Labour going nowhere

One of the very few positives, to come from Kent Conservatives, is the recent announcement that they are actively seeking to promote a new rail station Thanet  Parkway south of Kent International Airport.

An idiot could see the potential for both the airport and Thanet, unfortunately councillor Richard Nicholson, is no idiot, instead he is part of the fractured, Labour party which, it looks as if, when not enmeshed in personal vendettas, is now against traditional values like personal freedom, locally social housing and perhaps even jobs and hope.

According to Richard Nicholson, as per quotes in this weeks KM extra "I can't see the remotest economic justification for this.

Well of course he couldn't, however for Cllr Nicholson's education, one remote possibility, would be work on construction of such a project, I know at least six people (in Ramsgate)  involved in renewals and rail maintenance who last time I spoke to them were actively seeking work. If you include those like me who are currently working on projects elsewhere, who will be looking in the not to distant future, the figure would be considerable.

On a more imaginative level (probably well beyond the thinking of Labour), a new fast connection to the airport could and hopefully will, vastly improve the airports business, leading perhaps to justifying an extension to the high speed track, from Ashford, resulting in more employment, faster journey times, less traffic on the roads, better property prices and god forbid a bit of prosperity.

Admittedly such a thought takes a bit of vision, which I'm afraid Labour are incapable I always think if you can imagine something, you can make it happen, or as this quote from George Bernard Shaw had it “Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not.” *

Perhaps Cllr Nicholson, is a realist, pity, Labour could do with some dreamers. In the mean time I'll keep dreaming, and the councillor his post as Shadow Cabinet - Regeneration & Economic Development.

Depressed, you should be.

* Used extensively by US presidential candidate Robert Kennedy

Manston - 10 of these could be landing every night, what an outrage!

Shock Horror! Proposals for the new night quota system for Manston airport, could result in as many as 10 a380 airbus super jumbo planes landing every night between 23:30  and 06:00, if the night quota as requested by infratil is allowed.

Of course this is a worst case scenario and the reality, would be complete completely different, although no doubt you'll be reading excitable reports in your local papers and on other blogs, any minute, still if you wish to read the proposals I suggest you click here and perhaps keep an open mind.

How did I arrive at this extreme well, infratil are asking for a Quota Count (a quota count being a measure of how noisy a plane is Boeing 747 Jumbo being QC4 on take off, QC2 on landing)  of 1995QC annually, this works out to 5.4 something a night, any how the new airbus A380 is rated at QC0.5 on landing and QC 2 on take off.

I for one would rather see the100 plus jobs at Manston maintained with the hope that many more will be created in the future, but we will see a lot of hysterical reports in the coming weeks, incidentally local councillors last time this came up for discussion took a fairly consistent line, not being overly enthused but accepting the need to do what is best for the local economy.

Still DFL's (Delusional From London's) are the prime objectors, some have the view that because they made a mint from selling their squalid little homes in London and have a few bob, we ought to be in awe and here's my advice, take your money and try buying back in to London.

Manston Airport is it an issue

Is there any real problem with Manston, I'll point out at the beginning, that Manston Airport has never caused me a moments thought as to the environment although from time to time, concerns are manufactured by those middle aged articulate types seeking a cause, to give a direction to their middle aged angst, bit like me and my blog.

In the old email in tray comes a reminder of hysteria generated by "activists" or Thanet busy bodies (a description which could apply to myself), as part of the proper monitoring function of Thanet council, a regular meeting of Airport Working Party, will take place on Monday 19th. Details here The key part of this meeting I guess will be a verbal report given by either Brian White (dir.of Regeneration) or Doug Brown (Major Developments Manager) or even both, presumably the reason the report will be verbal is so that it cannot prejudged by the likes of me and Thanet's luddite tendency.

I refer to hysteria so lets put a bit of reasoning behind that here's the text of the email I referred to earlier

Even if you don't live on the flight path, the expansion of the airport could affect you because

1. Any subsidies given to Infratil, to bring the company to Thanet, will not be available for other things you’d like TDC and KCC to pay for [Who’s paying for the new access road currently being built for the airport?]

