Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Manston - Labours double whammy (Iris wont talk about CPO and Scobie "Storms" out of meeting)

Labour have surpassed themselves, at last night's extraordinary council meeting, subject Manston Airport, those expecting to have honest debate and facts, were disappointed, Cllr Iris Johnson, has once again allowed the council she leads to dodge any tough questions.

Cllr Iris Johnson, appears recently to have babbled on about River Oak not providing enough information as part of its offer to finance a compulsory purchase of the airport, despite the fact that the company in question refute this, as do others, who like you and I, suspect that labour are only looking to buy votes in Ramsgate.

Still more interesting is Cllr Scobie's intervention, who in my estimation has offered faint support for Manston so far ( a bit like former Labour leader Clive Hart refusing help promote Manston ) anyway you can take Scobie,s storming out of the meeting as an act of principle or if you're a tad cynical, see it as an election stunt, with the general election only a few months away, and Labour apparently doing it's damndest to wreck the Airports chances, what better than to distance yourself from out of touch ancient colleagues, and take the moral highground as a tough independent, honest wonder kid.

Although many of us learn our politics, while working hard, bringing up families, paying tax and being rewarded by broken promises from the political charlatans who govern us, you may just think I'm being a bit mean, and you could be right, however as I understand, Mr Scobie has spent most of his young life working in politics or studying politics of which campaigning and presentation is the key to getting elected and just like sales and marketing you don't hold back when your trying to make a sale or in his case get your vote, so sidestepping his own party briefly is a mere part of his election campaign in my honest opinion.

If Scobie is principled perhaps he could resign from Thanet local Labour party, few believe that Labour have done anything whatsoever to help the Airport, the deputy Labour leader made it quite clear that they would't apparently referring to River Oak "We are not going to do business with people like this.

Iris Johnson could answer this question, why should we trust anything she says on Manston Airport when her deputy leader made it so clear his hostility to a CPO yet remained in post during the process so far and finally how can we trust any so called independent advice paid for by the council when her colleagues and officers appear to have been so hostile.

24 comments:

  1. Not a lot the council can say about the Riveroak proposal as the council is subject to a confidential agreement. All TDC can say is that the RO bid did not satisfy the criteria that safeguarded local tax payers. Nothing else TDC can say without the possibility of being sued. No point in councillors acting like school kids.

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    1. What confidentiality agreement, was there a confidentiality agreement when officers allowed Transeuropa to build a multimillion pound debt up they didn't rush to tell the public the truth on that either.

      Labour have one again bought the council and the area into disrepute, me thinks you are one of those honest labour councillors or officers who don't want to worry the public with details

      Recently Thanet council did a secret deal on prime Ramsgate sea front property, without informing the public what the land was worth or explaining why it was sold to a company without an open public tender, then took legal action against cllr Ian Driver in case he put the information into the public domain. Forty grand cost to the tax payers.

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    2. Just to remind you Tony that the Transeuropa deal was set up by the Conservatives and fell into Labours lap when they made a hasty exit from being in power. They knew what a financial mess they were leaving behind with other debts such as the EKO road millions.

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    3. i think you will find that much of the money was lost during the labour administration and perhaps when they took office maybe they should have audited some of the shenanigans carried out by the conservatives administration.

      certainly officer input has played a big role such as with the trans europa business, for sure officer's should have the nous too suggest that multi million pound loans should be secured or least a credit reference sought.

      Still the Ramsgate prime sea front site appears to firmly to be a labour responsibility, how much did it go for and why no open bid process, far from being another confidential surely it is more about public accounting?????? Do tell iris

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    4. Well said Tony Thanet Labour is a disgrace and unfortunately so are the Tories. The only mistake you make in pointing this out is assuming the airport is viable.

      Explain the pollution issues if you can.....

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  2. It's quite clear that nothing will happen now. The whole issue of the CPO has been kicked into touch until after May's elections. The interesting thig will be what the Tories and UKIP now put in their manifestos. Will they make an unequivocal commitment to CPO the site and reopen an airport? I don't think they will. Cartner and Musgrave will be producing their development plan shortly after the next election. I think the Tories will want to look at that before making any decision about a long and difficult CPO process. Furthermore, the legal advice provided to TDC is from a barrister with a great deal of experience in CPO matters, and it is pretty clear in stating that there are some substantial legal hurdles to clear.

