperate out non water miscible oils from the discharge

The Environment Agency is holding a consultation drop in event on Thursday Jan 20th from 10am until 4pm at 161-165 High Street Ramsgate

As well as fuel spillages, oil ect, can they deal with de-icer and rubber residues?

This site contains the most important sand dune system and sandy coastal
grassland in South East England and also includes a wide range of other habitats
such as mudflats, saltmarsh, chalk cliffs, freshwater grazing marsh, scrub and
woodland. Associated with the various constituent habitats of the site are
outstanding assemblages of both terrestrial and marine plants with over 30
nationally rare and nationally scarce species, having been recorded. Invertebrates
are also of interest with recent records including 19 nationally rare3, and 149
nationally scarce4 species. These areas provide an important landfall for migrating
birds and also support large wintering populations of waders, some of which
regularly reach levels of national importance5.

Ramsgate Fire Station to Close

2011-01-12T09:10:00.001Z

Plans to cut the number of fire engines in Thanet have been labelled “deeply concerning” by a firefighers’ union.Following discussion at Ramsgate Town Council when the plans were presented, I must admit some concern myself.
Thanet fire station at Westwood is earmarked for closure as early as April 2011, with the loss of one appliance.
Firefighters would be redeployed elsewhere in the county.
Specialist vehicles would be moved from Westwood to a new fire station in Ramsgate, which would replace the existing 100-year-old building in the town centre.
AS I understand it, this means that Westwood would no longer be available to back up the two Ramsgate engines.
The answer described to the Town Council was a sophisicated control system that automatically deploys engines in response to gaps in cover do to engines called out.
But Steve Scott, the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) representative at Thanet fire station, said: “The public need to be aware that these proposals could seriously compromise the standard of front line services.
The fire engine at Westgate-on-Sea would remain and would be manned 24 hours a day.
The proposals are detailed in full in Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority’s IRMP, which is available online at www.kent.fire-uk.org or by calling 01843 692121.
Local people have been urged to comment on the plans and must do so before Monday, January 17, 2011.

Manston Night Flying Update

2011-01-10T16:09:00.003Z

Latest update on night flying policy for Manston Airport

Independent reviews completed

Following the submission of the proposed new night-time flying policy by Manston Airport in September, three pieces of technical work have now been completed by independent specialists Bureau Veritas on behalf of Thanet District Council.

The first is an independent technical review of the Night Noise Assessment which was prepared by Bickerdike Allen Partners on behalf of Manston Airport. This assessment was submitted as part of the airport's proposal in September and explained the implications of the proposal. The night-time flying policy, which is based on some of the findings of the Night Noise Assessment, has also been reviewed within this report. The second piece of work is a review of the night quota schemes at other UK Airports and the third is a Glossary of Terms.

All three pieces of work will be discussed at the next meeting of the Airport Working Party.
View the Manston Airport night noise assessment review (PDF 708kb)
View the review of Night quota Schemes at other UK Airports (PDF 45kb)
View the Glossary of Terms (PDF 200kb)

View background information on the proposed night-time flying policy
Although the documents have now been made public by the council, this does not yet signal the start of the full public consultation.

2011-01-08T17:03:00.001Z

For some time now I've thought that the part of Ramsgate's History represented by the old wartime air-raid tunnels is undervalued and under recorded. I am inviting anyone interested to a meeting to discuss what can be done.
Wednesday 12th Jan, 2:00pm @ Custom House, Harbour Parade
Please feel free to pass this invitation to anyone you ...feel might contribute to the discussion.

A Noughty Decade Passes

2011-01-02T09:31:00.005Z

The Noughties were good for most people. They will be missed Noughties, if only because of the jobs generated and the rising incomes and well-resourced schools and the new hospital wings. We won the Olympic Bid. We had Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter.
Locally, in Thanet we had the High Speed Rail Link, Sure Start, Building Schools for the Future and the Turner Centre.
Even voters who are not directly impoverished by the cuts to come,and who know the boom was unsustainable (everyone sort of knew) will remember the good times? Didn't there used to be a library there, or Tourist Information Centre or University Campus?
We now know,perhaps we always knew, that the central core of Capitalist Britain, the Banking System, was corrupt. That it was run for the benefit of the City spivs, rather than the economy. It was New Labour's folly that it believed the voices telling it that greater deregulation was the future, that by borrowing, provided it was to invest in the future, was sustainable through economic growth. When the collapse came, triggered in the USA, we were caught along with the rest. Then, the schemes like PFI and demutalisation of the building societies that were started by Thatcher's Tories but allowed to continue under New Labour, became part of the problem.

Locally, we had a County Council characterised by complacency, with a public relations machine that managed to acheive good ratings for services that were under resourced and near collapse. That hid the deprivation in Thanet and other areas in the statistics for the affluent West Kent, that pumped resources into already affluent rural areas, distorting the Government schemes meant to benefit those in need. It even wasted millions on its own TV propaganda! In Thanet, it has part financed the Turner Centre project that we all hope will stimulate the Margate economy.
In Thanet, we had a regime at the District Council that when drawing up its first corporate plan, had to be reminded to include its housing responsibilties at all.
Despite millions in special Government grants, the Chief Executive concedes that it has acheived little improvement in the Cliftonville and Central Margate deprivation.
We leave the Noughties with two projects, the Vintage Dreamland, and the Turner that require £2 -3 million a year subsidy to survive.
There is no doubt that both Councils neglected Ramsgate. Whilst we all concede that Margate's problems were greater, failure to invest in Ramsgate has missed great opportunities that could have helped regenerate all of Thanet. Government investment in roads, rail, and schools has helped Ramsgate attract investment and talent from London and beyond. This has stimulated the seafront, but exposed the neglect of Thanet Council buildings and services. The people of Ramsgate responded by electing its own Town Council to give voice to their concerns.

2010-12-31T04:09:00.002Z

Before the election, George Osborne specifically promised he wouldn't raise VAT.

Here's what he said
"The plans we set out involved around 80 per cent of the work coming from spending restraint and about 20 per cent from tax increases . . . The tax increases are already in place; the plans do not include an increase in VAT."
And here's what Cameron told Jeremy Paxman in an interview on April 23rd:
We have absolutely no plans to raise VAT. Our first budget is all about recognising we need to get spending under control rather than putting up tax.

Of course, we know that lying to get elected means nothing to the Coalition.

They have made 3 major economic choices:
Whether to place the burden on the well off (taxes) or poor(service cuts)
They chose 20% taxes, 80% services
Whether to front load the cuts (unemployment) or spread the load (growth)
They choose unenployment.
Whether to use direct taxation on the well off or indirect taxation on the poor (VAT)
on Jan 4th, we get the answer, VAT rises, risking further depressing the economy.

KCC Members Visit Thanet

2010-12-22T20:12:00.002Z

Minutes:

During the debate on this item, Mrs J A Rook declared an interest as her family company has retail premises in a number of towns across Kent.

Thanet – 26 July
1. Members made the following comments on what they had seen and heard at the visit to Thanet:-
a) the visit had been positive, upbeat, very worthwhile, and was very well organised. Thanet were congratulated on what they were doing;
b) Thanet was intriguing and challenging, in terms of regeneration, and its reputation as an area of deprivation had served it well;
c) this was the last chance for the District and County Councils to work together to achieve outcomes;
d) it was hoped that the Turner Centre would deliver all that was planned, and draw tourists from Europe as well as from the UK;
e) Manston Parkway is a key priority and would need a fast track rail link to London within the hour to ignite the whole of East Kent;
f) it is important to recognise where mistakes had been made – eg Westwood Cross – and it would be useful to see how shopping areas will be addressed once economic confidence is regained;
g) Members debated the relative merits and problems of free and charged parking:
i) Kent’s towns do not have enough and it is never free. If shoppers cannot park for free in one shopping area, they will go to another. Provision of free parking is big issue when addressing the regeneration of town centres, and should be a community commitment;
ii) it is unrealistic to expect to provide free parking, and parking revenue would contribute valuable income to a town centre. Charges could be relatively small yet cover the maintenance costs of providing it;
h) Thanet had received much regeneration funding over the years, yet still it is an area of multi-deprivation; and
i) in some town centres in Kent, shoppers could park outside shops for free, while other towns had pedestrianised high streets. This might explain why some High Streets were doing well and keeping their independent traders and others were not.
2. The Deputy Cabinet Member, Mr J A Kite, was asked what he would be doing to help Thanet in the short term. Mr Kite replied that there were two threads - strategic and specific. A key strategic challenge would be to get the Local Enterprise Partnership right. Specifics would include issues like supporting the towns and communities behind the seafronts rather than being beguiled by the seafronts themselves, and to treat all areas equally.
3. In discussion, Members started to identify key themes for their future discussion of priorities:
•Manston parkway and the need for a good rail link to Thanet
•parking – free or charged
•pedestrianised or non-pedestrianised town centres

Labour Gains Dover KCC Seat

2010-12-17T13:36:00.003Z

Dover Town Division, Kent CC.

Lab gain from Con.
Lab 1491 (43.7%, +14.3), Con 1348 (39.5%, -4.3), UKIP 404 (11.8%, +11.8), LD 170 (5%, -21.8). Swing of 9.3% from Con to Lab since 2009.
A significant Labour gain and LD collapse in a south east parliamentary marginal. There were previously only two Labour seats on Kent County Council.

Public Safety at Manston Airport

2010-12-15T09:53:00.002Z

Air carriers from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

Kam Air

There is verified evidence of safety deficiencies on the part of Kam Air certified in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. On 11 August 2010 a Kam Air aircraft of type DC8, registration YA-VIC, struck its tail on the runway and the grass surface beyond the runway before becoming airborne during take-off from Manston Airport (United Kingdom). Investigations of this serious incident by the United Kingdom concluded that there were serious deficiencies with the operational control of the DC8 fleet of Kam Air. The United Kingdom therefore imposed a national ban on Kam Air DC 8 operations as of 2 September 2010.

Furthermore, the Competent Authorities of Austria detected a significant number of serious safety deficiencies during a SAFA ramp inspection of a Kam Air aircraft of type Boeing B767, registration number YA- KAM, on 16 September 2010 ( 1 ). The results of this SAFA ramp inspection lead Austria to conclude that there were serious failures on the part of Kam Air in the areas of operational procedures, equipment, system handling and cargo loading. In view of the deficiencies identified during the investigation in the United Kingdom and the convergence of these deficiencies with those detected during the SAFA ramp inspection performed at Vienna airport, Austria imposed a national ban on all Kam Air operations as from 17 September 2010.

Pursuant to Article 6 of Regulation No 2111/2005 the Air Safety Committee was informed of the measures decided by the two Member States.
On 6 October 2010 the Competent Authorities of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (MoTCA) and representatives from Kam Air met with the Commission and representatives from Member States to discuss the circumstances surrounding the Manston incident and the SAFA inspection in Austria.

At the meeting the air carrier was unable to demonstrate that it is capable of complying with the relevant international safety standards. As regards the aircraft of type DC8, it had been introduced into service in March 2010 without adequate management oversight and without any adequate training given to the crews recruited to operate the aircraft. Furthermore, these crews had yet to complete the relevant training even though the aircraft continued to be used for international commercial flights. In addition, the air carrier did not provide any evidence that the flight crew were current in their flying duties at the time of the serious incident in the United Kingdom. As regards the aircraft of type Boeing B-767, Kam Air explained that the aircraft with registration mark YA-KAM which was subject to the ramp inspection in Austria, was on its first flight after having been parked for a long period, and had not been adequately prepared for operation before being employed on the flight to Vienna. Furthermore, the air carrier explained that, because of the introduction of the DC8, their management resources had been overstretched and had been unable to ensure the correct safety activities were conducted prior to the dispatch of the aircraft.

The air carrier Kam Air requested to be heard by the Air Safety Committee and made a presentation on 9 November 2010. Kam Air informed the Committee that it no longer operated the aircraft of type DC 8. Also, whilst Kam Air had reviewed the events leading to the bans by the United Kingdom and Austria, it failed to identify any systemic deficiencies within the air carrier which would explain the identified non- compliances with ICAO Standards.
At the meeting on 6 October 2010, the MoTCA were unable to explain the existence of two different Operations Specifications for Kam Air signed on the same day (29 September 2010) one of which showed the DC8 and the other which had the DC8 removed. It was therefore unclear whether Kam Air was approved to conduct operations with aircraft of type DC8 from that date. Furthermore, MoTCA was not able to demonstrate the results of any certification and surveillance activities carried out on Kam Air.

In view of these findings, on the basis of the common criteria it is assessed that the air carrier Kam Air does not comply with the common criteria and should be therefore placed on Annex A.

Thanet Council Agenda

2010-12-06T16:50:00.001Z

Agenda Document for Council, 16/12/2010 19:00

To see the publicly available information, follow the link:
http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/ieAgenda.aspx?A=1956

The following items are included in the Agenda Document for Council, 16/12/2010 19:00

1 Apologies for Absence
2 Minutes of Previous Meeting
3 Announcements
4 Declarations of Interest
5 Petitions to Council
5a Proposed Development of Hartsdown Park, Margate, Kent (Margate
Football Club / Hartsdown Development Company Ltd)
5b "HOOT" - Hands Off our Tennis Courts
6 Petitions - Reports back to Council
6a New Haine Road, Ramsgate
6b Sunday Bus Service, Westgate
6c CCTV in St Augustine's Road, Royal Road & Spencer Square,
Ramsgate
6d Allotment Funding for Improvements
7 Report on Urgent Decision by Cabinet - Insurance Renewal
8 Questions from the press and public
9 Questions from Members of the Council
10 Notices of Motion
11 Leader's Report
12 Chief Executive's Report
13 Planning Policy Restricting Flats and Loss of Family Homes
14 Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMO) - Changes To Planning
Regulations
15 Charging for Pre-planning application advice
16 The determination of the Licensing Policy Statement for the
next three years
17 Ramsgate Harbour Byelaw No. 44
18 Council Tax Base 2011/12
19 Provisional Calendar of Meetings 201/12 - 2014/15
20 Members' Allowances Scheme for 2011/12
Declaration of Interest form - back of agenda

Traffic Update

2010-12-03T18:16:00.001Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

To: Parishes, Kent MPs, District & County Councillors

Please find below the most recent Kent Highway Services Winter update.

If appropriate please forward to Residents Associations in your area in you wish.