2. Airport expansion means loss of land for food growing

3. Traffic on roads and trains would increase – people getting to and from the airport

Lets address these concerns for the hard of thinking, and those of delicate nature,    Point 1. What subsidies, What access road?    Point 2 What loss of land for food growing any proposed development is on land within the current boundaries, which as far as I can tell haven't produced so much as a sausage in the last 70 years,    Point 3, Traffic will increase on roads and trains, yes traffic would increase on the M2 eastbound in the morning when most traffic is London westbound, offering much convenience for air travellers hacking through the M25 to Gatwick/Heathrow or bunging up the Blackwall Tunnel/ Dartford crossing heading for Docklands/Stansted.

Its interesting that some of the most vociferous opponents have never bothered to actually attend meetings of the airport, or concern themselves with the facts, even less the employment and business opportunities that might come as a result of a thriving local airport, still its not surprising that those most vocal are often recent arrivals.

I tend to keep away from this subject because of the campaign of vilification by some Manston opponents, one more extreme eccentric anonymous protagonist has in the past, resorted to posting or allowing comments on their own website apparently purporting to come from me, refusing to remove them and then having been a victim of defamation this blogger astonishing complains that I have played lip service to freedom of speech having campaigned against the KCC and its big businesses partners.

Anyway moving on from petty rivalries,  just ask yourself why assisting Manston Airport in its business objectives has been one of the few areas of agreement in Thanet Council, because it offers a sustainable future.

On the environmental issues, most of the land surrounding Manston will remain untouched for the foreseeable future even with further development and I'd imagine the effect on our locality will be much less than that of say the Thanet Earth complex, which recently relying on 12 road tankers a day to provide water for its operation, and as I understand is only half built.

Politicians don't know everything but its my view that cross-party consensus exist on Manston and much of the anti-Manston attitude is imported from prosperous exiles who have moved to this area to take advantage of cheap property prices, which are achieved by having few decent work opportunities locally.

NORTH THANET LIBDEM SPOKESMAN SIGNS DOWNING STREET PETITION TO SAVE BATTLE OF BRITAIN MEMORIAL FLIGHT

(Press Release)
North Thanet Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Mark Barnard is backing the campaign to save the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight from being axed in any defence cuts.
Mark commented,
“The flight was a crucial link to the most glorious episode in the RAF's history and was particularly important to North Thanet. Manston Airport was the hub for the Battle of Britain
I urge people to sign the 10 Downing Street petition to make clear the strength of feeling on this issue.
There are five airworthy Spitfires in the memorial flight and costs less than 0.1 per cent of the defence budget but the pleasure and pride to the many thousands who are thankful for its achievements at this crucial period in the defence of our freedoms is impossible to quantify.  It would be a terribly short-sighted move if the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight were to be axed.”
The 10 Downing Street petition is here: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/BBMFCuts/

Manston NO SHOW

Phew what a weekend, though for me the weekend was a bit of a disappointment, since most of it was spent at work, however as a treat on Friday, I thought I would go hear what Conservative county councillor leader Paul Carter had to say about Manston, at the Kent International Airport consultative committee meeting.

Arriving a tad late for the meeting I managed to bag a seat in range of the world's noisiest air conditioning, fortunately I was able to catch the only bit of excitement of the evening which came at the start proceedings.

The chairman's preamble to the meeting, indicated from the outset, that this meeting would be nowhere near as stimulating as the last one, as the chairman started to speak, the audience predominantly made up of what Americans would call seniors, started to complain about the inability to hear the chairman which pretty much set the tone for the gathering (and later made me suspicious of their complaints re aircraft noise)

Any how to those that could hear, there was a certain amount of indignation, on the news that Paul Carter would not be in attendance, due to some family arrangement or something to that effect, I understand that it was put up to a vote, whether Mr. Carter should be reported to the standards board, and despite cllr Roger Latchford loyally speaking in defence of his fellow Tory I believe that motion was carried. (Lets just hope that it wasn’t just a case of your dinner will be ready at 7pm )

Second on the bill was Matt Clarke, Infratil's man in Manston, who I frankly feel sorry for, when faced with a bunch of belligerent elderly residents, anyway he gave a reasonable and honest assessment of the way things are, details of the massive investments they had made, and then faced questions.

As you can imagine since the room was full of people who have little more to concern themselves with other than the Manston flight path and why planes shouldn't just tiptoe around towns and villages etc then question were of a boring repetitive nature.

To be honest I felt my life forces draining, particularly listening to the well rehearsed questions from one local blogger, with the accompanying and looks round the room presumably seeking approval, which as mostly this crowd were passed working age was readily available.