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    1. Except that the legal advice to RiverOak was by that Junior barrister's senior - James Maurici QC in the same chambers, and verified by Lord Pannick. I wonder if that sort of level of legal advice was in one telephone conference call as TDC's was?

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    2. The legal advice given by James Maurici wasn't in response to the same question. He was only asked about legality in relation to the EU competition directive. He was never asked whether the CPO was likely to be judged legal in the courts if the owners challenged it. TDC's legal advice states clearly that the owners could rely on the human rights act. James Maurici didn't even consider this, because he wasn't asked to. Barristers give you the advice you ask for. If he was only asked about EU competition law that's all he considered.

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    3. The same lsw firm is advising both riveroak and tdc is this for real?

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  3. It's closed.

    It's owners don't want it as an airport

    Neither do the millions who choose to fly from gatwick, stansted and heathrow.

    Try focusing on the real problems in Thanet, like dogshit, litter, and people who don't want to work

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    1. Mmmmmm....build a cargo hub with storage then progress to passenger flights at a later date plus other aviation related industries = JOBS!

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    2. 17:56 mmmmmm.....no that's been tried and failed repeatedly even with fiddling the pollution figures

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  4. A cargo hub at Manston will make life hell for Ramsgate, people have had enough noise and pollution from there It should be put to a consultation in a democratic way not by Bob Bayford saying all of Thanet want it because they DO NOT.

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  5. I share you cynicism about young Will,the proof of his integrity would certainly be his resignation from the Labour group.

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  6. Nobody complained when the R.A.F. had the airfield so why now?
    It was open 24/7 with fighters flying in and out all hours of the day!

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    1. Rubbish there were msny complaints of both USAF and RAF noise and crashes etc hence it closed

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  7. People from Ramsgate only get pollution from visiting Margate, and that snobby area known as Broadstairs

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  8. Did here Scobie JNR is defecting to UKIP

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  9. Had to smile at the comment about barristers in same chambers. One barrister says to one party "Too much risk for you". His senior says to the other party "Go for it the risk is with the other party"

    And the commenter above thinks conflicting legal advice has been given ! Thanet logic ?

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  10. Glad I dodged that bet Iris offered me. She wanted to bet me she could send half the council packing. My goodness does that kindergarten teacher know the kiddies.

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  11. Iris is having a little break and is back on 22nd Dec. She is faced with a dilemma. When Ian Driver removed papers he was entitled to there was a civil action to prevent him publishing. When someone (And here we point the finger of suspicion at a former legal officer and two cllrs) stole a TDC evidence file Iris has nil actioned the theft. So far.

    Iris is busy with her Thesaurus "Hoist on own petard" mmmm and (unlike Ian) she has been accessing free legal advice from the TDC legal officer. He appears to have missed Section 4 Criminal Law Act 1967 which makes an offence of concealing an arrestable offence. The sentence for concealment is up to 10 years.

    In civil law TDC owe a duty of remedy to anyone who suffered injustice as a result of TDC actions. The complainant has ruled out money as it is also an offence to accept money in the concealment of crime.

    That leaves the remedy of calling full council and making two cllrs appear before it. Then full council decide on what action to take. Such as crime complaint or a report of crime so that they are not party to its concealment.

    Iris is named as an interested party to a Judicial Review against PCC CEO Mike Stepney. Iris is not happy with this situation.

    But all she has to do is confirm that one of the first things Richard Samuel did as Chief Executive was report the theft of the TDC file to Police. Hence no Section 4 Criminal Law Act 1967 threat to Iris. Just confirm that the Chief Executive reported the theft of the TDC file to police Iris. It is an ancient concept called "The Truth".

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  12. Tony with you Libdem connections maybe you can find out from Bill what happened to the proposal from the two Thanet Libdem PPCs to turn Manston into an aircraft scrap yard. I believe they even claimed to having financial connection in the far east and were arranging for a delegation to visit Thanet. Did this turn out to be non viable?

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