Winter Service Daily UpdateDaily Update All Districts			Date: Friday 3rd December 2010 Time: 16:20
District	Latest Information at District Level
Ashford	Roads	All primary routes to be salted by 5.30pm and all secondary routes to start gritting at 6pm. Local ploughing as needed overnight. Patrolling all primary routes 2.00am, and salting as required after rain/sleet/snow stops.
	Pavements	Ashford Town and Tenterden Pedestrian Area hand clearance and salting: Phase 1 (pedestrian areas within ring-road) cleared and salted again today. Will be repeated over weekend. Phase 2 – roads around ring-road and nearby, and Tenterden High Street. Started again. Will continue into Saturday. Phase 3 – some key pedestrian routes away from the town-centre. Started and will continue into Saturday Not planning on using ABC resource at this stage, but will keep this under joint review with ABC colleagues.
	Saltbins	KHS’ salt bins in this Borough checked and refilled again today.
	Other Local Action	All bulk bags of sand/salt have een delivered to those parishes that made a request prior to the Winter period. Those that we have been informed are empty should be re-filled today. Other ad-hoc salting completed to facilitate festive events. Will clear and salt footways outside schools over weekend.
	Road Closures	None known at this stage. All primaries passable with care
Canterbury	Roads	Canterbury Primary Routes are clear. Secondary routes are being patrolled/actioned, routes passable with care.
	Pavements	Cant/Herne Bay ped areas being cleared and hand treated. Whitstable, Tankerton shopping areas being cleared and hand treated. Hospital footways K&C, Whit & Tank, Queen Vict & Estuary View medical centre being cleared and hand treated.
	Saltbins	Refilling continues
	Other Local Action	Canterbury District staff working within Canterbury
	Road Closures	Major gas leak on A2990 closed between junction with Clover Rise and Sainsbury roundabout, diversion via Sainsbury roundabout/industrial road back onto Clover Rise- possibly in place until early next week.
Dartford & Gravesham	Roads	Primary routes revisited and are all clear. Some secondary routes cleared. Hand salting crews concentrating on roads around Temple Hill area, Valley Drive area and Horton Kirby. 2 No. JCB’s and hand salting crews assisting with secondary route clearance. Further visits made to Darent Valley hospital and Orbital One fire station. At the request of the police KHS gritter and Bluewater ground maintenance staff assisting with treatment to clear entrances and exits from Bluewater site. Action for tonight as instructed at 14:16 hours
	Pavements	Where possible several shopping areas treated in both Dartford and Gravesham areas. District cleansing crews operating in both Dartford and Gravesend town centres. District council cleansing crews to operate on Saturday 4^th December in Dartford and Gravesend town centres
	Saltbins	No crews available
	Other Local Action	Not possible to complete Jumbo bag deliveries. Local farmers have been checking roads on their schedules. Fallen trees still causing problems – tree surgeon in attendance at Wrotham Road, Meopham and New Barn Road, Southfleet
	Road Closures	Whitehill Road, Meopham – cleared by tree surgeon Fawkham Avenue, New Barn – awaiting tree surgeon to attend
Dover	Roads	All primary and secondary routes can be driven
	Pavements	Continuing work this afternoon on pavements of Dover and Deal
	Saltbins	Remaining Wingham salt bag delivered
	Other Local Action	Salting of local roads adjacent to secondary routes in Dover
	Road Closures
Maidstone	Roads	All primary and secondary routes are completed out of Cranbrook Depot.
	Pavements	As below and High Street being hand salted by Maidstone Borough Council
	Saltbins	Being Re filled adhoc
	Other Local Action	Handsalting gangs as follows – (8 gangs) Parkwood Area shopping centre, Allington Footway Downswood Area, Shepway Footways Penenden Heath Area, Boxley Road, Sandling Lane Bottlescrew Hill, Sutton Valence Hill, Lower Road, High Street, South Lane, Old Loose Hill, Church Street, Tovil Hill Tovil, Farleigh Hill, Yalding High Street , Marden West End Detling Village, Boxley Village, Bredhurst Village, Grove Green. Roseacre Lane Bearated, The Green Bearsted Lenham, Harrietsham, Hollingbourne, Frinsted Salt Bins, Hand salting at Hubbards Hill, Lenham Hill & High Street Jumbo salt bag has been delivered to Wormshill
	Road Closures	None Closed
Sevenoaks	Roads	The Gritters will continue carrying out action as per Kent Road Weather Forecast. Concentrate ploughing and salting the Secondary routes after the secondary route run, although they will also continue to grit the major hills on the primary routes as well to keep them passable. Across the District the Farmers are continuing with snow ploughing via our snow plough agreements
	Pavements	Repeat Hand salting of access to High Streets and Main Shopping area footways will be carried out across the District.
	Saltbins	Salt bins – we have all our current resource utilised dealing with the listed priorities. We will look to allocate resource to salt bin filling as soon as we are able as this is a lower priority
	Other Local Action
	Road Closures	Fallen trees / tree branches across the roads are a hazard being encountered due to the weight of snow causing some road closures. We are removing these as notified and will continue to do so over the weekend .
Shepway Snow Emergency in place	Roads	No snow fall evident around District, Temperature approx -3 to -4 Appears that all Primary & Secondary routes are clear and traffic moving smoothly, monitoring of hills when/where required. Still experiencing local issues where we will assist where possible and if resources are available.
	Pavements	Shepway District Council – Have been patrolling and spot clearing priority footways (high streets etc) all appears to be going well
	Saltbins
	Other Local Action
	Road Closures	Crete Road East/ West A260 Canterbury Road.
Swale	Roads	All Primary and secondary routes being patrolled and treated as resource allows
	Pavements	Faversham, Sittingbourne and Sheerness Town Centre is being cleared and treated by SBC crews working with KHS. Checking routes and spot salting as required
	Saltbins	Being filled today
	Other Local Action	Faversham, Sittingbourne and Sheerness Town Centre is being cleared and treated by SBC crews working with KHS. Checking routes and spot salting as required
	Road Closures	None
Thanet	Roads	All primary and secondary routes now clear
	Pavements	All now clear with exception of four sites, 2 in Ramsgate, 1 Margate, 1 westgate-on-sea
	Saltbins	Saltbins not attended to this afternoon and all will be refilled tomorrow morning
	Other Local Action
	Road Closures	None
Tonbridge & Malling	Roads	Primary and secondary routes to be salted this afternoon/evening. Primary routes will be done again in the morning after snow/sleet/ rain. We have been widening out roads using the snow ploughs and will continue tonight. The farmers have been out ploughing the rural roads and estates.
	Pavements	Footways in West Malling have again been treated and cleared. We have also hand salted the overbridges in Ightham and Snodland that we did not get to yesterday. We will have 5 gangs from Tonbridge and Malling BC tomorrow. 1 gang will stay in Tonbridge area and check the high street and all areas they have been covered for salting. 1 gang to work in Hildenborough clearing the footway in front of the shops in Riding Lane and 1 gang to go to East Peckham to clear in front of the shops and 1 gang to hand salt Borough Green and Hadlow If there is any time left checking town centres for hand salting as and where required
	Saltbins	We have filled salt bins in Ightham and Snodland
	Other Local Action	Remaining salt bags delivered today (Snodland, Ditton, East Malling and Larkfield and West Malling)
	Road Closures	No roads closed
Tunbridge Wells	Roads	A20 for all primary routes to finish ay 17:30hrs. A20 for all secondary routes to start at 18:00hrs. Ploughing out where required overnight on Primary and Secondary routes Patrol all primary routes from 02:00hrs and salt as required, but wait until rain/sleet/snow stops.
	Pavements	Assistance from TWBC clearing footways 4 crews with in the Tun Wells Town Centre, Southborough, Rusthall clearing footways. Ringway Working from Haysden Depot Tunbridge Wells Town Centre routes – 1 Ringway crew. Southborough, High Brooms, & Bidborough routes – 1 Ringway crew. Rusthall & Speldhurst Routes 1 Ringway crew. Culverden & St Johns routes 1 Ringway crew. St James & Park routes 1 Ringway crew. Ringway Working from Cranbrook Depot Cranbrook/Frittenden/Sissinghurst 1 Ringway crew. Goudhurst 1 Ringway crew. Paddock Wood 1 Ringway crew. Benenden/ Sandhurst 1 Ringway crew. Hawkhurst 1 Ringway crew. Brenchley / Horsmonden 1 Ringway crew. Lamberhurst 1 Ringway crew. Ringway crew on their way to Pembury
	Saltbins	Gang to fill all Benenden Salt Bins
	Other Local Action	Hand crew attended earlier Cunningham Road to resolve access issue to vulnerable without power.
	Road Closures	None reported

Kent Highway Services Traffic Management Centre Operator 01622 666236 or 666237 kent.tmc@jacobs.com

NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.

Highways Report

2010-12-03T09:01:00.000Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

Please find below a recent Traffic Management Centre Report.

Traffic Management Centre Morning Report Friday 3rd December 2010 08:00
Traffic Signals All Out	Maidstone, A20 Ashford Road/New Cut Road Bluebell Hill, M2/Taddington Wood Roundabout Riverhead, A25 Westerham Road/A21 Slip Road Dartford, B2174 Princes Road/Heath Lane
Reported Incidents	General Information: Many main routes across the county remain hazardous, but as yet no incidents have been reported. Care should be taken on all routes Situation regarding specific road closures is being monitored, and further alerts will be issued as information becomes available. Operation Stack Phase 1: Operation Stack Phase 1 remains in force due to weather conditions. This affects the M20 Coastbound between Junction 11 and Junction 12. Two lanes are closed coastbound to stack HGVs.
Roadworks	A2990 Thanet Way: This road is closed Westbound between Reeves Way and Clover Rise due to a gas leak.
Information Today's Weather Forecast: London & South East England (Issued by Met Office)	Bus services across the County are still affected by the weather conditions. Generally in the east Stagecoach are running in Towns and on main roads but some rural services around Ashford remain suspended. In the west Nu-Venture are running in Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells areas but longer distance services from the south and west are not reaching Tunbridge Wells. Arriva are yet to confirm the extent of their services. Updated details supplied by the Bus Operators at www.travelinesoutheast.org.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------- Today: Starting very frosty, with ice on untreated surfaces, before temperatures gradually rise close to freezing. Snow showers initially affecting parts of Kent and East Sussex will slowly move away. Then some sunny spells but also areas of low cloud. Maximum temperature 1 °C.

To provide better and more accurate information on travelling in Kent, our live Traffic & Travel information page is being redesigned. The new site will be available from 6th December 2010 and will include travel alerts, CCTV images, car parking space availability and bus service details. In the meantime, please use the following links for the lastest travel alerts:

Traffic England for Motorways and Trunk Road at http://www.trafficengland.co.uk/

BBC Kent for more local information at www.bbc.co.uk/travel/kent

Highways Update

2010-12-03T08:59:00.000Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

Please find below a recent Winter Service update.

The light snow showers petered out overnight any light flurries on the eastern fringes should die out by 09:00, it was a cold night min temperature - 5.2 degrees C at Wainscott. It will remain dry for most of the day with temperatures below zero. Winds should be light minimizing the risk of drifting, patchy rain is expected to arrive after midnight falling on frozen surfaces which will heighten the risk of ice.

All resources have been deployed overnight ploughing and salting. Primary routes are passable with care, secondary routes in work at present. Detling and Bluebell hills have remained open overnight. Crews will continue to work 12 hr shifts to patrol primary and secondary routes as temperatures remain below zero. Hand salting crews are being deployed as crews become available.

Highways Update

2010-12-02T16:57:00.000Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

Sent to: Parishes, District & County Councillors

Please find below the most recent Winter Service update report.

Where appropriate please forward to Residents Associations if you wish.

Winter Service Daily Update All Districts			Date: 02/12/2010 Time: 16:00
District	Latest Information at District Level
Ashford	Roads	Continue patrolling primary and secondary routes this afternoon salting and ploughing as required. Primary route starting at 6pm followed by secondary routes. Patrol throughout the night on primary and secondary routes. Once these routes clear local action if possible. Primary routes first thing tomorrow followed by secondary routes as required.
	Pavements	Ashford Town and Pedestrian hand clearance and salting: Phase 1 (pedestrian areas within ring-road) cleared and salted again today. Will then move onto Phase 2 and 3 below. Phase 2 – roads around ring-road and nearby, and Tenterden High Street. Phase 3 – some key pedestrian routes away from the town-centre. Not planning on using ABC resource at this stage, but will keep this under joint review with ABC colleagues.
	Saltbins	KHS’ salt bins in this Borough checked and refilled again today.
	Other Local Action	All bulk bags of sand/salt have now been delivered to those parishes that made a request prior to the Winter period. B2067 east of Aldington to cleared.
	Road Closures	Reports that A251 is closed. Investigating.
Canterbury	Roads	Canterbury Primary Routes are passable with care. All Primary routes are being patrolled/actioned. Secondary routes very difficult.
	Pavements	Cant/Herne Bay ped areas being cleared and hand salted
	Saltbins	Refilling continues Friday
	Other Local Action	Canterbury District staff working within Ped Areas
	Road Closures	Canterbury: All hills difficult in places, situation changes hourly. Gas leak on A2990 junction with Clover Rise shut by Police, London bound lane closure, diversion via Sainsbury/industrial road back onto Clover Rise
Dartford & Gravesham Snow Emergency in place	Roads	All main A and B class roads open and clear. Work continuing with clearance on other primary routes – particularly on hilly sections using small gritter/ hand salting crews and JCB’s. Some progress on clearing secondary routes with, again the use of JCB/ hand salt crews being used. Work progressing in accord with the instructed action issued at 14:20 including patrolling of primary and secondary routes overnight. Carlton Avenue, Stone treated in time for funeral cortege to pass at 12:30pm en-route to cemetery. Responded to requests from fire/ ambulance and police to spot salt specific locations. Access to some residential nursing homes treated. Farmers continuing with ploughing operation.
	Pavements	In accord with local plan district cleansing teams assisting KHS staff and deployed on town centre areas/ shop fronts. Access to transport links e.g. railway station commenced.
	Saltbins	Following priority issued so unable to commence refilling of saltbins
	Other Local Action	As resource deployed on other areas unable to complete delivery of remaining 3 jumbo bags. Will attempt to complete tomorrow.
	Road Closures	Woodlands Lane, Shorne – tree down obstructing road.
Dover Snow Emergency in place	Roads	Action as per WDO instructions.
	Pavements	Hand salting gangs have spent the day clearing snow from footways and precincts of Dover, Deal, + around shops of Sandwich, Walmer, Wingham, Eastry,Whitfield, River and Aylesham
	Saltbins	Saltbin filling has mainly been in Dover(Maxton and Clarendon wards) , River, Temple Ewell,
	Other Local Action	Spot salting & ploughing on main bus routes as resources have permitted around urban Dover ( St Radigunds, Melbourne Ave, The Linces, Friars/Squires Way) Farmers ploughing in all areas, all day Dover District Council resources assisting in Dover and Deal precincts
	Road Closures	None known on Primary / Secondary routes.
Maidstone	Roads	Gritters continuing to patrol and plough/salt primary and secondary routes this afternoon will be continuing throughout the night. Farmers have all been contacted and have been out and will continue to plough as necessary.
	Pavements	Hand salting of town centre/shopping areas has been carried out, other key areas are still being undertaken and will continue over the coming days.
	Saltbins	Currently all resources are dealing with key priority areas, we will look to allocate a resource for salt bin filling as soon as resources become available.
	Other Local Action	Hand salting of key areas has been undertaken including Headcorn, Staplehurst, Lenham Square, Harrietsham. Other areas such as Downswood is currently being hand salted at junctions. Spot salting is also being undertaken on farmer snow plough routes 1 & 2 which include Wormshill and Frinstead areas. Plans for tomorrow include the continued hand salting of village areas and areas such as Vinters Park, Downswood, Shepway, Parkwood etc.
	Road Closures	Roads currently are passable with care.
Sevenoaks Snow Emergency in place	Roads	Gritters continue to run the primary routes salting and ploughing, particularly concentrating on the hills where not obstructed by abandoned vehicles. Light to moderate snowfall has continued though out most of the day. Travel around the District should be avoided if not necessary.. Access to Sevenoaks Town is now unrestricted on the main roads. Many other roads, particularly on hills, are still currently impassable for the majority of vehicles. Across the District the Farmers are out assisting us with snow ploughing via our snow plough agreements. Traffic levels continue to appear to be very low which will help the snow clearance efforts
	Pavements	Repeat Hand salting of access to emergency services establishments and High Streets and Shopping area footways will be carried out across the District. Supporting our main contractor are staff and operatives from Sevenoaks District Council; Swanley Town Council Edenbridge Town Council and Hextable Parish
	Saltbins	Salt bins – we have all our current resource utilised dealing with the listed priorities. We will look to allocate resource to salt bin filling as soon as we are able as this is a lower priority
	Other Local Action	Delivery of 1 tonne salt / sand bags still to be delivered to Edenbridge; Penshurst; Chiddingstone, Swanley Town Council; Brasted; Shoreham and Fawkham
	Road Closures	Most roads on or across high ground are still difficult and need to be trasversed with care. Many hills remain impassible including some of those on main roads, such as Crockham Hill, Westerham Hill; Hosey Common Road. Many are currently unable to be properly ploughed due to abandoned vehicles
Shepway Snow Emergency in place	Roads	All Primary routes open and passable with care. Crews patrolling secondary routes and ploughing salting as necessary. Snow drifting cleared at Court at Street, Aldington. Shepway DC have assisted with some primary carriageway salting/gritting in Folkestone PM and Overnights Action: Continue patrolling primary and secondary routes this afternoon. salting and ploughing as required.20g run for all primary route starting at 18:00 followed by secondary routes. Patrol through the night on primary and secondary routes. Once these routes are clear local action if possible. Then morning 20g for all primary routes followed by secondary routes as required.
	Pavements	Shepway DC have patrolled and cleared high street footways throughout the day.
	Saltbins	Will be filled once Primary/Secondary routes clear
	Other Local Action	Continued to clear sections of Crete Road East/West to maintain access this afternoon.
	Road Closures	Crete Road East /West Gibraltar Lane
Swale	Roads	Primary routes passable with care secondary routes are only passable with extreme care. Primary routes being ploughed and treated
	Pavements	Faversham Sittingbourne and Sheerness High Street areas being treated with help of Swale Borough Council Staff
	Saltbins	Bin filling is ongoing
	Other Local Action	Faversham Sittingbourne and Sheerness High Street areas being treated with help of Swale Borough Council Staff
	Road Closures	None hills difficult but passable with extreme care
Thanet Snow Emergency in place	Roads	Snow has continued to fall all day. Primary routes have been treated and traffic has helped to work the salt on the roads and primary routes can be driven with care. We have started to work on secondary routes this afternoon. However, snow is still falling and increasing in volume and it will be a challenge to maintain primary routes. Primary and secondary routes will be treated from 18:00 then patrolled throughout the night with further treatment from early in the morning. Ice will also be a problem with very low temperatures expected tonight.
	Pavements	Most footways are still covered. In minor roads the footway is not seen due to snow level.
	Saltbins	Will be checked and filled when resource allows.
	Other Local Action	Approximately 30 district council staff have been treating priority footways starting again in the town centres of Birchington, Westgate, Margate, Northdown Road, Broadstairs and Ramsgate. They then went on to other priority sites. Hand spot salting has been undertaken to known problem areas where there is significant gradients and bends. Local farmers have been ploughing all day.
	Road Closures	None due to snow. Joss Gap Road now open.
Tonbridge & Malling Snow Emergency in place	Roads	The gritter crews have worked on the primary routes for much of the day but also on the secondary routes in places. All routes now passable. Accumulations of snow vary from 5” to 12” across the district. More salting and ploughing will take place on primaries and secondaries this afternoon and overnight
	Pavements	Two gangs from Ringway have been clearing snow and salting on footways in Snodland, Wateringbury and Hadlow They will be in West Malling and Borough Green this afternoon. We have also salted/sanded the steep overbridges in the district today. We have had 14 men from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council working in Tonbridge town centre. We delivered salt/sand to the town centre for them to use. These gangs will be on the same work tomorrow
	Saltbins	We have had no spare resource to fill salt bins today. These will be refilled early next week
	Other Local Action	The two Jumbo Bags that were not delivered were for Snodland and Ditton. We had another request from East Malling and Larkfield for delivery of a salt bag. We will attempt to deliver all three bags tomorrow. We have helped with entranceways at the Fire Station in Larkfield and the Cottage Hospital in Tonbridge.
	Road Closures	The A228 Malling Road at Mereworth was problematical earlier today but this is open and passable.
Tunbridge Wells Snow Emergency in place	Roads	Continue patrolling primary and secondary routes this afternoon salting and ploughing. Then A20 for all primary route starting at 18:00 followed by secondary routes. Patrol through the night on primary and secondary routes. Then C20 for all primary routes followed by secondary routes as required. Spare Gritter aiming to cover Capel, Matfield, and Brenchley following up on routes only ploughed by farmers.
	Pavements	Assistance from TWBC clearing footways in Tunbridge Wells Town Centre – resource increased this morning to 2 vehicle and 10 men. There are also 2 Ringway crew deployed to Town Centre. This work has now been completed with the exception of area around Chapel Place and Madeira Park which will be completed by Ringway crew. TWBC - 6 men with 2 vehicles in the Southborough shopping area & Highfield Road footway clearing footways started after mid day. Following completion of Chapel Place to cover remaining areas of Southborough covered by 1 Ringway crew. Expected start 1530ish. Rusthall & Speldhurst covered by 1 Ringway crew started after 1400 hours.
	Saltbins	No resources today
	Other Local Action	Farmer’s snow ploughs all out
	Road Closures	None reported

2010-12-02T13:24:00.000Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

To: Parishes, District & County Councillors

Please find below a recent update from the KHS Traffic Management Centre.