I was formulating a question to ask Matt Clarke, which would have been, “are you ever tempted at meetings to say, stuff this!, instead we'll apply for planning permission for a housing estate”, however I never got to ask my question, as I was a overwhelmed with the urge to live, and decided to escape early.

It strikes me that pretty much everyone at meeting including myself was a self opinionated busy body to varying degrees, I just wonder if many have considered Manston without the Airport, what are we left with, a lost chance of economic stimulus to the area, and just a massive grisly housing estate in its place.

Coming back to Paul Carter, not attending the meeting might well be one of the smartest things he's ever done, and I for one can't blame him, basically you have a small committee, which seems to thrive on the minutest detail, latching onto any opportunity to moan about the airport's existence an audience who appear to have nothing else to worry about in life other than the occasional aircraft a few thousand feet above their heads.

Question to ask of Thanet District Council Airport Working Party

Since that Smug bloke on the “Stop Manston and the Twenty First Century” blog and the new “8 hours droning about Manston” blog from Herne blimin Bay, seem to be relentless in their quest to derail a potential source of employment here in East Kent, I think we ought to examine just what support they have.

The author of Stop Manston Expansion Group blog is so relentless in his quest to stifle business at Manston Airport that he has been offering sample questions to raise at this Fridays meeting of the Thanet council airport working party.

My big question - Do we need to waste any more time and public money on consultations with minority interests, who are hell bent on screwing up Manston Airport?

Just to gauge how much support, these entirely rational and in no way obsessive luddites, have actually got, I suggest you check out this online petition, which as I understand has been gathering free news coverage for the last couple of weeks and has even been advertising in local papers, page 5 Kent on Sunday (Quarter Page).

When I checked last night despite all this effort @ 9 PM there had only been 84 signatures, now almost a day later its up to 95, a significant number of which were anonymous contributors, objecting to night flights.

I think its worth pointing out at this point in time Infratil has not requested any additional operating hours. So God knows what these enviro-bloggers are on about.

It is a fact that when the public have a petition presented to them, there is a temptation to sign. Considering that East Kent must comprise maybe a quarter million residents 95 after a week or so does seem incredibly trivial.

The chances are that since this latest petition was posted on the internet probably more than 95 have lost their jobs in East Kent and I’m sure all of them would like to keep the possibility of economic growth alive.

Manston Airport Free Parking offer

According to the email I received yesterday, Kent International Airport are offering free car parking on bookings made before the 30th of June for Jersey.

You can contact them by phone 0844 415 6653 for details.

Assuming your local and fancy a holiday in Jersey this is an excellent offer added to the benefits of a local airport, in which I’ve always found service friendly and unique.

 

Think of your worst departure lounge nightmare now double it

Till yesterday, my worst departure lounge experience, was @ Gatwick an 8 hour delay on a flight to Majorca topped off by resort accommodation with mismatched twin beds resulting in myself and Mrs. Me sleeping at different altitudes, the resort staffed by Mancunians with fixed grins like Jack Nicholson playing the joker, who prefaced every conversation with a robotic and moronic "Hi Ya".

Admittedly I wasn't planning to go anywhere yesterday, but as you can imagine I was curious to hear KIACC comments concerning Manston Airport being given to Thanet District Council's Airport working party at the Airport, particularly after some of the more hysterical reporting on local blogs ECR & SMUG etc.

Any how having read the agenda on TDC's website it was pretty clear from the outset that this meeting would be a fairly quiet affair, and would not be needing any input from excitable members of the public, although a couple did try, that said the chairman of TDC's working group thanked those members of the public who turned up for showing an interest in democracy.

Now I'm not entirely sure just who KIACC is, but the acronym is pronounced like kayak the Eskimo canoe and not surprisingly the members of this committee all seemed to have their own paddle, as they all represented various parts of East Kent.

The evidence being given to TDC's Airport working group, soon had a soporific effect as terms, some of which I understood and some I didn't, wafted over my head like CAA, notams QC 4, naturally my mind wandered, I felt sorry for a couple of journalists, who despite taking acres of notes, I know will struggle to find a story to justify 2 hours of their lives lost forever.

It was surreal, sitting in a Airport departure lounge with the gate blocked by not one but two committees, and something I've never seen before two clerks taking notes on flip charts (like some game show assistants) as if anyone's ever likely to challenge their accounts of the meeting or care, I also began to question whether in better times I'd sat in the same room waiting to fly out from the planet Thanet to somewhere different.

