Thanet's Water Will Be Fine. No, I'm Being Serious.
Written by Matt B · first published 30/09/2008
We are all familiar with the stereotypical street preacher standing in some public space haranguing every passer by with his message of doom and damnation while perhaps waving about a home made sign saying, "Repent, the end is near!"
The truth is, much like the crackpots that come out during disasters the same spirit of doom seems to have settled on us that write about Thanet, at least us independent writers without our heads in the sand anyway.
While a large slice of the grass roots media proclaim with a melancholy tone that "it's all ashes", the world goes on. Children go to school, farmers farm what's left of the farm land around here and the water continues to be largely drinkable. Despite the doom-speakers, Thanet will shake this China Gateway off like a bad cold. It has to if we are to remain an non laughable democracy.
The current situation is, I feel, exacerbated by six parts not knowing how the council works to five parts wishing that it did.
While no one noticed, the likes of Michael Child and many other non bloggers took some time and applied a prodigious level of experience in dealing with our local council and took the no-lime-light-at-all route of wordlessly filing paperwork.
Like many others, I have no real doubt, I would love to have the skills required to make my way through the endless red tape that is Thanet District Council. Fortunately for us mere mortals that are reduced to discussing these topics on blogs it only takes one person skilled enough to say things as they need to be said.
Let's be honest my only hope of making a change is to irritate the very council that block 99% of local blogs. (All you blogspot bloggers are reportedly unreadable during TDC work hours).
The talented few among us aside though this story of "the China Gateway" has on it's own little chance of becoming a reality. Should the fairly flimsy planning application be passed the stage one build faces any number of other obstacles not least of which is staying in business long enough to do anything.
The very core of the mater rests not on the facts of the application but the fact that an election is looming towards us and both sides need some easy wins while they are to be found.
Sandy Ezekiel may be, to some, the devil with a bad hair cut but somewhere, under the layers of non sequiturs and swearwords, must be a mind capable of recognising that the free lunch is over and the 30% of Thanet that votes are not amused.
Given the historical precedent of Thanet's voters returning a council of the opposite party to the government given the writing on the wall in that regard no sane conservative would pass this Tesco value application unless it magically proves to be better at holding water than the land upon which it is to be built.
I'll grant you any amount of points that many of our Councillors appear to be questionably skilled at their job but you'd be hard pressed to find many people that would disagree that they appear, mostly, quite self seeking. It is this single trait that could sway the vote against the proposal.
Even once the first stage planning application is passed it could be questioned in a court yet if not for the content of a well known (yet little discussed) carrier bag then maybe for the fact this was never a stand alone application and if not for that then possibly for any number of related accusations.
Let us imagine that no one challenges the legitimacy of a passing of this application and that our councillors do not wish to serve much longer then there is still a potential public inquiry into the building plans and even if that is seen off there is the small mater of needing to fight a complex case to both revoke the license of the explosives firm and then to force them to leave after that small company has effectively been shut down by Commercial Group Properties Plc.
At this stage I can see Roger Gale and other becoming involved and any remaining public support withering as the papers and blogs cry out for the lost jobs. Sandy Ezekiel's credibility is already on the rocks at best but promising jobs and finding that on balance there was a net loss would be one more nail in a considerable collection of nails for his coffin (so to speak). While our leader might be willing to risk it his supporters risk looking very stupid and that could loose them control of the cabinet assuming it does not cost the party control of the council.
Yet even if the conservatives want to commit political seppuku on this issue and all the other barriers do not bankrupt the enterprise China itself (the ultimate "beneficiary" of the building work) is not going to be very interested if stages two or three fail the planning application. The applications can be submitted again but how many delays and failures will China be willing to support before pulling out?
What of the shareholders? Things already look less than optimal with regard to stock price which is just 15% of it's earlier high (July 2007). A market panic or even disgruntled shareholders could decimate the project.
To be a success the gateway project must get a "yes" to every step along the way and not just the planning applications. All it takes is one agency, one law, one partner or one significant "act of god" to say "actually, no" and the enterprise is sunk.
Given the remaining hurdles and a large portion of the crowd booing the runner it's not looking favourable. Were I a director of a company involved in this application I would be chasing hard for a quick exit strategy.
Were I a betting man my bets would not ride with this horse.
The truth is, much like the crackpots that come out during disasters the same spirit of doom seems to have settled on us that write about Thanet, at least us independent writers without our heads in the sand anyway.
While a large slice of the grass roots media proclaim with a melancholy tone that "it's all ashes", the world goes on. Children go to school, farmers farm what's left of the farm land around here and the water continues to be largely drinkable. Despite the doom-speakers, Thanet will shake this China Gateway off like a bad cold. It has to if we are to remain an non laughable democracy.
The current situation is, I feel, exacerbated by six parts not knowing how the council works to five parts wishing that it did.
While no one noticed, the likes of Michael Child and many other non bloggers took some time and applied a prodigious level of experience in dealing with our local council and took the no-lime-light-at-all route of wordlessly filing paperwork.