Kent Highway Services: Traffic Management Centre Incident Report 02/12/2010 @ 13:00
Information:	Operation Stack Phase 1 is still active. M20 coast bound non-commercial traffic is being diverted onto the A20 at Junction 11. M26 Coast bound closed between M25 and junction J2a, due to vehicle recovery. Road expected to re-open from 2.00pm. General information A249 Detling and A229 Bluebell Hill remain open although care should be taken due to road conditions. A249 Sheppy Bridge remains closed, but access to the island is still available using Kingsferry Bridge. Buses: Maidstone – All remaining services will be suspended at 17:30 All services suspended except buses are now running every 20 minutes between the town centre and Park Wood Parade, but not serving Highcroft Green. 85 is running a 20-minute service between Senacre Wood, Maidstone town centre and Maidstone Hospital. Canterbury / Herne Bay Triangle buses every 30 min on route 4x & 6x not serving the university No service 5 or 7 No School service operating Archbishops school closed Folkestone There is a service operating between Cheriton and the town centre No services to Canterbury and Dover are operating Dover Town service remains as a loop then using Dock road and Jubilee Way to Whitfield / Tesco. Aycliffe is being served as far as Avo/Megga RoB service 15 are running as far as Buckland Bridge turning back into town then operating via Dock Rd, Jubilee Way and A2. Thanet Route 8 is operating traveline south east - disruption bulletin last updated at 11:38 on Thursday, 02 December 2010 page 2 Loop is operating a limited service not via Plains of Waterloo Ashford A B C Lines are running. D line is suspended E line – limited service only 400 service is now running 510 is not running to Maidstone. 11 is suspended. 652 to Canterbury. Main Road only Limited service Isle of Sheppey – All services suspended Sittingbourne/Faversham – All services suspended Gravesend/Dartford/Bluewater/Swanley/Orpington – All services suspended Tonbridge/Tunbridge Wells/Sevenoaks – All services suspended
Actions	Media informed
TMC Controller:	Richard Cronin

Traffic Detail

2010-12-02T12:00:00.001Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

To: Parish Councils, District & County Councillors

Please see below the most recent Winter Service Update.

If appropriate please forward to Residents Associations in your area if you wish.

Winter Service Daily UpdateWinter Service Daily U All DistrictsAll Districts			Date: 02/12/2010 Time: 10:00
District	Latest Information at District Level
Ashford	Roads	Primary and secondary routes patrolled through the night as required. Primary routes salted early morning. Continuing to salt/plough primary routes. Will move onto secondary routes where primary routes clear.
	Pavements	Ashford Town and Pedestrian hand clearance and salting: Phase 1 (pedestrian areas within ring-road) being cleared and salted again this morning. Will then move onto Phase 2 and 3 beow. Phase 2 – roads around ring-road and nearby, and Tenterden High Street. Phase 3 – some key pedestrian routes away from the town-centre. Not planning on using ABC resource at this stage, but will keep this under joint review with ABC colleagues.
	Saltbins	KHS’ salt bins in this Borough being checked and refilled again today.
	Other Local Action	All bulk bags of sand/salt have now been delivered to those parishes that made a request prior to the Winter period. Hand clearance/salting of approach to Wye fire station completed yesterday. We started clearing and salting footways outside schools yesterday. Will continue today depending on resource. JCB set to B2067 east of Aldington to dig out snow drift/
	Road Closures	No main roads closed known at this stage.
Canterbury	Roads	Canterbury Primary Routes are passable with care. All Primary routes are being actioned.
	Pavements	Cant/Herne Bay ped areas being cleared and hand salted.
	Saltbins	Canterbury and Swale being refilled. Canterbury Parish bags all completed.
	Other Local Action	Canterbury District staff working within Ped Area. Swale unknown.
	Road Closures	Canterbury: All hills difficult. Gas leak on A2990 junction with Clover Rise shut by Police.
Dartford & Gravesham	Roads	Snowfall overnight giving further accumulations of between 2 to 3cm. Snow continuing to fall. Patrolling of primary routes carried out with ploughs fitted throughout the night. Particularly attention to routes into town centres/ fastrack bus route, emergency services sites. Extreme difficulty in accessing secondary routes owing to quantity of snow/ abandoned and parked vehicles. Where possible spot salting carried out but further snowfall and lack of traffic movement is meant that the salt spread has been covered over. Efforts continuing this morning on maintaining primary routes with particular emphasis on access to emergency services.
	Pavements	District cleansing teams assisting KHS staff and deployed on town centre areas/ shop fronts.
	Saltbins	Details being recorded but no resources to replenish
	Other Local Action	Subject to conditions/ access attempts to be made to complete delivery of jumbo bags to parishes.
	Road Closures	At time of report no details on specific road closures. Problems noted on A2 and M20
Dover	Roads	All gritters currently ploughing and spreading only on Primary routes.
	Pavements	Handsalting precinct areas of Dover, Deal, and Whitfield
	Saltbins	No work on saltbin filling at present this morning
	Other Local Action
	Road Closures	Most primary routes passable with exception of A258 Castle Hill Dover and A256 Whitfield Hill – resources on site at both locations Most secondary and other routes passable only using 4x4 vehicle
Maidstone	Roads	primary routes followed by secondary routes once primary routes clear
	Pavements	Maidstone Town Centre Action plan implemented by MBC / KHS
	Saltbins	No salt bins being filled at present
	Other Local Action	Other key areas for Maidstone being cleared / hand salted Headcorn High Street Staplehurts – High Street Coxheath – Heath Road Lenham – Lenham Square Marden - West end Harrietsham – West Street Tovil – Old Tovil Road / Farleigh Hill area Sutton Road – Shop area Parkwood Footways to Shop area Allington – KHS footways to Mid Kent shopping centre and Appledore Court Penenden Heath – Boxley Road / Sandling Lane High Level Bridges – Pedestrian Bridges etc Downswood – Hand salting of Junction areas All Maidstone farmers out ploughing local routes
	Road Closures	Minor network completely disrupted
Sevenoaks	Roads	Following on from the overnight ploughing and salting the Gritters continue to run the primary routes salting and ploughing, Sevenoaks has had further widespread heavy snow with accumulations in excess of 15cm falling overnight on top of the 15-60cm already present and ongoing snowfall is continuing to cause major problems. Travel around the district should be avoided if not necessary. In the North of the District a number of jack-knifed lorries have been reported along the A21 between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells which cause it to close but it is currently re-opened. Access to Sevenoaks Town is restricted with many roads currently impassable. Across the District the Farmers are out assisting us with snow ploughing via our snow plough agreements. Traffic levels appear to be very low which will help the snow clearance efforts
	Pavements	Repeat Hand salting of access to emergency services establishments and High Streets and Shopping area footways will be carried out across the District. Supporting our main contractor are staff and operatives from Sevenoaks District Council; Swanley Town Council Edenbridge Town Council and Hextable Parish.
	Saltbins	Salt bins – we have all our current resource utilised dealing with the listed priorities. We will look to allocate resource to salt bin filling as soon as we are able as this is a lower priority
	Other Local Action	Delivery of 1 tonne salt / sand bags now carried out to the following Parishes: -Seal; Otford; Sundridge; Halstead; Sevenoaks Town Council; Knockholt; Hextable; Riverhead; Chevening. and Horton Kirby & South Darenth. Others yet to be delivered Edenbridge; Penshurst; Chiddingstone, Swanley Town Council; Brasted and Shoreham
	Road Closures	Most roads on or across high ground are likely to be treacherous or impassable, Main routes to most towns and villages remain open as of 06:00hrs this morning.
Shepway Snow Emergency in place	Roads	Continuous snowfall. Temperature approx -3 to -4 Additonal gritters in the area. Primary routes being ploughed and salted. Checking all Primary route hills Secondary routes will be tackled once primary routes are clear. A260 closed at Denton . B2068 drifting passable with extreme care. C585 passable with extreme care. Heavy snow drifting at New Romney and Lydd area. Crete Road West- heavy drifting.
	Pavements	Shepway District Council – Patrolling and spot clearing priority footways (high streets etc)
	Saltbins
	Other Local Action
	Road Closures	Crete Road East/ West A260 Canterbury Road.
Swale	Roads	Swale Primary Routes are passable with care and all Secondary Routes are passable with extreme care. All Primary routes are being actioned.
	Pavements	SWALE: Faversham and Sittingbourne town centres are being cleared and hand salted.
	Saltbins	Canterbury and Swale being refilled. Swale Parish bags not completed and no action on them today.
	Other Local Action	Canterbury District staff working within Ped Area. Swale unknown.
	Road Closures	New Sheppey crossing is closed.
Thanet	Roads	10 - 15 cm snow fall overnight still snowing now. Primary routes passable with extreme care. Primary routes being gritted and ploughed this morning. Once we are able to clear primary routes we will move onto secondary routes. Secondary routes and minor roads are snow covered and very difficult if not impossible to negotiate. A299 is subject to considerable accumulations but for now is passable with care.
	Pavements	All footways are snow covered.
	Saltbins	Salt bins where checked and full 2 days ago but may be empty now. Will be checked and filled when resource allows.
	Other Local Action	District Council staff are ensuring they can give access to the cemeteries and crematories. If they are able to get out they will then visit priority footway sites even if they have to go by foot from their depots. Farmers are out ploughing their routes since 06:00
	Road Closures	Joss Gap Road Broadstairs
Tonbridge & Malling	Roads	More snow overnight with deeper accumulations. Salting action continued overnight on the primary routes and ploughing was required on most routes. This action continues today with only a small chance that we will get to the secondary routes. Smaller gritter being deployed to Hilltop and other hills in the Tonbridge area. Farmers should be out ploughing the more rural routes
	Pavements	2 gangs from Ringway doing footways in Snodland, Borough Green then Hadlow, and West Malling as resources permit. I have gangs from Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council working in Tonbridge town centre.
	Saltbins	No resources today to fill bins. These will be refilled early next week
	Other Local Action	All Jumbo Bags delivered, except for two, yesterday. The remaining two will go out tomorrow.
	Road Closures	All roads passable with care, hills may be a problem.
Tunbridge Wells	Roads	Continue to salt/plough primary routes. Farmer’s snow ploughs working overnight and through the today.
	Pavements	Assistance from TWBC clearing footways in Tunbridge Wells Town Centre – resource 1 vehicle and 5 men. There are also 2 Ringway crew deployed to Town Centre. 1 Ringway crew deployed in Cranbrook.
	Saltbins	No resources today
	Other Local Action	As above
	Road Closures	None reported

Traffic Update

2010-12-02T11:58:00.001Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste and John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

Heavy snowfalls over night throughout Kent with another 10cm to 15cm to of snow. More snow is expected this morning with another 10cm probable generally and temperatures will remain below freezing in the brisk easterly wind. Worst affected will be Medway towns, Dartford and Gravesham. It should become drier this afternoon and into tonight. Snow should peter out this evening but it will be cloudy and very cold tonight with lows down to -8 deg. C. expected so ice will be the main problem. Milder towards the weekend.

There is severe disruption on the roads despite using all resources available to us overnight. We have worked all through the night running all of gritters on the primary routes continuously. It is unlikely that we will work on the secondary routes today. All roads in west Kent are white with snow and many minor roads are impassable. Ploughs have been fitted to almost all gritters and we are battling 24/7 to keep Kent moving. The drivers are working 12 hour shifts so that the gritters are constantly working. Everything possible that can be done is being done.

Operation stack remains in place.

Council changes in Kent

2010-12-01T20:16:00.003Z

•Ashford borough council: Vacancy in Kennington ward after the death of Conservative councillor Major John Kemp. As his term was due to end in May 2011, there will be no byelection.
•Canterbury city council: Robert Bright, who was elected as a Liberal Democrat councillor in Heron ward, has left the party to sit as an Independent.
•Dover district council: Byelection on 16 December 2010 in Lydden and Temple Ewell ward after the death of Conservative councillor Roger Frayne. Term ends May 2011.
•Kent county council: Byelection on 16 December in Dover Town division following the death of Roger Frayne. There are also vacancies in Romney Marsh division following the death of Willie Richardson, and in Tonbridge division following the death of Godfrey Horne MBE. All three were Conservatives and both terms end in 2013.
•Shepway district council: Vacancy in Lydd ward after the death of Conservative councillor Willie Richardson. As the vacancy has occurred within six months of the day on which his term was due to end in May 2011, there will be no byelection.
•Thanet district council: Vacancy in Bradstowe ward after the disqualification of Ewen Cameron who was elected as a Conservative but was last sitting as an Independent after resigning the whip. As his term was due to end in May 2011, there will be no byelection.
•Tunbridge Wells district council: Byelection on 16 December in Sherwood ward after the death of Conservative councillor Ted Jolley. Term ends 2014.

Highways Report

2010-12-01T17:55:00.001Z

Sent on behalf of Nick Chard, Cabinet Member - Environment, Highways & Waste & John Burr, Director of Kent Highway Services

To: All Parishes, District & County Councillors

Dear All

Please find below the latest Winter Service report.

Where appropriate please circulate this to Residents Associations in your area if you wish.