As you can imagine much of the meeting was taken up with obsessions and trivia, the reporting systems not working, some flights divert over the garden shed, some of those giving evidence were clearly experienced complainers and all the time I’m thinking, if you live at the end of a runway, what do you expect. The first hour and half was taken up with gripes although I did myself, learn something and it is this, Acol must be the most democratic place in the world, since despite only having a handfull of houses and a pub, they own a parish council because one of the members of KIACC is I understand a member of parish council.

Anyway the thing that concerns most of us here in Thanet is the local economy and jobs and no surprise after an hour & half, they finally got round to what matters, looking around at the members I had the strong impression that Thanet’s low wage economy was something, most of this crowd were blissfully unaware.

Just prior to the meeting turning its attention to the local economy, I noticed the activity beyond the departure lounge, the Tarmac burst in to life to accommodate the arrival of a cargo jet and I thought those people working outside probably had more to contribute to the discussion than anyone inside.

Its just the way things are but life seems to be run by people who have 9-5 existences, ignorant that there’s a whole world of people, delivering goods, maintaining roads, caring in hospitals, maintaining the law, and building railways etc whilst they sleep.

I’ve been mean to those that populate our local committees and political institutions but its true that someone has to monitor life and legislate but with the way things are for Manston and Infratil and Thanet I wish someone would give them five or ten years without trying to regulate, them so that they can build a business to regulate.

Finally its was no shock that nobody for this KIACC group had any suggestion that would make life easier for Infratil.

PS an earlier version of this posting contained some draft notes and squiggles apologies to my reader if you read anything er worse than usual!

Evidence emerges that Manston existed before Infratil

A casual glance at Google Earth leads me to suspect that air transport has existed longer than local cranks, environmentalist, SMEG (the one man environmental group) would have us believe, since looking at the countryside near Challock I spotted this seemingly ancient image which appears to replicate the silhouette of a modern airliner.

Even more convincing are references to Manston going back to the 1940’s and beyond in histories of the Battle of Britain but they also mention Hawkinge, which is a surely just a new housing estate so its probably just a myth. Put the mental in back environmental, join the cranks and create Manston houseing estate.

A clear majority of Thanetians support Infratil at Manston and are more than happy, that our local council are doing their best to support the airport.

BAWC Decide Against Manston just to Keep Economy Class ECR Happy ?

Its been announced according to Kent News (on Sunday) that BAWC, British Airways cargo, will not be swapping the operations to Manston anytime soon.

This news will no doubt be celebrated late into the night at Eastcliff Richard's, Ramsgate Mansion.

The Ramsgate media mogul has just arrived back in this country after it appears he was downgraded to economy on his return from Canada.

Manston Master plan explained

I went along to tonight's lecture given by Matt Clarke, Chief Executive, of Kent International airport.

It was refreshing to hear what the future holds for Manston uninterrupted by the usual hysteria and delivered by someone who knows what he’s talking about which is not something you will find on the pages of a blog (I know).

A brief glance at the companies portfolio would indicate that Infratil, are expert in running airports and reassuringly have long term sustainable plans, I just find it a pity that in the main the audience were made up of people my age and older.

Anyway if you’d like to see what future they envisage then please click on this link and scan through their master plan.

PS One point that lodged in my mind was reference to the fact that EU Jet carried 402,000 in nine months of trading and they clearly didn't know what doing whereas Infratil do.

Manston "I'm all right jack"*

It seems to me the future of Manston Airport, is all about imagination, those in the Luddite camp, imagine that a few extra plane movements will forever blight and destroy the ambience of Thanet, those promoting it are optimistic feeling a few extra freight planes will create a wealth of new jobs.

For me is quite clear that Manston Airport should within the reason be allowed to operate, with as few constraints as is necessary, obviously Thanet council and the Airport operators appear to have been less than interested in monitoring those things that concern us all, that being the noise and level of pollution from the Airport.

I'm in a minority of local bloggers, since I don't blindly feel that Infratil have no right to operate their business. It seems opponents of the Airport, have an irrational fear of aeroplanes, citing the environmental impact that air transport has, forgetting the cars outside their houses and possibly the mid life crisis motorbike gathering dust in the shed.

If you take their arguments to the logical conclusion, assuming most opponents actually live in a similar world to me, by which I mean they are fully immersed in our consumer society, then their protests are purely selfish. The same people who object to reasonable operation of the Airport, have little clue or idea, of the impact the their lives, have on the rest of society.