Winter Service Daily UpdateWinter Service Daily U All DistrictsAll Districts			Date: 01/12/2010 Time: 16:00
District	Latest Information at District Level
Ashford	Roads	Primary and secondary salting routes patrolled and salted as appropriate this morning. Continue patrolling primary and secondary routes this afternoon, salting and ploughing as required. Primary routes to be salted from 1800hrs. Then primary and secondary routes to be patrolled through the night as required. Primary routes to be salted again early morning.
	Pavements	Ashford Town and Pedestrian hand clearance and salting: Phase 1 (pedestrian areas within ring-road) completed for a second time this morning. Phase 2 – roads around ring-road and nearby, and Tenterden High Street – completed, and checked again today to re-clear and salt as needed. Phase 3 – some key pedestrian routes away from the town-centre – started. Not planning on using ABC resource at this stage, but will keep this under joint review with ABC colleagues.
	Saltbins	Many of KHS’ salt bins in this Borough have been re-checked and filled today. A few will need to be done tomorrow. Also three additional salt bins have been deployed today - funded by Member Highway Fund.
	Other Local Action	Some bulk bags of sand/salt were delivered yesterday to those parishes that made a request prior to the Winter period. The remainder (save one) have or will be delivered today. Final one – Brabourne Lees – to be delivered tomorrow. Ashford Inspectors have inspected Fire, Ambulance and Police Stations and doctors’ surgeries today. Little action needed. Hand clearance/salting of approach to Wye fire station should be completed today. We have started clearing and salting footways outside schools today.
	Road Closures	No closed roads known at this stage.
Canterbury	Roads	As duty officer instructions
	Pavements	No action tonight. Inspections by Inspectors being carried out first thing.
	Saltbins	Refilling on going. Parish Salt Bags on going.
	Other Local Action	No other action overnight.
	Road Closures	None.
Dartford & Gravesham	Roads	Primary routes – all treated and cleared (and ploughing undertaken on those routes requiring attention). Secondary routes – attempt to clear as many routes noted in earlier report using hand salting crews as possible. Hand salt crews and small gritter deployed on narrow roads and those with abandon vehicles particularly in hilly areas e.g. Darenth and Istead Rise, Northfleet. From 18:00 will follow instructed action issued at 14:15 Farmer snow ploughs operating throughout the day.
	Pavements	Both districts deployed with hand crews operating in respective town centres.
	Saltbins	No filling possible as efforts concentrating on primary & secondary routes.
	Other Local Action	Jumbo bags – delivery achieved to 8 out of 11 parishes who requested a jumbo bag. Plan to deliver rest to remaining parishes tomorrow. Darenth Valley hospital – regular visits made throughout the day to ensure A&E access open. Hand salting crew treated footway access to the hospital and A&E entrance. Assist fire brigade with access to Dartford fire station. Treatment of subways and footbridges around Dartford completed.
	Road Closures	At time of submission no reports of road closures.
Dover	Roads	Primary runs being treated and patrolled as per Action Sheet issued
	Pavements	Some pavements of Deal Town Centre being cleared this afternoon
	Saltbins	Salt bag deliveries have been made today to six out of seven of those Parishes that have pre-agreed locations. Seventh site location - access arrangements due to be resolved this afternoon.
	Other Local Action	In addition to scheduled Primary runs this evening, some spot salting work being carried out during patrols.( Martin, Whitfield, Deal, Ash, Shepherdswell areas) Farmers heavily involved in work to plough drifts.
	Road Closures	No current road closures although many roads, particularly those off of the primary and secondary routes, remain untreated so are very difficult to drive.
Maidstone	Roads	Continue patrolling primary and secondary routes this afternoon - salting and ploughing as required. Then A20 for all primary routes starting at 1800hrs. Then patrol through the night on primary routes and or secondary routes as required. Then C20 for all primary routes. A 50/50 sharp sand/salt will be used from 1800hrs this evening until further notice. Use of farmers snow plough to be maximised where there is deep snow.
	Pavements	Action for Tomorrow morning: Maidstone Town Centre to be hand salted by Maidstone Borough Council (tbc if not Ringway) including subways and high level bridges. Ringway to hand salt school locations and Doctor Surgeries.
	Saltbins	Being filled adhoc.
	Other Local Action	Farmers continuing to plough where required. Jumbo bags have been delivered today to the following Parishes. Sutton Valence, Chart Sutton, Leeds Hollingbourne, Coxheath, East Farleigh, Yalding, Marden, Bearsted, Thurnham, Detling, Lenham, Tovil. Wormshill and Stockbury will receive Jumbo bags tomorrow.
	Road Closures	No road closures.
Sevenoaks	Roads	Gritters are continuing to patrol and plough / salt as required primary routes this afternoon and continuing overnight. Across the District the Farmers are continuing to plough as necessary
	Pavements	Hand salting of emergency service access and High Street and Shopping Areas carried out. Handsalting of main transport facilities access areas underway
	Saltbins	Salt bins – we have all our current resource utilised dealing with the listed priorities. We will look to allocate resource to salt bin filling as soon as we are able as this is a lower priority
	Other Local Action	Delivery of 1 tonne salt / sand bags now carried out to the following Parishes: -Seal; Otford; Sundridge; Halstead; Sevenoaks Town Council; Knockholt; Hextable; Riverhead; Chevening. and Horton Kirby & South Darenth. Othres yet to be delivered Edenbridge; Penshurst; Chiddinstone, Swanley Town Council; Brasted and Shoreham
	Road Closures	Crockham Hill Westerham, Star Hill Road Dunton Green, A225 Riverhill Sevenoaks (northbound – southbound passable with care), Ide Hill Sundridge, all impassable due to ice / abandoned vehicles.
Shepway Snow Emergency in place	Roads	Not snowing. Urban Primary and Secondary routes relatively clear. Rural B2068/A260 and C585 all passable with care. Main problem with drifting on Crete road East/West. Crews continuing to patrol primary and secondary.
	Pavements	Cleared by Shepway DC.
	Saltbins	Filled as requested on a priority basis.
	Other Local Action	Snow Clearing Crete Road East/ West.
	Road Closures	Crete Road East- Closed to through traffic. Access maintained to properties Crete Road West -Closed to through traffic. Access maintained to properties Gibraltar Lane - Closed.
Swale	Roads	Primary and Secondary routes being patrolled and action taken as Kent weather road Forecast.
	Pavements	Will be treating Faversham Town centre footpaths as plan will check Sittingbourne and Sheerness first thing to decide action.
	Saltbins	Being filled Thursday.
	Other Local Action	Checking routes and spot salting as required Farmers are in action particularly on Island and at the northern edge of the downs.
	Road Closures	None.
Thanet	Roads	Primary and Secondary routes have been treated and are clear. Some minor roads are icy in places. Primary routes to be treated from 18:00 onwards then primary and secondary routes to be patrolled throughout the night and treated as necessary. Primary routes then treated again in the morning.
	Pavements	Most footways are clear but there remain some isolated icy areas.
	Saltbins	Salt bins checked all full.
	Other Local Action	District Council staff have patrolled priority footway locations and cleared and treated as necessary. Town centres, schools, doctors etc. Situation will be assessed in the morning if district action is to continue.
	Road Closures	None due to snow.
Tonbridge & Malling	Roads	Some roads in the west are snow covered but6 we are working on them now. Salting being carried out on primary and secondary routes where snow is a problem.
	Pavements	2 gangs from Tonbridge and Malling BC working on footways in Tonbridge. Other gangs working in other towns.
	Saltbins	Salt bins not being refilled today as we do not have the resources.
	Other Local Action	All salt bags will be delivered today. 14 No.
	Road Closures	No closures at the moment but conditions in the west are worsening.
Tunbridge Wells	Roads	Additional gritter is running over other roads this afternoon aiming to complete in Pembury, Capel, Matfield and Paddock Wood west area. Continue patrolling primary and secondary routes this afternoon - salting and ploughing as required. Then A20 for all primary routes starting at 1800hrs. Then patrol through the night on primary routes and or secondary routes as required. Then C20 for all primary routes. Use of farmers snow plough to be maximised where there is deep snow.
	Pavements	Completed Lamberhurst and other areas reported earlier are still being progressed.
	Saltbins	No resources today but Pearce Place by school filled this morning.
	Other Local Action	Jumbo bag have been delivered to Horsmonden, Cranbrook, Lamberhurst, Sissinghurst, Benenden, Frittenden, Paddock Wood, Brenchley, Matfield, Capel, Southborough, Bidborough and Speldhurst. Pembury collected their bag yesterday and have requested to refill their bag which they will arrange after contact with Depot. This afternoon other Parish Council’s will receive their delivery to those parishes that made a request.
	Road Closures	None.

Net Neutrality

2010-11-19T14:18:00.003Z

Net neutrality: it sounds a bit geeky, a bit nerdy
So how about “Minister Ed Vaizey backs ‘two-speed‘ internet”.
Still not concerned?
Public versus private is essentially the problem.
Or Big Guy versus Little Guy

At present your Internet Service Provider (ISP) does not discriminate between different types of web data. So the text, images etc. of this Blog article are delivered to you at the same speed as a page from the BBC News website or an auction page on eBay or Government information.

However, under the internet system advocated by Mr Vaizey and that would not necessarily be so. eBay could strike a deal with your ISP, meaning eBay pages load much faster than BBC pages or my blog do.

For text and images you might not notice the difference. But how about video? Not only does online video require considerably more data transfer, but the major UK player in the online video sector – BBC’s iPlayer – is run by a public sector broadcaster. It would, as a matter of principle, not enter into bargains with some ISPs rather than others for faster provision of its services.

There’s an alternative company that would have no such qualms; News Corp, already dominant in the UK newspaper market, is aiming to take full control of Sky, and Sky is already an ISP as well as a television company. Get Sky Sports on your PC in HD quality, but iPlayer will be clunky and slow.

Mr Vaizey says all of this is not a problem in a liberalised market as consumers can change their ISP freely. True in theory, but anyone who’s ever gone through that process knows it is time consuming and fraught with difficulties.

Both the internet and WWW were conceived as free and open communications systems, favouring no-one. A principle worth defending?

Christmas Cracker Show

2010-11-16T09:41:00.003Z

Just to let you know about a very special event at the Granville Theatre on Sunday 28thNovember at 2.30pm, the Starlite Entertainers Productions present their 30th annual Christmas Show and the 28 annual Cracker Show.
During the past 30 years the group have staged over 400 different live variety shows at most of Thanets premier venues and this has raid over £250,000 for many Local & National Charities and good causes.
This years show will go the the Mayor of Ramsgate's Charity - the recipients include Ramsgate Salvation Army and the QEQM Hospital.
Book early or be disappointed. First 40 Ramsgate Senior Citizens to book are free, as in previous years - a little treat to the lucky first audience.

John Kirby said.....

2010-11-06T01:00:00.002Z

Cllr John Kirby on Labour's decision to reject the current application for night time flying. Incidently this was before Cllr Bayford did exactly the same thing, and before at least two of his Conservative colleagues on Ramsgate Town Council did likewise.

John Kirby said...
The rush to ingratiate themselves with the lobbyists against the Manston Plan has I think back fired quite spectacularly for the Labour group under clive Hart's leadership and David green's totally blinkered approach to this subject. Green's use of his position as Mayor is wrong - it used to be an accepted formality that the Mayor did not get involved in Political Disputes but obviously that is an outdated courtesy unrecognised to him. I was brought up to realise there are two sides to every argument but those who shout the loudest do not always have the full facts and should wait until they are available. This TDC is doing and will have a full consultation when all sides of this matter can be fully and fairly discussed

8:19 PM

John Kirby said...
As usual there is no defining answer from Clive Hart to bob Bayfords open letter - the words Yes or No are not in his vocabulary- we are far from a decision on this - but for the Labour group to come out en bloc a day or so after a Public Meeting in Ramsgate to express their view in a negative way shows their self serving Political Interest - just for themselves with a few local headlines - months before any decision can be taken - I do believe they have shot themselves in the foot and elsewhere with this rushed approach to a very important economic and social decision.

5:50 PM

Ramsgate Town Council Debate Night Flights

2010-11-05T09:06:00.003Z

Charles Buchanan from Infratil spoke to Ramsgate Town Council on Infratil's application for Night Time Flying. He answered a wide range of questions both from the public and Town Councillors.
Cllr Richard Nicholson proposed, and Cllr Michelle Fenner seconded
Resolution: That Ramsgate Town Council does not support the current night flights application by Infratil Ltd on behalf of Manston Airport and that Ramsgate Town Council requests that Thanet District Council asks its Manston Airport working party to review the current implementation of the existing s106 agreement for Manston Airport.
Those in favour:
Cllrs Carr, Dark, Doyle, Fenner, Green, Hoult, Moore, Nicholson, Poole, Rogers and Todd.
Those against: None.
Abstentions: Cllrs Byne and O’Donnell.
Did not vote: Cllr Kirby
RESOLVED.

Ewen Cameron Sentanced to 120 days in Jail

2010-11-02T17:07:00.003Z

The Gazette is reporting that Ewen Cameron who was elected as a Tory councillor will spend Christmas and New Year behind bars after being jailed for drink-driving.
The report says that Ewen Cameron, 52, of Canterbury Road, Westgate, admitted two counts of drink driving and was sentenced to 120 days in prison.
He has also been banned from driving for five years.
Magistrates heard at 5.20pm on August 20 security staff at Tesco in Broadstairs called police after smelling alcohol on Mr Cameron's breath. He was stopped at the wheel of his car in the car park.
A breath test revealed 140mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood - three times the legal limit.
On October 6, while on bail for the August 20 offence Mr Cameron was spotted by staff at the BP petrol station in Canterbury Road, Westgate looking unsteady before driving off. They called police and a breath test showed 159mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Mr Cameron, who represented the Tories in Bradstowe Ward, Broadstairs, appeared in court last month and admitted both charges.

As Cameron has reportedly been sentanced for three months or more he will be automatically disqualified as serving as a councillor, even if it is a suspended jail sentence. However the ban would not come into effect for 28 days after the sentence to allow him the opportunity to appeal

The loan sharks are circling, and the government doesn’t care

2010-10-31T08:41:00.002Z

Here’s a consequence of the budget less widely publicised: the (loan) sharks are now circling Britain’s poorest families, watching them struggle financially and sensing a business opportunity. Indeed, the dishonestly named Peter Crook, chief executive of Provident, is delighted with the turn in events. It is no coincidence that following the comprehensive spending review his company’s share price rocketed by 5%.
Provident offers short-term credit with a typical APR of 272% to those for whom banks and credit cards are out of reach – mainly women, the low paid and those with poor credit histories. It is a company that makes money by locking people into cycles of debt, interest on debt, late payment charges and interest on late payment charges.
And Peter Crook isn’t the only one. Here in Ramsgate, shops offering payday loans and hire purchase agreements at rates averaging 444% pockmark our high street.

The coalition agreement promises action on excessive interest rates for store and credit cards, but that will do nothing for those for whom this avenue of credit is closed. The government talks of fairness, but how can it be fair to ignore that the people paying the highest rates on loans are those who can least afford it?

Next Wednesday Labour are introducing legislation in parliament – the consumer credit (regulation and advice) bill – to shame them into action. It seeks to confront legal loan sharking by introducing a cap on the total lending rate that can be charged for providing credit, including any late payment and default charges. This serves to prevent extortion by limiting the total amount that lenders can charge, without setting an arbitrary interest rate cap that could end payday loans altogether and so unwittingly increase the market for illegal loan sharking. It also seeks to impose a levy on consumer credit agencies to pay for debt counselling and advice services. Just as the drinks industry came together to recognise their responsibilities through instigating Drink Aware, so it is right that the banks do the same for those who get into financial difficulties.

The bill also aims to improve access to the valuable service that credit unions provide by integrating them with the post office network, and to give greater powers for local authorities to veto licences for high-street credit agencies. Taken together, this package of measures makes a concerted and focused effort to tackle problems associated with increasing amounts of personal debt – problems which are only set to get worse after the government’s spending review has left people facing reduced public services, tax credit and benefit cuts, pay freezes and unemployment.

Please ask our MP to join with Labour on 3 November or sign early day motion 872 on the subject. Don’t let Vince Cable think he can forget the poorest consumers in our society – the people who rely on progressive politics need and deserve nothing less.

Ramsgate's architectural gem wins top restoration award

2010-10-30T07:45:00.001+01:00

A Ramsgate landmark has been named one of the most carefully restored buildings of the past century.

The Grange, a Grade I listed house in St Augustine’s Road, is the South of England winner of the Restoration of the Century Award.

Organised by Country Life magazine and the Jackson-Stops and Staff chain of estate agents, the award celebrates the finest examples of craftsmanship across the country.
In total, 100 historic buildings were nominated, ranging from houses and cottages to stable blocks and single rooms.

John Goodall, architectural editor of Country Life, said: “Judges found that, in the face of extraordinary odds, people had coaxed life out of buildings that were metaphorically or literally ruinous.

“At every property, including The Grange, there was an exemplary restoration to enjoy and a fascinating story to engage with.”

Designed by renowned Victorian architect and designer Augustus Pugin in 1843, The Grange was rescued by The Landmark Trust in 1996.

After seven years of painstaking research and meticulous work, including the reconstruction of the roof, extensive masonry repairs and a thorough clean of the stained glass, furniture and fittings, the building was restored to its original condition.

The Grange can be now rented by visitors to Ramsgate as a holiday home, offering a unique chance to enjoy the colourful world Pugin created for himself, to share the same merriment he once enjoyed in the panelled dining room and to sit in Pugin’s library, surrounded by walls painted with the names of his favourite people and places.

All income from lettings is spent on the maintenance of the building, allowing it to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Thanet Labour Rejects Night Flights

2010-10-29T11:12:00.002+01:00

THANET LABOUR GROUP REJECT INFRATIL NIGHT FLYING APPLICATION
The Labour Group at Thanet District Council has decided not to support the current application by Infratil for Night Flying operations at Manston Airport.
At a meeting last night which was solely concerned with this application the Labour Group discussed the pros and cons and the ramifications for the residents of Thanet.

Cllr Richard Nicholson, Shadow Cabinet member for Regeneration and Economic Development said, “ After a interesting debate the Group unanimously rejected the night flight proposals. Many issues of concern were raised but in essence it was felt the alluded to benefits in terms of jobs were merely an aspiration rather than concrete. And it is clear in our minds these do not in anyway compensate for the environmental and quality of life issues for the thousands who would be aversely effected.
Clearly much more needs to be looked at and put right even under the current Section 106.
Primarily it needs to be;
Enforced properly
It needs to be re negotiated
Flying routes need clarifying and vastly improved
And the whole 106 needs improving after what is now 10 years

It was abundantly clear that even now the envelope on what Infratil asked for was being expanded. The airport does indeed provide an opportunity for jobs in the Thanet area but there is much much more day time capacity which could be utilised before any other options are needed. Furthermore we feel that any changes such as the one sought at present may require planning permission and TDC needs to fully explore this.”