Assuming these half baked environmentalists, were true to their beliefs, they would presumably eschew all aspects of modern life, for instance the supermarket, whose goods are delivered by large polluting lorries, often with fresh fruit and vegetables, flown in to other airports from halfway round the world. It wouldn't surprise me at all, if many of the protesters, are not themselves above average users of air transport, but then presumably, the people of West London don't matter.

As you know I don't talk bull, so that is why I feel it disingenuous, of those local protesters who live in the same consumer society as us but wish to sidestep the consequences of modern life.

If those who have such a down on Manston, were to adopt a lifestyle similar to that of Amish people I would have some empathy

Just to check the state of local opinion I checked out Peter Checksfield Survey and that of ECR both asking about flights from Manston Peter's was well infavour and ECR evens @11 ish today 9th of Feb.

ECR's Question above
Peter Checksfield Question below

*Reference I'm all right Jack Wikipedia

KENT GREENS IN A TIZZ OVER MANSTON

As you know I've no axe to grind as far as Manston Airport or as some know it Kent International is concerned, but a recent out burst from Kents Green Party over the future of our local airport, to me looks indicative of some rather woolly thinking.

Now some have argued that Manston that will never attract business due to the population of Thanet, which would be a valid point if airports didn't have regular customers who have to travel some many miles and even hours to reach, as in the case of Heathrow and Gatwick both of which I currently consider to be local airports.

Both the Green Party and CPRE (Campaign to Protect Rural England) have criticised Infratil's master plan for the Airport which would if they were correct result in up to 6 million passengers using the airport by 2033, a "flight of fantasy" say the greens and the CPRE chip in with "unrealistic".

Assuming these parties are correct, where's the beef, if their so convinced Manston will fail why don't they direct themselves to more pressing environment issues and leave Manston alone. After a Grim year the thought that one local business is considering growth is a little ray of sunshine and since their business would indeed, if successful bring in good quality jobs rather than the likely warehouse jobs @ Chinagate,I know which I would prefer.

A sustainable expansion of the airport which Infratile are working toward is infinitely more, environmentally friendly than the concrete vision that CGP has.

SEASONS GREETINGS TO INFRATILE AND LONG MAY YOU PROSPER!

Thought for the Day - China Gate to much to swallow

We are, all aware that tonight is the big planning meeting, which will no doubt accept, Thanets planning "officers" suggestions to go ahead and allow Chinagate. Couple of things worry me, firstly the possible contamination of our water supply, which can no doubt be dealt with by proper drainage, which I'm sure developers will pay for, since they stand to make shed loads of money, assuming the finance side holds together.

The biggest worry is the shear scale of the development, Thanet council were never considered capable of building the Turner Gallery(MK1), hence KCC had to oversee that cockup. Since this project is far larger, do they really have the expertise to decide on a development of this scale, and just where are the roads to support this.

Still public opinion and common-sense rarely triumphs over money, and I sure tonight will be no exception, how sad! Incidentally I'm convinced the water supply has really been a bit of a red herring. Imagine if we had been discussing acres of concrete and more gridlock instead, doesn't bare thinking about! which we haven't.

The picture, that's just an ornamental carrot from another Chinese meal, that was to big swallow.

Manston Open Day

In between my busy schedule this weekend, I had pleasure of visiting Manston Airport which was holding a fun day.

It was pleasing to visit the airport and see large numbers, turn out for the event promoting this summers holidays using the airport. Hopefully the owners of Manston are increasing their business in a sustainable way apparently freight business was up by 15% year on year in the 12 months up to November.

It looks like Infratil know what their doing, in the past, we've seen the likes of EU jet with a hand full of Fokkers and no customers and last year we had those ....bright sparks in Maidstone (Kent Tories), spending hundreds of thousands of your local tax's on flights to some American backwater that never got off the ground.

Judging by the numbers visiting Manston, and the queues to speak with company reps, it looks like many prefer to travel from Manston airport, myself having experienced the 4 am departure only to wander aimlessly around Gatwick until 6 in the evening and no bloody apology and minimal information before boarding a plane.

I've only flown twice from Manston the both times times the flight left on time, even when the flight was delayed on the return journey for an hour who cares, when your in doors with a nice cup of tea, twenty minutes after landing. Given the choice between Manston and any other airport I know which I prefer.

Holding steady on 27

Following my blog the other day, re Manston and daring to mention the rather low interest shown in the petition set up by Ramsgates foremost fictional & homeless (temporarily) celebrity ECR, I have just checked out this petition.