Comprehensive Spending Review

2010-10-17T22:44:00.003+01:00

The key regeneration funding streams that could be affected by the review and a guess at their likely fate.
National Affordable Housing Programme
What is it? Funding for all England's social housing is directed via this fund, formerly known as the Approved Development Programme, and administered by regeneration and housing quango the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA). What has funding been worth? The fund rose steadily under the previous government, from £702 million in 1996/97 to £1.92 billion in 2006/07. The amount continued to rise during the recession, peaking at £3.2 billion in 2009/10, before falling back to £2.5 billion in 2010/11. In June, the coalition Government's emergency budget shaved £100 million off the programme.
Comprehensive Spending Review prospects If, as seems likely, the Government protects council spending as much as possible, other programmes such as this one can expect above-average cuts of up to 40 per cent to compensate. Some senior figures in the sector have claimed that the coalition is cool towards housing associations, which could translate into a greater proportion of the remaining budget being handed to councils.
Regional Development Agencies
What are they? RDAs were established in nine English regions between 1999 and 2000. Their statutory purpose was to promote economic development, regeneration, business, and employment and skills. The agencies prepared a strategic economic plan for their region and also distribute European funding.
What has funding been worth? Total RDA funding started at £825 million a year, gradually rising to just over £2 billion in 2002/03. The budgets remained reasonably steady until 2008, when Labour announced £300 million would be taken from RDAs' 2009-11 budgets to stimulate housebuilding. The agencies' combined 2010/11 budget stands at £1.4 billion following a further £270 million cut in June.
CSR prospects Pickles' war on regionalism led to an early coalition announcement that RDAs would be axed. The current RDA budget will be abolished, although a senior RDA source has estimated that the Government is committed to honouring at least £1.5 billion worth of liabilities. Some economic development functions will be centralised, with a £1 billion Regional Growth Fund to be aimed at areas suffering from public sector job losses. Local enterprise partnerships between councils and firms will take on some of the agencies' skills and strategic roles, but the Government has suggested that these will have no dedicated funding for running costs.
Housing Market Renewal Pathfinders
What are they? Nine areas in the North and Midlands suffering from abandoned homes and low housing demand were granted pathfinder status in 2002. Programme funding was extended to three more areas in the North in 2005. The delivery vehicles invested in land purchases, clearance work, housebuilding and refurbishment.
Funding The pathfinders kicked off with a modest £51 million annual budget, rising to £290 million in 2005/06 and reaching a peak of £406 million in 2007/08. Following the 2007 credit crunch, the annual spend began to drop, reaching £311 million in 2010/11. In June, the coalition announced that it would cut £50 million from this, and removed ring-fencing from the £236 million capital element.
CSR prospects Pickles has been scathing about pathfinders' large-scale demolitions and is even less of a fan of quangos.But there is intense political pressure from the affected areas to sustain funding. However, Birmingham and Sandwell's pathfinder has already begun to make plans to transfer its responsibilities to local councils, saying that it was "very likely" to stop work next year.
Working Neighbourhoods Fund
What is it? Announced in 2007, this fund aims to help unemployed people back to work in the 65 English areas with the greatest levels of worklessness and deprivation. As part of the area-based grant to local authorities, it is not ring-fenced and not subject to central targets. The most common areas for spending have been training, providing help to local employers, financial inclusion work and assisting business start-ups.
What has funding been worth? The DCLG pledged £450 million for the fund for 2008/09, and more than £500 million in both 2009/10 and 2010/11. Additional money came from the Department for Work and Pensions. In June, the coalition Government cut the DCLG contribution by £50 million to £458 million.
CSR prospects The DWP intends to phase out existing welfare-to-work initiatives, including the Working Neighbourhoods Fund, and replace them with a single Work Programme. The scheme, which could be rolled out as early as next year, will seek bids for private and third sector providers to run personalised programmes for the unemployed.
Property and Regeneration Fund
What is it? This fund was formed from a collection of budgets that the HCA inherited from predecessor regeneration body English Partnerships. It has been spent on brownfield reclamation, plus town centre regeneration, and subsidising housing and office building.
What has funding been worth? The scheme receives some government funding, but largely relies on land sales. A sharp fall in receipts in the downturn coupled with reduced government contributions led to the budget dropping from £406 million in 2009/10 to £211 million this year. Osborne is unlikely to prop up this fund, but its value could rise as the property market picks up. The HCA is working to simplify its funding streams, which could result in a more flexible overall pot that could be a powerful tool for funding regeneration.

Other key funding streams affected by the spending review
Building Schools for the Future
What is it? Fund to refurbish every secondary school in England
2010/11 spending: £1.4 billion
Scrapped by the Government earlier this year.
Housing PFI
What is it? Vehicle to enable councils to refurbish homes
2010/11 spending: £925 million, but took brunt of £160 million of June cuts to DCLG's PFI spending. Coalition's view of PFI is unclear, but its room to manoeuvre limited as many long-term contracts are in place.
Arm's Length Management Organisations
What are they? Vehicles to enable councils to refurbish homes
2010/11 spending: £611 million
CSR prospects: The role of tenants in Almos fits the Government's Big Society agenda, but the coalition may not prioritise continuing Labour's refurbishment initiative.
Kickstart
What is it? Extra cash to sustain housebuilding in the recession
2010/11 spending: Cut by £50 million to £282 million in June
CSR prospects: Ministers hope new local planning bonus for approving housing schemes will boost housebuilding.
Sure Start
What is it? Integrated community childcare, early education, health and family support programme
2010/11 spending: £274 million
CSR prospects: Could be restricted to poorest families.
Local authority new build
What is it? Money for councils to pay for new affordable housing
2010/11 spending: £270 million
CSR prospects: Could be cut, but councils may, instead, be allowed to borrow to fund low-cost homes.
Growth funding
What is it? To support new homes in East and South-East England
2010/11 spending: £190 million
CSR prospects: Pot is unlikely to survive as it was linked to axed regional housing targets.
Community Infrastructure Fund
What is it? Fund for transport schemes supporting new homes
2010/11 spending: £160 million
CSR prospects: Prospects bleak as it is dependent on growth funding.
Decent Homes Gap funding
What is it? Cash lent and given to councils to improve housing stock
2010/11 spending: £80 million
CSR prospects: Government might not prioritise Decent Homes plans.
Stronger, Safer Communities
What is it? Council grants to cut antisocial behaviour and crime
2010/11 spending: £66 million
CSR prospects: Large cuts likely.
Local Enterprise Growth Initiative
What is it? Council grant to boost the economy of deprived areas
2010/11 spending: Cut by £18 million to £57 million in June
CSR prospects: Likely to be phased out, with local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and the Regional Growth Fund being used to stimulate economic growth.
Cohesion funding
What is it? Council grant to improve community relations
2010/11 spending: Cut by £4 million to £13 million in June
CSR prospects: Set to be scrapped.
Economic Assessment Duty
What is it? Duty on councils to do a local economic health check
2010/11 spending: £11 million
CSR prospects: Will be retained to inform the work of LEPs.

NHS not safe with the Tories

2010-10-12T10:02:00.002+01:00

Under the guise of reorganisation, the ToryLibs are planning to hand over our NHS to thousands of independent businesses called GP surgeries.

The White Paper has been rushed. There are many unanswered questions
about how the reorganisation will work and there is little time for
consultation - the White Paper should have been a Green Paper, with a
longer consultation period.
The proposed model carries with it a risk of system-wide
denationalisation and privatisation. We do not believe the health
service should be run for profit.
The White Paper paves the way for the privatisation of commissioning
- or the outsourcing of commissioning - with increased room for
corruption and conflicts of interest - as commissioners may have
business interests in providers, or commissioners may wish to not send
business to other providers.
The White Paper holds risks for patients, staff and the public at
large. Patients may be forced to wait longer for planned procedures.
Pressure will increase in the system to save money by the introduction
of means testing and co-payments for services that are re-badged as
non-core. Hospitals will be driven to increase funds from paying
patients.
A key concern of patients - as indicated by numerous opinion polls -
is safety. The fragmentation of this new system and the complex web of
responsibilities for clinical governance, increases risk to patients.
Staff are currently being made redundant, yet some may well be
rehired to do the same work at a later date.
Overall, the system of democratic accountability set out in the White
Paper is sketchy. GP Consortia - the main commissioning bodies at local
level are not currently described as having any public representation on
their boards.
While we support mutualisation in many areas of the economy, there is
a danger in the NHS that this process will lead to fragmentation and
open the door to further privatisation.
Overall there is no evidence that the new system is likely to be more
efficient than the current model.
The NHS is a political issue - an autonomous quango will be created
- the NHS Commissioning Board - in order to distance the Department of
Health from the health service. This means there is less democratic
accountability in the system and more bureaucracy.

Vegetarianism Began in Ramsgate

2010-10-02T20:57:00.002+01:00

On September 30 1847 , 150 people met at a hydrotherapy centre near Ramsgate to continue their conference on matters vegetarian. The venue, Northwood Villa, was suitable for the meeting as its patients followed a vegetarian regime. They agreed basic rules for membership of a society not unnaturally named The Vegetarian Society.
Chairman at the meeting was the great reformer, MP, Joseph Brotherton.

HYDROPATHIC INFIRMARY
(NORTHWOOD VILLA)
ONE MILE FROM THE RAILWAY STATION, ON THE ROAD TO MARGATE
The treatment and regimen of the patients are under the superintendence of A. Courtney Esq., Surgeon, of the Hydropathic Establishment in Ramsgate and the domestic arrangement is under the direction of William. and E. Horsell

- Joseph Brotherton - (1783-1857) Bible Christian, Salford's first M.P. (1832), and chaired the first meeting of the first Vegetarian Society (1847)
- James Simpson (1812-1859) UK, became first President of the Vegetarian Society in 1847
- William Horsell (1807-1863) UK, became the first Secretary of the Vegetarian Society in 1847
- Sir Isaac Pitman (1813-1897) UK, inventor of shorthand in 1837, Vice President of the Society

No Night Flights

2010-09-29T22:44:00.002+01:00

TDC now admits to have received Infratil's proposed night flying policy. Details on the TDC web site. It is 1995 quota points between 11.30pm and 6am.
Infratil have also submitted an night noise assessment, explaining the implications of the proposal. The council will now seek an independent assessment of this report. I ha...ve pressed for months now that the consultation should not start until this is published.

Carter to Speak on Airport

2010-09-27T07:46:00.002+01:00

Cllr Carter, Leader of the Tories on Kent County Council, the man who famously thinks "there is nothing between the Manston Airport Runway and the sea"! (quote from his blog)

Its Thanet Local Board meeting this evening at 19:00 at Chatham House School. Cllr Carter is to speak on the future of the airport amongst other things. Also speaking are Cllr Bayford, leader of TDC and a representative of the Environment Agency.

Perhaps reality will alter Cllr Carters perception.

This is a public meeting

Labour Leadership Election

2010-09-25T20:25:00.002+01:00

So Ed won it, just.

In my opinion all five candidates did themselves and the Party credit.

Ed was my second choice, and I didnt really expect my first choice to win.

South Thanet and North Thanet results

Abbott 13,7

Balls 28,14

Burnham 12,7

Milli D 80,42

Milli E 30,17

So, quite a low turnout, and David Milliband most first choices, but not a majority.

Housing Benefit Cuts

2010-09-22T14:13:00.003+01:00

This man is about to cause Thanet serious problems.

The 82,000 households in London who are at risk of losing their homes as a result of the government’s imminent cuts to housing benefit, could well find their way to Thanet in search of cheaper housing.
A survey of hundreds of landlords by London councils, suggests that few will cut their rent for those tenants who can no longer afford to pay. That could mean large numbers of families forced to find cheaper accommodation elsewhere. The cuts will have an immediate impact on inner London boroughs which will essentially become no-go areas for anyone on housing benefit.

That could put pressure on Thanet's severely stretched housing supply, traditionally an area where Londoners seek cheaper housing. This would see thousands of incomers needing schools, public transport and other services.
Changes to local housing allowance were announced in George Osborne’s June Budget . From April, the maximum weekly rate payable will be capped at £250 for a one-bed home or £400 for a four-bed property.
From October 2011, the method of calculating the benefit will change, from the 50th percentile of the market to the 30th percentile, reducing the number of properties eligible for claiming. Many tenants will also lose out from the removal of a £15 weekly housing benefit “excess” paid to those who find cheaper properties. The latest research undermines ministers’ baseless assumption that landlords will lower rents to keep tenants.
I am extremely concerned that so many of London’s landlords say they will evict tenants who fall into arrears, while some will stop renting to local housing allowance claimants altogether. This will not only make it even more difficult for claimants to find a place to live, will add to the already significant levels of homelessness and overcrowding in London, and on past evidence will result in many moving to Thanet putting excess pressure on services that will be already severely stretched.
Despite warnings to both Thanet and Kent Councils, I have no confidence in their ability to influence Government over this. Both our MP's are characteristically silent. Artificially reducing support to the most vulnerable people is grossly unfair to them and will potentially add to huge housing shortage problems in Margate and Ramsgate.

Boundary Park Lighting

2009-08-23T15:49:00.002+01:00

A scheme for lighting Boundary Park has been submitted to the Government's Community Cashback scheme for possible funding. To succeed, it needs as many votes on line as possible.

You can help by going to

http://cashback.cjsonline.gov.uk/cc.asp?area=19&mode=vote

and casting a vote.

Boundary Park lighting project
Project type:
Crime reduction / Community safety

Description:
The issue of the MUGA and the lighting has been on the PACT priorities in Eastcliff for sometime. The MUGA went in as part of a community project but the lighting was not done. The MUGA is a good community project aimed to divert kids into positive activities but the lack of lighting has resulted in an increase of anti social behaviour, and the facility being viewed locally as a negative project.

Lighting will encourage the right use of the facility, reduce the opportunity of being anti-social as well as assist in the detection of such behaviour. This has been a PACT Priority for some time and would be a very positive action for the Eastcliff ward. This will also be a large, visible, one off project as this is a very large and popular park.

Location:
Boundary Park, Ramsgate, Kent.

Ramsgate Town Council

2009-07-10T04:31:00.004+01:00

Ramsgate Town Council – First 30 Days - Mayor's report for June 09

It’s been a good month for Ramsgate, starting with the inaugural meeting of the new Council, and ending with a hugely successful “Ramsgate Rocks”, the two day family entertainment event, organised by the Ramsgate Town Partnership. The Council itself has been occupied with the formalities of electing working committees etc.

There has been plenty of good news for Ramsgate during the month, including the reopening of Harvey’s on Harbour Parade as the Fish Market and Oyster Bar, and the announcement that 99p Stores will be opening in the old Woolworths building in the High Street.

The reopening of Ramsgate Maritime Museum on Saturday under the stewardship of the Steam Museum Trust is very welcome. It follows much hard work and good will from the Trust, Thanet Council, District and County Councillors, and many others who supported the campaign to retain the Museum. The early announcement that work is to start immediately on the restoration of the Cervia Tug in the Marina Dry Dock is very encouraging.

During the month, I have represented the Town at:

The Annual Triangle awards ceremony, an inspirational event, held at the Winter Gardens, to recognise the many achievements of young people in Thanet and Dover.

The opening of the new Harvey’s restaurant. For those who like seafood, certainly adds to Ramsgate’s expanding range of restaurants.

Raising the standard in Margate to mark Armed Forces day. This was a national day of commemoration, Ramsgate organisations certainly turned out in force to represent the town.

A recital by Thanet Choral Society at the Marlowe Academy. An enjoyable evening with a very enthusiastic group. Was impressed by the facilities at the Marlowe.

The civic service and blessing of the fishing boats at Folkstone. Was able to meet mayors from many local towns and gain good advice concerning many aspects of creating a successful Town Council.

St Lawrence Junior School speech day.

Opening of Ramsgate Rocks, Two day family entertainment. My thanks to Ramsgate Town Partnership and main sponsor, Farleys of Chatham Street for the event,

I have had useful and interesting discussions with:

Mr Dexter, clerk to Broadstairs Town Council
Mr Wilkinson, chair of Ramsgate Town Carnival Committee
Mr List Brain. Chair of Preston Steam Museum Trust
Mr Seed, Thanet District Council Director for cleansing, parks and seashore.

Maritime Museum to Reopen this Weekend!

2009-07-02T19:08:00.001+01:00

I don’t want to be prematurely optimistic, but it looks as though Thanet Council have finally realised what an enormous and unnecessary “own goal” the closure of the Ramsgate Maritime Museum has been.
Since the closure, Ramsgate and Broadstairs residents have, through the petition organised by Ramsgate Councillors, and through letters and phone calls, let the Council know what they think of the decision.
The Council have been fortunate that the Preston Steam Trust have been able to pick up where the EKMT have failed, and promise a future for the Museum. This seems to have triggered a “save our museums” campaign in the Gazette Newspaper, perhaps motivated more by the plight of Margate Museum, future still unknown.
Most recently we were informed that Council “red tape” and protocols were frustrating an early reopening of the Ramsgate Museum in time for the Summer Season when there are visitors in the town.
Cllr John Watkins, a volunteer worker for the EKMT and skipper of the “Sundowner” vessel, has been working tirelessly behind the scenes to overcome the difficulties.
It now seems that with good will on all sides, including the Preston Steam Trust, TDC, myself as Ramsgate Mayor, and Cllr Elizabeth Green as Ramsgate County Councillor, we may well see the Museum open for Ramsgate’s own “big event” Ramsgate Rocks.
If so, I would like to thank John personally, and thank the many people of Ramsgate that have supported the campaign to keep Ramsgate’s Museum and retain the historic clock house for public use.

Garden Grabbing - Times Newspaper

2009-06-24T17:55:00.001+01:00

The Times newspaper has an interesting report on the Lilybrook Development in Pegwell (below).
I know the local Tories are desperate to blame government policy for garden grabbing, but the truth is somewhat more complicated as the article points out. We do need more housing, there is only so much purely brown field land available. Thanet Tories have been in charge of the Local Development Plan for several years now but have not tackled the issue. THere is no policy locally because of this.
A case of hypocrisy?