I am happy to report that this is holding steady with a paltry 27 signatures.

On a personal note the anonymous reference to Me (in the comments) being egocentric is an outrageous slur, as to "cosied up" to a local MP, the facts in this case, are that unlike others I can admit my mistakes. Uncomfortable as it might be, the MP in question was right and I was wrong, end of .

Right I'm off to sulk!

Read Manston Flight Mysery

Read Blogger wrong Roger Gale right

Manston flight misery?

Looking through my local newspapers this week, it would appear that some of our local councilors have gone plane crazy in their attempts to stir up, controversy over Manston Airport.

For whatever reason it seems that labour councilors, have little constructive to say on local issues at the moment so, they appear to have alighted on the subject of training flights at Manston Airport.

I would imagine that Infratil the owners of Manston Airport, are having a tough enough job in promoting the Airport, and need whatever revenue they can obtain.

The vast majority of Thanet population welcome Infratil's efforts to promote Manston Airport as a viable business, it seems rather petty that Thanet labour group, are attempting to score minor political points over such a sensitive economic asset.

Still since most senior labour politicians at national level are oblivious to the real issues in this country, is it any wonder that labour politicians further down the food chain here in Thanet conveniently forget that in the past Manston has been busier and noisier.

Reading one letter from councilor Clive Hart, in this weekend's Kent on Sunday, which described how a very large and noisy passenger jet had repeatedly flown a very low flight path, over Cliftonville, I was rather disappointed that he wasn't able to go on, and described how chimney pots had been knocked off roofs and tyre marks left on the bowling greens at Cliftonville.

Instead of concerning themselves with a few tiresome flights over Manston, Thanet's local labour party ought to have bigger fish to fry, maybe they could take a look at how the Tories appear to be assisting in the destruction of dreamland as a leisure facility and creating a new traffic bottleneck into Margate.

And if labour, would like to see just how agitated the people of Thanet are, over Manston I suggest they take a gander at Eastcliff Richards online petition, whingeing about training flights and note that to date only 27 people have bothered to sign it (since the 6th of July).

PS I wonder if oasis airlines have considered, having passengers on their training flights, since take off and landing are the most exciting parts of any flight

GOOD NEWS FROM MANSTON

Enjoy a Fun day out at Kent International Manston

Holiday Company Kent Escapes and Infratil will be hosting a Fun Day event, @ KIA Manston, tomorrow Sunday April 1st between 11am and 4pm. On offer will be distraction for children including a magician, balloons, face painting and James Hemming (Invicta), and for adults the chance to see what’s on offer win a holiday or other prizes and take advantage of generous discounts for families and couples.

If you are looking to go away this summer what could be better, 10 minutes from your front door (Thanet), easy parking right next door (which is free tomorrow), save yourself money on the holiday and when you go, you wont have the hassle of ruining your holiday with a long car journey or the crush at check-in.

Seguro Holidays who own Kent Escapes are a thriving company, who know what their doing, as Wendy Pollock, Sales Manger recently said “We held two similar events at Kent International last year and they were both hugely successful.” This year they have added Palma (my favourite Mediterranean). Having flown a couple of times from Manston and often from Gatwick or Heathrow, I know which is best and that is Manston.

Airport operator and owner Infratil are also a successful company, that has despite all the recent meddling by local authorities, their experts and lack lustre local quangos, with its steady, sustainable approach been building up its business. Its easy for us locals to be diverted, particularly when our local councils, believe that they can interfere in the business world, with good intentions and some naïve business plans our money and still they screw up.

The future is good for Manston, Infratil is a company that is expert in its business, operates several successful airports around the world and is seeing growth in its freight business at KIA having more than doubled its freight handling this January 07 2,823 tonnes compared with 1,336 tonnes last January 06 as well as seeing an increase in freight services over the busy December period.

The location is good its easy to get to by road (there are 1.4 million who live in Kent most less than an hour away) and it will be even better once the new faster trains are running from Ramsgate to St Pancras in North London.

Anyway if you want a good holiday flying from Manston, it means most of us wont need to worry about M25 hold ups, instead you can worry if you’ve got you Passport, which if you, haven’t and its on the kitchen table, you might just have time to nip home, particularly if you live in Thanet.