"Garden-grabbing has become a major policy issue in areas where homeowners are particularly susceptible to approaches. Last month a Private Members’ Bill by the Labour MP Andrew Dismore was the latest of at least four Bills in recent years aimed at banning the practice — none of the Bills have become law. The lure of cash on offer from opportunistic developers is dividing local communities — some neighbours are accepting the money, some aren’t and do not want their neighbours to either.
Related Links
What the main political parties say about housing policy
The effect of this is clear in Pegwell, near Ramsgate, Kent, where Thanet District Council identified the extensive gardens of two houses as a potential two acre-plus development site. Current policies allow land agents to approach owners of properties near designated development land asking if they would be interested in selling. The result in Kent was that four householders expressed an interest, leading to suggestions that up to 40 houses might be built on the combined site, and a row that set neighbour against neighbour.
David Pownceby, the developer of the scheme in Pegwell, is dismayed by the label of garden-grabber. He was under the impression that the local council wanted to provide higher density housing on every site to meet targets. However, proposals for high-density housing schemes are now being rejected by elected council members. His company, Lilybrook Developments, bought the designated housing site, then faced a protracted dispute about what sort of housing would be suitable.
His latest scheme, which is subject to consideration. comprises 14 three-storey £450,000 houses — a far cry from the council’s idea of providing a mixed development that would include affordable homes and far fewer than the 40 originally planned. “We were told we couldn’t go below 40 houses, then it was 30 houses, then we settled on 26, nine of them as affordable homes. Now we’re down to 14, none of them designated as low-cost,” he says. “It is an example of how planning policies need a complete overhaul.”
Simon Thomas, senior planning officer for Thanet District Council, says that the council was under pressure to identify development land: “According to the government plan, there is a requirement for 7,500 additional homes in Thanet.” However, councils are also obliged to ensure that new developments are not so dense that they are considered over-crowded. Guidelines state that builders should aim for 30 dwellings per hectare. Marion Pearce, a local resident, has led a ferocious campaign against the Lilybrook development. “These were lovely gardens, sacred little spaces that have been lost for ever,” she says. “Even now, I wouldn’t be surprised if these 14 three-storey units turn into flats.”
The Government maintains that most new developments are on former industrial sites. However, the Communities and Local Government department has embarked on an investigation to find out how much development on land that was formerly gardens is being approved.
Garden Grabbers?? Surely it is the greedy home-owners selling to developers at inflated prices that are the ones to be looked down on. Neighbours often get their heads together and approach a developer but it is always the developer that gets blamed as being the greedy one. "

Carter to speak to KIACC

2009-06-22T11:34:00.002+01:00

Leader of Kent County Council, Paul Carter will be speaking to the Airport Consulative committee. This is an important opportunity to let him know abouit any concerns regarding Kent policy towards the airport. Full agenda below:

Kent International Airport Consultative Committee
Friday 26 June 2009 at 7.00pm.

Kent International Airport

AGENDA
1. Chairman’s welcome and opening remarks – Paul Twyman
2. Apologies for absence: Nick Cole
Jon Garland
Richard Nicholson
Brian White
3. Minutes of the meeting held on 24 March 2009
Copies of the Minutes will be available at the meeting.
4. Matters Arising
5. KIA Community Fund – feedback from grant recipients
Mr Willins, Project Manager, St. Mary the Virgin, Minster-in-Thanet will speak briefly about the project.
Herne & Broomfield Parish Council meeting clashes with this meeting and therefore they have sent a brief letter and photographs of their project to provide outdoor fitness equipment.
6. Airport Update
Report on current position by Matt Clarke.
7. Thanet District Council Update
Report(s) awaited.
8. Air Traffic Control from a Herne Bay perspective
Ms Ros Mcintyre, a resident of Broomfield, will give her views on Air Traffic
Control.
9. Kent County Council
The Leader of KCC, Paul Carter, has been invited to speak about the Policies of KCC in relation to the Airport.
10. Dates of future meetings
As previously agreed: 22 September and 17 November 2009
11 . Any Other Business

There will be an opportunity for the public to speak at the conclusion of the formal business .

Strictly Bandstand

2009-06-12T20:53:00.004+01:00

“Strictly Bandstand”

Saturday 20th June 2009
1pm - 6pm Eastcliff Bandstand

Wellington Crescent
With Shows from European Amateur Vice Champions
Ian Sharpe & Victoria Lawrence

Come along to the bandstand for a fabulous day of dancing workshops, shows and general dancing.

1 - 1.30pm Music For Dancing - General music to get you in the dance mood.
1.30 - 2pm “Dance for Everyone” - Ballroom, Latin, R&R & Argentine Tango Demonstrations for you to watch. Old and young, beginner to experienced - everybody can dance.
2-4pm WORKSHOPS
2 - 2.30pm “Latin American” Beginners/improvers workshop with Ken & Angie
2.30 - 3pm “Ballroom” Beginners/improvers workshop with Ken & Angie
3 - 3.30pm “Strictly Salsa” Beginners workshop with Heidi
3.30 - 4pm “Spanish Fun” workshop - try out the Paso Doble & light hearted look at the history of the dances.
4-6pm TEA DANCE
4 - 4.45pm Try your new moves out, or simply enjoy practicing in the open air.
4.45 -5.15pm Tea break & Strictly Bandstand Ballroom & Latin Show
By Ian Sharpe & Victoria Lawrence.
5.15 - 6pm Try your new moves out, or simply enjoy practicing in the open air.

Refreshments etc. available.

Granville Marina Restaurant

2009-06-11T08:48:00.004+01:00

In Feb 2008, after the demolision of the Grade II listed Granville Marina Resteurant, I emailed TDC to offer my support for the most robust action possible to achieve a full restoration of the building.

In return, Cllt Roger Latchford OBE, deputy leader of the council sent me this official statement, which I welcome:

Cllr. Roger Latchford, Cabinet Member for Culture and Economy, said:

"The council has done everything in its power to preserve this listedbuilding. However, our first concern has been ensuring that the buildingis made safe and, unfortunately, to do that, a great deal of demolition work has been needed to make it stable. Work is now underway to remove the demolition debris and the council will be keeping anything that could be used in the reconstruction of the building to the way it was previously. "The council is utterly determined to ensure that this building is re-built in its previous form and, to this end, we have already served notices on the owner of the property. One requires emergency works to be carried out immediately and, if this is not done, the Council will undertake the work in default. The other notice requires the property to be put back in its original state. This will mean that the owner will have to submit detailed information on how they will achieve this requirement."

I let it be known then, that I believed that the Council should have considered prosecution. They did not, and we are where we are this week with a planning application coming forward for the site. My position is still that complete reinstatement of what was there before is what is required.

Well Done Liz!

2009-06-07T21:42:00.004+01:00

I hope I can be forgiven for expressing my pride in Liz's personal achievement in retaining one of the Ramsgate County Council seats against an appalling background both nationally and in Kent.

There is no doubt that the expenses scandal hurt us badly, also the distraction of holding the Euro election on the same day, meant that County Council issues were almost totally obscured in the minds of the electorate.

For Liz to succeed against this background is testament to the fantastic amount of work she put in to the benefit of Ramsgate residents over the past four years as a County Councillor. She succeeded where many really good hardworking Labour Councillors in other parts of Kent did not.

I would also like to acknowledge the importance of the election campaign we ran in Ramsgate, organised by Janet Ladyman and helped by the hard work of all our helpers. I feel for Alan Poole, who lost, through no fault of his own.

Lead Members Introduced at TDC

2009-05-25T22:25:00.005+01:00

New “lead Members” have been introduced at Thanet District Council, who will, in the future, support Cabinet Members.

The idea was agreed Thursday 21 May at a full Council meeting, when it was also agreed that they would receive no additional payments for undertaking this role.

There will be ten lead members, all from the Tory Group, each supporting the whole or a specific part of a Cabinet portfolio. Their brief will be to act as an advisor to their portfolio holder, lead on policy development, and chair advisory and consultative meetings. They will also be able to substitute for cabinet members at meetings, though not vote on their behalf.

The idea of a group of Councillors helping each of the members of the Council’s Cabinet may appear innocuous but on reflection will be seen as a mistake.

Ezekiel’s original proposal was for each of these Conservative members to be paid £500 annually. When it became apparent that this would not be popular with the council taxpayer, this was watered down, first to £200, and now to no payment at least for two years. A cynic might say that having used the carrot of payment to gain his colleagues votes for his leadership bid, Cllr Ezekiel no longer needs to risk the bad publicity.

Quite apart from the waste of money this is a ill thought through measure. At full Council, I asked two questions:
One, to the Chief Executive of the Council asking if this would further distort the relationship of his paid staff with members of one political party at the expense of others. Of the 33 Tory councillors on TDC, 2 are chair or vice chair of the council, 10 are committee chairs or vice chairs, 7 are in the Cabinet and now 10 are lead members. That is 29 out 33 with some executive role in the Council.
My other question was to the Council’s monitoring officer. I asked if Lead Members, through their intimate relationship with Cabinet Members, would effectively become part of the Council’s Executive and therefore not be available for the important task of holding the executive to account through scrutiny.
The monitoring officer is considering the implications of this.

Thanet Council Meeting on Night Flights

2009-05-17T07:58:00.008+01:00

Ramsgate residents should be aware that Thanet Council Tories are preparing to cave in to the airport operators requests to ditch the "106 agreement that protects residents from night time flights at the airport.

An important step in this process will happen on tuesday, when Thanet Council's Airport Working Party is to receive views of KIAC (the Airport Consultative Committee) on Infratil's request to allow night flying. This is a public meeting, note the highly unusual venue!

Airport Working PartyTuesday, 19th May, 2009 7.00 pm
Attendance Details
Agenda Frontsheet PDF 55 KB View agenda as HTML
Agenda reports pack PDF 266 KB
Add meeting to your calendar
Venue: The Passenger Lounge, Kent International Airport

Airport Working Party – 19 May 2009
Main Portfolio Area: Regeneration & Environment
By: Brian White, Director of Regeneration
Classification: Unrestricted
Summary: The Airport Working Party is examining the subject of night-time flying before making its recommendations on the subject matter to be included in any potential future night-time flying policy regarding Kent International Airport (KIA). The purpose of the meeting is to
receive the views of Members of the Kent International Airport Consultative Committee
1.0 Introduction and background
1.1 In recent years there have been two proposals for scheduled night-time flying at KIA. The first concerned EU Jet and the introduction of a number of regular passenger services to European destinations. The second, at the beginning of this calendar year concerned the opportunity of British Airways International Cargo relocating its hub from Stansted to KIA.
1.2 On both occasions it was considered necessary and appropriate by the Council to receive and report applications for scheduled night-time flights on an exceptional basis. There not being the six month period prescribed in the S.106 Agreement for consultation to the Council available.
1.3 In both the public interest, and the business development prospects of the Airport Owner; Infratil, the Airport Working Party has been asked to investigate and report on the subject of night-time flying. It has visited other regional airports, looked at policies and procedures in place and now wishes to receive the views of the Airport’s own Consultative Committee before producing its recommendations. The intention being that Infratil be invited to submit an application for night-time flying such that the six month period of consultation with the Council can commence.
1.4 This proactive approach is clearly in the best interest of all parties. The Council will be able to let interested groups and parties have their say on the very principle of night-time flying and on the extent to which it may be acceptable. Whilst the airport owner will be in a position, once a policy is in place to compete with its regional competitors and attract business. It is already noted by the Working Party that in certain respects the S.106 Agreement regarding KIA may deter aircraft operators.

South Thanet MP puts receipts on line

2009-05-17T07:12:00.001+01:00

Stephen Ladyman MP has posted his receipts and claim forms on-line.

Stephen Ladyman, the MP for South Thanet has added his expense claim forms and receipts to his web site as well as providing unaudited data, that won't be officially released for another year. for his expense claims for 2008/9.
The MP first provided details of his expenses on his website early last year and update them in April to include the latest information. He has now expanded the information provided to allow access to the raw claim forms and receipts.
Stephen commented "People are understandably angry about what they've read in the newspapers and heard on the news in the last week but although copies of receipts and claim forms had been leaked to the Telegraph, the same information wasn't available to MPs in a form we could publish until a few days ago. In the interests of full transparancy I've now published everything I can via my website. Some information has been redacted to stop bank account details being released and to comply with data protection laws because third parties were referred to but otherwise my constituents have now got everything that I've got."
"I hope that people don't tar all MPs with the same brush. I've long advocated a reform of the expense system and greater transparency and done my best through my own web site to set an example. The vast majority of MPs are hard working and honest. If some have made mistakes they should be held to account but we should not all be blamed for their mistakes."
"On the doorsteps of Ramnsgate today and as I've met people all around the constituency in the last few days most people have said they understand that not all MPs have expolited the system, they want those who have done so punished but they don't blame us all for the errors of the few. I'm also pleased to say that they have been very kind and understanding to me personally."
The website address is www.stephenladyman.info and then follow the link in the contents column to 'Steve's Expenses'

They are not "all the same" !

2009-05-13T23:55:00.003+01:00

It's hard to overstate how shocked and annoyed Labour members I have spoken to have been over the revelations about MPs expenses in the Telegraph and other newspapers. Those of us on the ground floor, knocking on doors and doing all the donkey work should not be made to feel ashamed of being engaged and involved in politics. Our neighbours pay for it through their taxes - we do that and give up our spare time and spare cash.

MPs may bleat that "all parties are at it" or that they are underpaid compared to GPs or they are victims of the press, but none of this washes. To your average voter, MPs aren't underpaid at all. To your average party member who gives so much for free, the MPs sense of entitlement is shocking.

At stake is the reputation of the Labour party - this must come above the needs of individual MPs. In the 80's, Labour was constantly attacked over letting extremists hijack the party. It wasn't till Neil Kinnock publicly took on Derek Hatton and other Militant extremists at the party conference that the tide started to turn and the public began to see that Labour was serious about putting its house in order. By contrast, the Conservatives did not deal with Neil Hamilton in the 1997 election. They foolishly allowed him to represent them, so the story became "Conservatives back MP who receives money in brown bags". They should have protected their party and forced him to step down. Labour mustn’t make the same mistake. The MPs with the worst abuses cannot be allowed to contest the next election representing Labour.

I accept that part of the problem is the system that invites MP’s to claim an allowance for the extra expense of having to run a second home. I note, that it is an allowance, not an expenses claim. Nevertheless, the emphasis should be on the words “extra expense”. Frankly, some of the expose in the press is trivial and could be forgiven as long as the system is now changed. However some is not, and amounts to little better than fraud, especially over the, “switching “, of second home designation to maximise the amounts claimable.

I also accept that, in the Labour Party at least, it is just a few MP's that have grossly abused the system.

South Thanet MP, Steve Ladyman has issued the following:

"A personal message about expenses - as I know that strong feelings were expressed at last night's Ramsgate branch meeting. Members of the Party are right to be angry about some of the things that have been revealed but I hope you won't tar us all with the same brush.

I have never claimed for any furniture or household items or any repairs or alterations.

I have not claimed to have my moat cleared nor to have my tennis court repaired.

I certainly haven't been involved in using the allowance for 'flipping'. This year and last year my expenses have been on my website with an explanation of how they arose. Out of 650 MPs, 440 claimed more money than me in the expense table despite me having a working office in the constituency (whereas many of the others that claim less in the expense table have only a Parliamentary office and therefore pay no office rent,electricity or phone costs). My receipts are not on the website because, until they are released by the House, I don't have them in electronic form. I can assure you, however, they are beyond reproach and only include legitimate claims.The current debacle must be sorted out and if any MP (of any Party) has abused the system they should answer to their electorate and in the case of the Labour Party must answer to their GC which has every right to deselect them if it is justified.

Steve"

Dr Stephen Ladyman

MP for South Thanet

House of Commons

Same Old Tories

2009-05-09T22:54:00.002+01:00

The Employment Opportunities Bill, tabled by Senior Conservative Christopher Chope, who as a minister helped bring in the Poll Tax, is timetabled for its second reading in Parliament next Friday 15 May.
During the Bill’s first reading, Mr Chope said it will: “introduce more freedom, flexibility and opportunity for those seeking employment in the public and private sectors.”
The bill, which is supported by ten other Tory MPs, aims to:
- allow employees to opt-out of the minimum wage
- ensure all public sector jobs are advertised openly
- grant the ‘right to work’ under the Declaration of Human Rights by allowing workers to be paid less than the minimum wage

The minimum wage provides income protection and security for millions of workers. It stops unscrupulous employers from driving down wages across the board. The new Tory ‘Employment Opportunities Bill’ would allow employers to opt out of their responsibility to their staff to pay a fair days wage for a fair day’s work and effectively bring an end to the National Minimum Wage.
“This shows the Tories in their true light and is a little insight into what a Conservative Government would do. They are still fighting the battles of the 1980s and 90s when they abolished the wages councils and left millions of workers without wage protection. David Cameron talks about an age of austerity, well we now know that he means it for low-paid workers.
There is always pressure on wages and the minimum wage is needed to ensure people are paid fairly.
I urge anyone who cares about the protection of our workforce to log on to www.wageconcern.com and sign the petition to save our minimum wage.”
John Prescott, whose first job 55 years ago was working as a chef at the Patten Arms in Warrington on £2 7d a week in a job protected by the Wages Council Act, added:
“Only a Tory could suggest that not being able to work for less than minimum wage would be a denial of Human Rights. This from a party that actually wants to abolish the Human Rights Act and provide cheaper labour.
“We call on everyone who believes in fairness and social justice to join Wage Concern and help us kill this Tory Bill on May 15th.”
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:
“Christopher Chope and his Tory cabal want to turn the clock back to the days of poverty pay where workers are exploited by unscrupulous bosses. The sham Caring Conservatism is stripped bare by their plans. They have shown clearly that they are not on the side of ordinary hard-working people.
“The minimum wage is a symbol of a civilised society, a floor to protect workers that gives them dignity. It is needed more than ever in tough economic times. And isn’t it typical of the Tories that their response to the recession is to rob the poor to keep the rich?
We fought long and hard to establish the statutory national minimum wage, in the teeth of opposition and unfounded scaremongering about massive job losses. Any attempt to dilute or abolish it will be resisted.
Wage Concern is a grassroots campaign to stop that bill - and needs your help.
Let’s show the Tories we don’t support their ridiculous, dangerous and immoral position by:
1. Signing the petition here
2. Joining the campaign mailing list here
3. Getting your friends to join the Facebook group
4. Lobby your MP here
5. Kill this Tory Bill on Friday 15th May.
Kill This Tory Bill

Gazette Talks Sense on Museum Shock!

2009-04-30T17:18:00.000+01:00

The Gazettes web site has the following comment on the Thanet Museums, now both closed by Thanet Council Tories. I can only agree.

OF COURSE Thanet council needs to be sure that a long-term deal over Ramsgate and Margate museums is both legally watertight and the best for the towns but what good aredoes having two closed tourist attractions which are closed over the summer do anyone?
Thanet council should allow Mr List-Brain to reopen Ramsgate museum immediately, even if it is on a short-term agreement, while talks continue.
Leaders should enter in urgent discussions with other interested partners over the Margate museum, to secure its reopening at once and continue talks for the future.
Without this kind of commitment from Thanet council, Margate and Ramsgate have lost vital attractions for a summer when, because of the credit crunch, many people are planning holidays in the UK.
If tourists come and find nothing to do will they return next year when the museums might be open? Probably not.
Local authorities and swift action seldom go together but in this case time is of the essence or a vital opportunity to promote our district will have been lost.

Equality Bill

2009-04-28T07:09:00.003+01:00

Labour promised in the 2005 Manifesto that we would have an Equality Bill. So the introduction next month is keeping an election promise.
I hate discrimination in all forms, its one of the main reasons I got involved in politics. I'm proud that we are doing this even in difficult times. Nobody else would.

The Bill has 5 main points. It will:
* introduce a groundbreaking new law to help narrow the gap between rich and poor;
* shine a light on the hidden pay unfairness against women at work;
* end the last lawful discrimination which is against older people;
* allow employers – if they want to – to make their workforce more diverse by choosing for example a woman or black person who was equally suitable for the job; and
* require public authorities – like councils – to use their purchasing power to drive equality when buying goods and services from the private sector.

It was Labour governments that introduced the Race Relations Act, the Equal Pay Act, the Sex Discrimination Act, new legal rights for disabled people and changed the law to allow gay and lesbian “civil partnerships”.
Labour governments always stand up for equality.
When the Tories were in government they did nothing to press forward on equality – instead they brought in the notorious homophobic “clause 28”.

The new Equality Bill will provide a strong legal framework. It will become law – after being debated by Parliament – in about autumn 2010. But to put flesh on the bones and to make these new measures work in practice we need a Labour government. This is an important law and it’s another good reason to keep Labour in government.
Many party members, trade unionists and others have campaigned for all the things that are in the Bill.

Rocking Ramsgate

2009-04-26T19:39:00.002+01:00

What a magnificent response to Thanet Council's Tories virtual abandonment of Ramsgate's Summer event this year. After TDC loosing both the Power Boats and the waterskiers and finding their grant from TDC cut this year, the town could easily have been without a major event this year. However, Town traders in the shape of the Town Partnership have responded magnificently. And Its Free!!
Ramsgate is set to rock when two days of music and entertainment pull in the crowds this summer – and you can get involved.
In July the Ramsgate Rocks 2009 festival will be held in the picturesque setting of the town's royal harbour.
Organisers are hoping to draw crowds as high as 50,000 people, meaning the event could prove a bumper pay-day for the town's economy.The Ramsgate Town Partnership is holding the event on Saturday and Sunday, July 4-5. It is free to attend and promises a wealth of activities and entertainment.
On the Saturday, the entertainment will last all day, from 9am to 11pm.
Then on Sunday it will start at the same time and last until 6pm that evening.
A spokeswoman for the event said: "Ramsgate Rocks promises to provide two days of entertainment with appeal to all ages. "There will be a multitude of attractions, including a funfair, a stage with various live bands and tribute acts, street entertainment, a Continental market and a food-and-drink village, as well as assorted commercial and craft stalls.”The Saturday night will culminate in a firework display over the harbour.Trade and craft stall-holders can still take out a pitch at the event – call event co-ordinator Kate Lipington for details on 07939 272810. Alternatively, email her at katie@urbanerrands.co.uk.
The spokeswoman said:“This event is following on from the powerboat and waterski events of previous years but is purely focusing on land- based activities.”In previous years the event has had an attendance of up to 80,000 across the two days.

Street Cleanliness in Eastcliff

2009-04-14T13:35:00.004+01:00

A long post, but I thought it worth publishing the Tories considered response to myself and Peter Campbell's concerns about the cleanliness of the streets in Central Ramsgate. THis is the text of the paper going to next weeks Council meeting.

To consider the notice of motion submitted by Cllr David Green in
relation to street cleanliness in the Eastcliff and Central Harbour
Wards, and potential action arising from this.

1.0 Introduction and Background
1.1 A notice of motion was submitted by Cllr David Green, and seconded by Councillor
Campbell, at Council on 9 October 2008 as follows:
“This Council instructs officers to bring forward a comprehensive set of measures to combat the lack of cleanliness of streets in Eastcliff and Central Harbour Wards.
These measures to include:
• A regular schedule of pavement cleaning (as opposed to litter picking).
• A scheme for the separate collection of household and recyclable waste in all
streets unsuitable for domestic wheelie bins to avoid the contamination of
pavements through ‘split bags’.
• Regular removal of weeds and chewing gum from pavements.
• Published targets for street cleanliness with regular inspections of streets by
officers and Ward Councillors.
• Rating of cleanliness on a suitable scale, and publication of the ratings
scored”.

1.2 In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 16.3 the notice was referred by Council
for consideration by a subsequent meeting of Cabinet.
1.3 Cabinet considered the Notice of Motion at it’s meeting held on 12 March 2009.
1.4 The Cabinet recommendation to Council was;
That the discussion section of the report at Appendix 1 is noted in relation to the five
areas set out in the Notice of Motion but that no specific action is recommended.

2.0 Background
2.1 The two wards referred to in the notice of motion contain a relatively diverse mix of
land use and housing so street cleansing is organised to reflect both the nature of the
areas and the pressure under which they operate.
2.2 The Council complies with the requirements of the national indicators in undertaking
surveying of the cleanliness of the area. On this basis under NI195 sample surveys
are undertaken on an annual basis across Thanet which measures the level of
littering and detritus on different categories of road on a random basis in every ward
in Thanet across a year. These results are collated on a national database, are
included within the Kent Agreement 2 updates, and are included in the quarterly
performance packs.
3.0 Discussion
3.1 The notice of motion as set out above proposes five areas for action and these are
addressed in turn below:
Pavement Cleaning
The current arrangements for street cleaning in the area were set out in the previous
section. The 2 wards receive a significant share of the available street cleansing
resources. Given the nature of the areas the level of resourcing is relatively high in
comparison to the average for Thanet, and with the overall limitation on this resource
it is difficult to see how this could be increased significantly without causing detriment
to another area. Because of the nature of much of the area most of the cleaning is
done by manual sweepers who combine both litter picking and the sweeping of
detritus. Some use is made of machine sweeping, but this is fairly limited.
In terms of results, setting aside the specific surveys undertaken as indicated below,
we also get feedback from PACT meetings. The feedback from local people at the
most recent event to which cleansing and waste officers were invited was that the
cleaning standards were good in the area, and the main concern was about the more
general condition of the streets, which is more a function of the condition of the
highway (being KCC’s role) and the condition of adjacent buildings.
There were issues about chewing gum which is addressed below, and the difficult
problem of cigarette ends that get caught between the joints of concrete blocks.
However, it was recognised that the Council is trying hard to keep on top of this issue,
and the local sweepers were praised for the exceptionally hard work they put in.
The management of both domestic and commercial waste remains a problem in this
area, and as indicated below it is the longer term aim to put in methods to improve
waste containment for domestic properties. Except for litter dropping by visitors to
town centres, the poor containment of waste presents one of the main sources of
littering in these areas, and adds to the workload of staff.
Waste and Recycling Collections
Following the recent roll-out of wheeled bins to a further 8,200 properties across
Thanet this has allowed the redirection of the paper collection service into new areas.
This has included adding streets within these two wards that were not covered
previously.
Paper products make up around one third of domestic refuse and contribute over
80% of the material that we collect in mixed recycling bins and bags across Thanet.
Clearly this does not include the collection of cans and plastics as in the wheeled bin
collections, although recycling bring banks are available at Staffordshire Street and
Queens Street in these two wards for paper, card, cans, glass, textiles and shoes. In
the longer term the Council would wish to find a containment system for the type of
housing in these wards that is not suitable for wheeled bins, but the current priority for
the Council is to complete the roll-out of the wheeled bin service to suitable remaining
properties, and this is affected by the overall budget position. On this basis roll-out of
alternate containment systems is problematical until the wider wheeled bin roll-out is
complete, which is in itself dependant on additional funding being available.
The containment of waste placed out for collection remains the responsibility of the
producer of the waste until the time that it is collected and loaded. Many people in
areas of these wards and other similar areas have provided their own containment,
and this remains an option for any resident concerned by this issue to manage their
own waste. Technically the Council would have the power to force residents to
provide suitable containment at their own expense, but as with other areas have
recognised the difficulty in taking this stance, especially as it has funded the
introduction of wheeled bins elsewhere.
Weeds and Chewing Gum
Although this Council undertakes a large amount of weed removal at times the work
lies within the responsibility of KCC as highway authority. KCC are responsible for
organising the annual weed spraying programmes in both urban and rural areas of
Thanet. Concern has been raised on many occasions with KCC about the efficacy of
the programme overall and the standard of work that is undertaken. This is not
assisted by the wet weather across recent summers as this is linked with significant
limitations on the type of weedkiller that can be used on the highway. Both these
issues have led to more areas of weed being unaffected by the spraying programme.
This Council removes weeds when they are dead as part of normal sweeping
operations, and on many occasions undertakes mechanical removal of weeds when
we feel it necessary to take action due to the extent of weed growth. The Council
does not as a matter of course have the resources to undertake weed removal, and
this has been exacerbated by recent reductions and pressures on the street cleansing
budget.
Despite continual use of the Schmidt Hot Wash machine across many areas of
Thanet this has had little impact on chewing gum. The hot washing cleans the
pavement effectively of staining but it has not proved effective against chewing gum
except to clean the surface of the gum and make it more obvious. A number of other
scrubbing and heating methods have been used (mainly in Margate High Street as
the test site), but progress is very slow and the results indifferent despite the claims of
the machinery manufacturers. The machines can also have an impact on the stability
of the paving especially in areas with flags or concrete blocks. Although the Council
regularly tries out different methods it has not located a system that it could afford to
operate in a way that would have any sort of impact on gum across the area, or even
just keep track of the rate at which this appears on our pavements. Due to the
widespread nature of this problem, it would not be possible or even fair merely to
concentrate activity in these 2 ward areas, as the problem is no worse here than the
other town centre areas of Thanet.
Street Cleaning Targets
The Council has signed up to enhanced cleaning targets as part of the Kent
Agreement 2 in association with all the other Kent districts and KCC in the Kent
Waste Partnership. This is measured using national indicator (NI195), and this target
is incorporated in the Council’s annual performance plan, which is monitored in the
monthly and quarterly performance packs.
Cleanliness Measurement
As indicated in section 2 the Council already complies with a national scheme of
measurement of street cleanliness as part of NI195 and these are published annually
by the Audit Commission. In addition, these are included in the quarterly performance
packs produced by the Council which are accessible by all members and residents.
4.0 Corporate Implications
4.1 Financial
4.1.1 As the discussion section contains no specific proposals to increase cleansing
resources in these wards, and the monitoring activity and results are already
in place there are no financial implications.
4.2 Legal
4.2.1 The Council has a statutory responsibility as laid out in the Code of Practice
for Litter and Refuse to undertake cleaning in public areas. The Code of
Practice defines different categories of area depending on usage and visibility,
and the standards at which these should be kept, together with the speed at
which the areas should be returned to acceptable standards. The Council
works to the Code in organising its cleaning rotas, and has hit squads who
can respond quickly to specific littering and dumping issues.
4.3 Corporate
4.3.1 Street cleansing is one of the Council’s key corporate priorities, laying both in
Theme 3 of the Corporate Plan, but also in relation to the level of funding
within the overall budget.
4.3.2 The need to set a balanced budget in the Medium Term Financial Strategy in
the context of very low RSG settlements means that even the street cleaning
budget has had to be reduced. This has necessitated changing the way of
working to improve the effective use of cleaning resources across Thanet, and
to ensure these are directed to areas of greatest need and pressure, rather
than cleaning some streets too frequently. However, this has meant that the
areas indicated in the notice of motion have in the main benefited from the
dedication of additional resources due to their nature in comparison to more
suburban locations in Thanet.
4.4 Equity and Equalities
4.4.1 Although the report contains no proposals that would have a specific
equalities impact the street cleansing system described primarily provides
extra cleaning resources into areas of greater deprivation.
5.0 Recommendation(s)
5.1 None – for information.
6.0 Decision Making Process
6.1 Notices of Motion referred by Council for consideration by Cabinet are required to be
reported back to Council under Council Procedure Rule 16 at the next available
meeting.

An Answer to Simon Moores

2009-04-11T22:53:00.003+01:00

Over on Thanet Life, Cllr Moores has posed a question to me.

"So let’s pause for thought for a second. Is Labour, in the formidable shape of Comrade Cllr Green, in favour of public sector pay rises in the present financial turmoil or does he believe that the public sector should show some level of leadership and restraint; given that the private sector is cutting pay and lacks the same pension benefits to look forward to?
My answer, is yes they should show restraint. I think there is a case for those on the lowest pay to continue to get pay rises equivalent to inflation. For those on average pay or above however the case for rises falls in proportion to their earnings.

The guidelines for local government pay increases across the country is 0.5%. KCC staff are receiving 1%. TDC, which is already hamstrung by its salary and related costs budget can apparently offer 1.75% for senior staff and 2% for all other staff, as well as massive increases for the corporate management team under the guise of regrading.

It is Dr Moores (who once told computer weekly "The efficiency of any technology or service is, I believe, inversely proportional to the size of the investment in the call centre or the chief executive’s salary." ) as "leader" of the committee that agreed this, that needs to justify the decision.

Supression of Information by TDC

2009-04-10T21:58:00.002+01:00

I've removed the question mark from my previous title, because there is now no doubt that TDC Tories are trying to supress information concerning proposed huge pay rises for the most senior staff.

I quote Cllr Moores press release:

"Following changes to the council’s senior staffing structure, a move to ensure the council continues to provide excellent value for money for its residents, the committee agreed to a number of changes to the basic salary scales of the Corporate Management Team and to the proposed new pay awards for all staff at the council. This saw an agreement to a pay award of 0% for the Corporate Management Team, 1.75% for senior staff and 2% for all other staff."
Cllr. Simon Moores, Chair of the General Purposes Committee said:
“This is a difficult and sensitive time for all pay negotiations and the decision of the General Purposes Committee is a pragmatic one, delivering the lowest pay rises in Kent. This reflects the earlier agreement with the unions and staff at all levels of the organisation."

Lowest pay rises in Kent? 0% for Corporate Management Team? Agreement with the Unions? The usual smoke and mirrors from the Council's press department.
I am prevented from giving the truely shocking increases that are proposed, through "restructuring" for the seven members of the Senior Management Team because, despite Labour members attempts to make the information public, Cllr Moore's Tory colleagues voted for secrecy.

I'm told that Cllr Moores promised that the full facts will be made public within 2 weeks. I promise you, you will be shocked by the audacity and insensitivity of what is proposed.

Easter Eggs - Travaganza

2009-04-03T17:31:00.001+01:00

Robbing Ramsgate

2009-04-01T07:32:00.003+01:00

Cliffsend residents suffered a surprise this morning to find that their cherished Viking Long Boat had been moved overnight to Clifftonville.
THis is just the latest in a long line of Ramsgate facilities being relocated to boost the regeneration efforts in Magate. It follows the beer festival, the taxi run and IOTA.

Supression of Information by TDC?

2009-03-30T22:45:00.003+01:00

The Agenda (see below) for the first meeting of the newly formed "General Purposes Committee", that Cllr Moores is already claiming to be chairing ( I just hope all his colleagues turn up to vote for him!) has just been published on the TDC website.
Only one item on the agenda "2009/10 pay negotiations proposals". What could this be that needs to be discussed in secret? Could it be the miserly 3% pay rise being offered to low paid Council staff, or could it be the increases that senior staff hope to gain from their recent "regrading" as Directors?

Either way, as shadow spokesperson for finance, you might think I would be allowed to know, even if the general public cant,what is being proposed.