This year Kent Escapes Brochure in PDF Format

Manston Kent Council’s Mystery Money

I’ve bought up the subject of Kent councils apparent involvement in Manston more than once but earlier this week; I thought I would have one last attempt to get clarification from Kent Council as to how much money, if any was actually spent on the aborted Flights from Manston to Virginia scheme.

I rang the councils press office, the guy I spoke with, confirmed once again that no money from Kent taxpayers or owned on their behalf had been spent, now it maybe me maybe I’ve gone doolally because I just could not believe what I was being told and here is my recollection.

The spokesperson would not concede that money, belonging or held in any sort of trust for council taxpayer, had in anyway been used for this project. What he did say was this and it sounds like complete nonsense or bollix to me, money had been spent, however the wonga came from a development project.

Now at this point I went into responsible parent mode and wanted a detailed explanation as to where the money had originated (you know how young children find money lying about the house and just naturally assume its there for the taking (like the house keeping)).

It seems that at some time in the past KCC had invested money, which we both seemed to agree was Taxpayers money in West Malling. Since that land has been developed, and money generated from the profits, has now apparently mutated, having no link with the people of Kent it’s no longer our money, its “regeneration money”.

Now the economic theory behind this is probably beyond me, and I guess the spokesperson sensed this, looked at the clock and realised there weren’t enough hours in the day to explain and the conversation wound up.

I’ve had time to consider this and this is what I think, KCC are being reticent because they have created some breakthrough economic theory, simply put they have created what I call “Magic” money, they have the ability to take money from one source and through some secret process make new money which they don’t need to account for.

Maybe I’m a just muggle and perhaps KCC is populated with wizards and magicians but even so, its sad that politicians and local authority employees, can’t be more open, if as most people seem to suspect an expensive cock up, has taken place why not admit all in one go.

Finally refusal to be open about this business, just looks arrogant, admittedly there is little the voter can do, you could try the audit commission or is it the district auditor I contacted them over the Turner thing, I think as every drop of money was accounted for, as is slipped into the sea there was nothing to worry about.

KCC 4 star council? ****

This last few days Paul Carter has taken the trouble to justify the salary of his council's chief executive Peter Gilroy by referring to the Audit Commission's award of four stars to Kent council for value and service.

What I want to know is how many stars would Paul Carter require to respond to my e-mail request for him to elucidate what money went into the Manston/Virginia flight project.

When failure of this project was first announce I contacted someone at KCC and asked how much of taxpayers money had been spent. Now I understood the answer I received was ''no taxpayer money was involved'' (perhaps I misheard), since this person had the word communication in their job description I assumed they knew what they were talking about.

Several local newspapers now report a figure of £90,000 having been spent on this project, this being the case shouldn't KCC's own news pages reflect and acknowledge this. I have made several phone calls, trying to get an answer including one to Peter Gilroy (surprisingly he was unavailable, even before the hoo-hah over his pay), perhaps I'll just have to wait until council get a 5th star.

In the meantime here is a copy of my rambling e-mail to Paul Carter including the original misspellings and grammatical errors.

From: "Bignews margate" My email address
To: Paul Carter's email address
Cc: Press office email address
Subject: Manston Airpor flights to Virginia
Date: 02 March 2007 16:35

Dear Mr Carter

I have a fairly keen interest in matters concerning Manston Airport, and reading KCC's report on the almost inevitable failure of flights to Virginia; I got the strong impression that KCC had not invested in this enterprise.

However I hear on last nights news that money has been supplied from some "Regeneration Fund".

From what I can make out, at some point KCC has disposed of assets (owned on behalf of Kent people), and has put this in a fund which presumably is held in some sort of account administered by KCC.

Could you elucidate whether money, originating from local taxpayers or public assets, has been used in promoting this venture.

It is nice that Kent Council appears to grudgingly, accept that there is a world outside of the cosy affluent towns of Maidstone, Tonbridge & Tunbridge Wells, and although its nice to have money sent to east kent a little local involvement wouldn't go amiss.

Finally I would like to know what the obsession is with Virginia, and have you ever considered running these ideas past normal people rather than I'm guessing in this instance "travel consultants".

Manston I'm sure will one day have more traffic, but it will take time, in my opnion spending money on EU Jet was a worth while risk and at least many taxpayers did get a nice uncrowded weekend away including me so thanks for that.

Best regards tony flaig - Bignews Margate

Other background from this site "Mr Puss calls for calm
in local authority Fat Cats row! " "Quote of the Week" "MANSTON AIRPORT HOPES CRASH LAND"