If you are made chairman of this committee, Cllr Moores, this is not a very good way to begin its life.

General Purposes Committee Wednesday, 8th April, 2009 6.00 pm
Attendance Details
Agenda Frontsheet PDF 54 KB View agenda as HTML
Agenda reports pack PDF 224 KB
Add meeting to your calendar
Venue: Chairman's Room, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent
Contact: Eileen Richford
Items
No. Item
1.
Apologies for Absence
2.
Declarations of Interest
To receive any declarations of interest. Members are advised to consider the extract from the Standard Board Code of Conduct for Members, which forms part of the Declaration of Interest Form at the back of this Agenda. If a Member declares an interest, they should complete that Form and hand it to the Officer clerking the meeting.
3.
Election of Chairman
4.
Election of Vice-Chairman
5.
Exclusion of Public and Press PDF 69 KB
View item 5. as HTML 16 KB
6.
2009/10 Pay Negotiations Proposals
View the reasons why item 6. is restricted

Declaration of Interest form - back of agenda PDF 94 KB
View item undefined as HTML 14 KB

Crunch Time for Pleasurama?

2009-03-30T15:20:00.001+01:00

Many Eastcliff residents will have watched with interest and some trepidation the progress or otherwise of the Royal Sands development on the old Pleasurama site that dominates Ramsgate's Eastern Seafront.

Planning permission (F/TH/03/1200) was granted on the 28th January 2005 for a mixed use scheme comprising a 60 bedroom hotel, 107 residential apartments, 7 retail units, a health and fitness centre and the construction of a childrens play area. Variations in the approved plans were later approved as set out in leters from the Council dated 30th Sept 2005 and 12th September 2006.

The development works in addition included the erection of a clifftop stairway and highway works.

Subsequently, Council officers approved various changes to the plans under delegated authority, summarised in plans dated 28 Jan 2009.

As the landowner, Thanet Council signed (end of 2006) a development agreement with SFP Ventures (UK Limited) relating to the development and sale of land.

The detail of the development agreement state:

1. On exchange of the development agreement, the developer will pay a deposit of £55,000.

2. Following exchange of the development agreement, within 3 months, the developer will enter into a highways agreement with Kent County Council as specified in the planning permission. The works refer to a new roundabout and bus lay-by in Marine Esplanade.

3. The Site Lease Completion Date is the date 10 working days after the date of completion of the Highways Agreement.

4. On the Site Lease Completion Date:

a. The developer is to pay £550,000 to the Council which will include the deposit of £55,000.

b. The Site Leases of the hotel suite, the mixed use site and the residential premises will be granted to the Developer.

c. The developer will enter into an option agreement in favour of the Council, whereby the Council will be granted an option to aquire the Developers interest in the hotel site and the cliff stairway lease.

d. The Developer will provide a £5.6m performance bond in favour of the Council. Last time I asked, the account had been opened, but nothing paid in.

5. SFP Ventures (UK) limited is not entited to assign the Development Agreement.

To the casual observer, progress on site has been painfully slow.

The Council, with some contribution from the developer has in the last month competed the works on the cliff face costing around £1m.

The highways works are completed, in the main, with some tidying up required. These will have to be signed off by KCC highways.

So the time for SFP to pay over the £550,000 to the Council and provide the £5.6m performance bond, must be due any time now.

So decision time for the shadowy figures behind SFP Ventures Ltd?

Complaint to Standards Committee

2009-03-29T21:14:00.000+01:00

There have been various comments concerning my absence from the Thanet blogging scene. I thank those that have emailed their concern.
Those of you that guessed that I had been reported to the TDC Standards Committee over something that appeared on this blog, guessed correctly.
I don't know what the outcome will be, both I and the complainant, Cllr Mrs Tomlinson have given our "evidence" to an independent investigator and we await his report.
I have not been blogging since, as I felt I needed to reflect upon the situation.
I know that other Labour Councillors have also been reported recently, some of them many times. These "investigations" are an expensive business, and I have no wish to provoke further aggravation unnecessarily.
You will see that I have decided to continue blogging as I feel that as an elected member, I should be prepared to call things as I see them. It is for others to agree or disagree as they see fit.

Blog Suspended

2009-02-25T08:11:00.002Z

All posting to this blog are suspended until futher notice.
I have local difficulties to address once again.
Thank you for your attention and comments.

Do as I say - Not as I do

2009-02-20T07:07:00.000Z

Please find below a speech made by Labour Cllr. Michelle Fenner to the Thanet District Council Cabinet meeting held on 12th February 2009:

"I’d like to refer to page 9 of the TDC Child Protection Policy document.

'Thanet District Council is committed to ensuring that all employees and Members who work directly or indirectly with children and young people have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities'.

As elected Members we are often in contact with children and young people. We may have to go into people’s home and we may have access to some private information. When constituents request the help of their Ward Councillor they assume that they can do so in total confidence.

Should we Thanet councillors not therefore, as Kent County council members do, undergo Criminal Records Bureau checks?

School governors are also CRB checked and they don’t receive any salary nor allowance.

If we really mean to protect and safeguard children, then this policy must include CRB checks for all elected members. Precisely because we are talking about the protection and safeguarding of children, it would be money well-spent and I am sure the taxpayers would agree.

Failure to agree this by the TDC Cabinet will give the impression that they have something to hide and it will damage the trust of the general public in elected members and in the administration of TDC. It also be a clear case of leading members saying to staff - do as I say and not as I do".

Cllr. Michelle Fenner (07766 452552)
Shadow Cabinet Member for Healthy Communities and Safe Neighbourhoods.

Thanet's Disabled Hit Again by Tories

2009-02-17T16:59:00.001Z

At TDC Cabinet the Tories approved the draft Budget which will now go before Thanet's Full Council on the 26th of Feb. In this pretty poor report we noticed a new charge is to be introduced in the section in “Fees and Charges”. This is a charge of £10 for bus passes to what is term “companions”. Enquiries were made and it turns out the charge is for bus passes for carers who have to accompany the disabled!

Since the Labour administration brought in bus passes there has never been a charge for carers who have to travel around with those more disabled. This was to ensure those with greater mobility problems were not ‘house bound’ and could get out and about around Thanet. Up to now this has remained the case but now the Tories are seeking to levy a £10 charge.
The disabled already face many higher costs due to their illness and this charge will be an extra burden on them and/or those who help and support them. We keep hearing from the Tories how they support the “third sector” but here is proof of their real intents, to squeeze as much out of anyone to cover their financial mess at TDC.

The budget papers estimate this will raise a whole £1000 per year, hardly solving the Budget mess but even the disabled are to be targets!

This new charge follows on from the disgraceful step this year when all the monies set aside for improving disabled access to public buildings was used to provide double glazing to the Council offices, a move revealed by Labour.
I can promise all in Thanet that we (Labour) will not support this step and seek to have the charge withdrawn when Full Council debates the budget. This charge can and should be stopped, it will not throw the budget into disarray and interestingly we are being asked to set aside £500K for early retirements of officers!

Public Meeting

2009-02-15T14:36:00.000Z

What is happening to Albion House and the Marina Restaurant?

Concerned about the Maritime Museum sell off?

Ramsgate County and Eastcliff District Councillors invite you to a meeting to discuss the Council’s Plans

Albion House, Albion Place at 7.00pm Tuesday 17 February.

Come and find out what is really happening!
For further information, or to let us know your views, please contact:

Cllr Elizabeth Green
Tel: 01843 591495
greenliz
@btinternet.com

Cllr Steve Ward
Tel: 01843 594821
steve
@eastcliff.org.uk

Cllr David Green
Tel 01843 591495
dgreen.home
@btinternet.com

Using Vulnerable People for Electoral Gain

2009-02-15T14:15:00.001Z

Kent County Cllr Clive Hart Comments from Margate

Conservative county councillor Chris Wells' comments in Kent on Sunday regarding the dangerous mix of looked-after children and vulnerable adults in Cliftonville made through the newspapers 'opinion' column should have come as a surprise to me as the 'fellow' local member for Margate & Cliftonville but for imminent electoral reasons they didn't.

After four long years of making exactly the same argument that Cllr. Wells outlines, at the highest levels and virtually on my own at County Hall, I was however pleased to read that at long last he finally agrees with my repeatedly voiced concerns on these issues.

Long before Cllr. Wells started to represent the area concerned, I was one of the three district ward councillors who originally called for action resulting in the Thanet Enquiry report, and this despite fierce opposition (at that time) from the Conservative leader at Thanet District Council who said we were exaggerating matters. I have also consistently called for KCC to widen their enquiry to include vulnerable adults placed in Margate & Cliftonville at every given opportunity over the past four years. It would have been nice to have had some support from Cllr. Wells in this regard during his time as a Cabinet member at KCC.

Now, with his former role as a Cabinet Member terminated and with the county elections on the horizon, he apparently feels free to cynically chastise his Chief Executive and leading officers at KCC and furthermore, attempts to jump out of his constrained silence and on to a supposed bandwagon for electoral gain.

The problematic social mix in Margate & Cliftonville is something genuine frontline councillors deal with each and every day, but the issue certainly doesn't need fanning just before each and every election!

Manston Night Flights 4

2009-02-12T22:53:00.000Z

Extraordinary Meeting of the Thanet District Council: 12th February 2009

KENT INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, NIGHT-TIME NOISE POLICY

A Paper prepared by the Chairman of the Kent International Airport Consultative Committee, Mr Paul Twyman

Key Points:

1. KIACC (Kent International Airport Consultative Committee) has formally agreed that it is in favour of the development of KIA subject to satisfactory arrangements for dealing with the various environmental impacts.
2. In principle, therefore, the interest of British Airways World Cargo (BAWC) - if this is, indeed, the operator in question - is welcome. Indeed, as a reputable world wide operator and British "flag carrier" this company could well develop, in a socially responsible way, into a key "big business" element in the economy of East Kent.
3. However, it is unacceptable and bad government (probably amounting to maladministration) that the Council should have to take a decision on the basis of an unduly rushed timescale, without the benefit of adequate information, and with no proper public consultation. It is believed that if a final substantive decision is taken at the Council's meeting on 12th February it would be subject to legal challenge or a reference to the local government ombudsman, or conceivably both (despite the laudable, best endeavours of your officers and legal advisers to make the process and decision"lawyer proof").
4. "The devil is in the detail" - always - but certainly where planning matters are concerned. There is much more detailed information required before the Council - let alone the wider community - can begin to take a view on the balance between business development and environmental matters.
5 Rather than rushing to a decision with a gun held to the Council's head it is considered that modification of the S106 Agreement should be remitted to an "expert group" comprising Councillors and "outsiders" to report to Full Council within a short period of time - recognising that BAWC have commercial imperatives.
6. If BAWC walk away from KIA in these circumstances then the personal view of the Chairman of KIACC (there has been no time for proper consultation on this and other aspects) is that we would be well shot of them - they will have shown by their attitude to the Council and the local community that they are not as socially responsible as we would have hoped. We could well be avoiding a "cuckoo in the nest" in these circumstances.
7. But we do not believe that it will come to this. The Chairman of KIACC stands ready to work with the Council, KIA, BWAC, and other parties to facilitate the development of the airport in an environmentally acceptable manner.
8. Finally, on behalf of KIACC, we respectfully request that we should be given the opportunity to address Full Council at your Extraordinary meeting.

DETAIL

9. It has been extraordinarily difficult to consult the membership of KIACC in a meaningful way within the timescale required. A number of members have commented on the difficulty in consulting their own members (eg other parish councillors). Virtually every respondent has complained about the timescale.

10. We are grateful to your officers and to the KIA management for the briefing they have provided the Chairman of KIACC but, despite their best endeavours, none of us has anything like enough information to take a view on the overall balance between business and environmental factors. Still less has there been ample time to reflect on information, consult further, and reach a view.

11. Only on "Planet Thanet" could anyone think that it is reasonable to take a decision on such sensitive, highly charged matters within the week's timescale allowed. Only on Planet Thanet could anyone think of taking a decision without actually being told formally who the operator is! It is unacceptable, and a travesty of local democracy, for decisions to be taken in these circumstances.

12. We would respectfully remind the Council that your Corporate Plan - Theme 5, Healthy Communities - states: "The Council is committed to ensuring that residents continue to have every opportunity to be involved in the decision making processes". If these words mean anything at all they mean that the Council should not take a decision on probably the most important and wide-ranging planning matter of the decade (arguably even more important than "China Gateway" but certainly on a level with it, at least).

13. We are told that BAWC (if it is them!) have insisted that there must be confidentiality and that their deadline must be met. This is unreasonable. We know - thanks to the diligent research of one of the KIACC members - that BAWC have been looking at alternatives to their Stansted location for at least four years (we refer to BAWC's evidence to the Competition Commission given at a Hearing on 18th June 2008). So why the rush now? And why the secrecy over the identity? This way of behaving does not bode well for future relationships between the airline, the airport and the community.

14. This is particularly disappointing because in other contexts we would have considerable confidence in a British Airways subsidiary. They are a highly reputable, major international airline and the British "flag carrier" with all that this implies. They have shown themselves to be aware of their "corporate social responsibilities". The view has been expressed that they would be a great asset to Thanet. The area needs a major company to add to our economic base of predominantly small and medium enterprises. BAWC could turn out to be almost as important an element in the economic and social fabric of East Kent as Pfizers, who are well aware of their responsibilities to the local community.

15. We understand why BAWC "has a requirement for certainty that during the next ten years they will be able to operate their business in a stable regulatory environment". We would all like such certainty but it is unreasonable - given, for example, changing European legislation on the environmental which will have to be applied in the UK. We would all like to help BAWC in this regard but if we are to do so we need time to consider carefully what could turn out to be a "thin end of the wedge" or a "cuckoo in the nest" (to quote two comments made about the proposal).

16. We note that in the Director of Regeneration's paper one of the recommendations is for an "independent appraisal of the environmental issues associated with the new flights...received and accepted by the Chief Executive in consultation with the Leader, Deputy Leader and Leader of the Opposition". The Director of Regeneration has done a good job in difficult circumstances, drawing the threads together at very short notice, but, frankly, we do not feel that such an arrangement will provide much comfort to the local community or provide an adequate mechanism to consider the environmental issues. All these individuals are to some extent "parti pris".

17. Our suggestion is that an acceptable alternative would be to set up a working group (or use the existing working group) to look into all the detailed aspects of the application. However, we believe that it would be important to co-opt a couple of "outside" members on to such a group. And in the timescale there will need to be urgent consultation with the community in parallel with the work of such a group.

18. The timescale would need to be tight since we can understand why British Airways, with a number of financial and other challenges to address, would like an urgent response - and one that would "stick" and not be subject to significant revision.

19. KIACC is prepared to help with the process of further analysis of the proposals and with discussions with BAWC (and if necessary BA management centrally) to work out how to make the company a welcome partner and a "good neighbour".

20. Amongst the matters requiring further consideration in the view of KIACC members are:
the pros and cons of routing away from Ramsgate; the benefits of a new Instrument Landing System (which should help with noise amelioration and monitoring); the figures for employment (with most people casting doubt on the numbers suggested); the legality or otherwise of tying the agreement to a specific operator and if this is not possible, how one deals with this potential difficulty; the long term intentions of the operator (research having identified that BAWC have business links with Global Supply Systems and DHL - the worry with the later being that KIA might turn out to be a 24 hour hub for them).

21. There are also wider issues such as how any proposal would impact on other Corporate Plan themes like "Beautiful Thanet" - beaches are fine but can they be enjoyed with lots of noise? And what constitutes "lots" of noise? There is also the "Healthy Communities" theme and questions arise as to the effect of night noise on health. These may sound like unduly wide issues to take into account but it is clear that the current proposals will result in decisions which will have considerable "longevity", affecting the area for a long time.

21. There are a great many other matters which require detailed examination - which only illustrates the complexity of the decisions the Council has to take and the unsatisfactory nature of the process currently under way. KIACC stand ready to help the Council in your endeavour to balance business and the environment in this case.

FOOTNOTES
1. KIACC was set up under legislation which provides for the Government to designate airports which should have a consultative committee to deal with community concerns and other matters relating to the operation of the airport. KIA has been designated and KIACC is the statutory committee, independent but funded (very modestly) by Infratil.

2. Paul Twyman took over as Chairman from Sir Alistair Hunter in 2007. He is a resident of Minnis Bay (and is sometimes disturbed by aircraft noise there) and has a house in London, under one of the flight paths to Heathrow and close to one of the flight paths into London City Airport. The Heathrow flights often wake him up at 4.30 in the morning. The City Airport flights tend to be quieter and cause little if any disturbance to him. His career history has included being a senior administrator on the Secretariat of the Commission on the Third London Airport (the Roskill Commission); at the Department of Trade and then the Department of Transport he was the Assistant Secretary, Civil Aviation, responsible for oversight of all civil aviation matters, legislation thereon, sponsorship and supervision of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and National Air Traffic Control Services (NATS) and, inter alia, all private sector air operators (this was pre- and post-BA privatisation); he was Director of the Enterprise and Deregulation Unit at the Cabinet Office and then Department of Employment before resigning to set up his own management consultancy. He has acted in the (distant) past for Sir Michael Bishop and British Midland Airways. He has been a Thanet District Councillor (Conservative) though he has not been involved in party politics for more than a decade.