Like many others, I have no real doubt, I would love to have the skills required to make my way through the endless red tape that is Thanet District Council. Fortunately for us mere mortals that are reduced to discussing these topics on blogs it only takes one person skilled enough to say things as they need to be said.
Let's be honest my only hope of making a change is to irritate the very council that block 99% of local blogs. (All you blogspot bloggers are reportedly unreadable during TDC work hours).
The talented few among us aside though this story of "the China Gateway" has on it's own little chance of becoming a reality. Should the fairly flimsy planning application be passed the stage one build faces any number of other obstacles not least of which is staying in business long enough to do anything.
The very core of the mater rests not on the facts of the application but the fact that an election is looming towards us and both sides need some easy wins while they are to be found.
Sandy Ezekiel may be, to some, the devil with a bad hair cut but somewhere, under the layers of non sequiturs and swearwords, must be a mind capable of recognising that the free lunch is over and the 30% of Thanet that votes are not amused.
Given the historical precedent of Thanet's voters returning a council of the opposite party to the government given the writing on the wall in that regard no sane conservative would pass this Tesco value application unless it magically proves to be better at holding water than the land upon which it is to be built.
I'll grant you any amount of points that many of our Councillors appear to be questionably skilled at their job but you'd be hard pressed to find many people that would disagree that they appear, mostly, quite self seeking. It is this single trait that could sway the vote against the proposal.
Even once the first stage planning application is passed it could be questioned in a court yet if not for the content of a well known (yet little discussed) carrier bag then maybe for the fact this was never a stand alone application and if not for that then possibly for any number of related accusations.
Let us imagine that no one challenges the legitimacy of a passing of this application and that our councillors do not wish to serve much longer then there is still a potential public inquiry into the building plans and even if that is seen off there is the small mater of needing to fight a complex case to both revoke the license of the explosives firm and then to force them to leave after that small company has effectively been shut down by Commercial Group Properties Plc.
At this stage I can see Roger Gale and other becoming involved and any remaining public support withering as the papers and blogs cry out for the lost jobs. Sandy Ezekiel's credibility is already on the rocks at best but promising jobs and finding that on balance there was a net loss would be one more nail in a considerable collection of nails for his coffin (so to speak). While our leader might be willing to risk it his supporters risk looking very stupid and that could loose them control of the cabinet assuming it does not cost the party control of the council.
Yet even if the conservatives want to commit political seppuku on this issue and all the other barriers do not bankrupt the enterprise China itself (the ultimate "beneficiary" of the building work) is not going to be very interested if stages two or three fail the planning application. The applications can be submitted again but how many delays and failures will China be willing to support before pulling out?
What of the shareholders? Things already look less than optimal with regard to stock price which is just 15% of it's earlier high (July 2007). A market panic or even disgruntled shareholders could decimate the project.
To be a success the gateway project must get a "yes" to every step along the way and not just the planning applications. All it takes is one agency, one law, one partner or one significant "act of god" to say "actually, no" and the enterprise is sunk.
Given the remaining hurdles and a large portion of the crowd booing the runner it's not looking favourable. Were I a director of a company involved in this application I would be chasing hard for a quick exit strategy.
Were I a betting man my bets would not ride with this horse.
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Rick wrote:
I hope that my recent information on blogs has vindicated the concerns he has represented re CGP.
TDC have replied to my FOI request and confirmed that there was a ground strata contimaination incident at Sericol. Clearly the chemicals storage should not have been able to reach ground water drainage to soakaway. but it happened. In the 1990s.
The chemical at Sericol was cyclohexanone. As I understand it the company thought (presumably from the volume missing from storage) that there had been theft.
TDC are now forwarding the FOI request to the Environment Agency. I hope that they have figures for the volume calculated, from contamination measurement, and the volume calculated as missing by Sericol stock records.
If there is a significant difference between those volumes then that would yield the volume reasonably suspected to have been stolen.
The chemical can be used in the back street manufacture of drugs like Angel Dust and also in the manufacture of terrorist improvised explosive devices.
In 1998 Sericol chose to give a maintenance engineer tory Cllr George Maison ten thousand pounds severance some weeks before he was found guilty of libel at Aldwycch High Court in an action brought by Margaret Mortlock.
Margaret Mortlock in the two years waiting for this case to go to Court was subject to a paramilitary clad ski masked man's assault. She reported threats to shoot her and had her gardener trained to check her car for improvised explosives devices.
At the time in 1998 Kent Police Authority had a call on their Chief constable for inquiry into matters like the 1987 arrests of George Maison and others within the TA for paramilitary activity. Sericol were asked by me (their MD Mr King) to report to police any history of dangerous substances suspected to be missing.
One of the questions before Kent Police Authority Standards now is about evidence Cllr Hayton may have given in High Court in 1998 for his friend Cllr Maison. Did he say that there was no procedure of inquiry in place against him ? (Not at TDC over a mail intercept, not at TDC over the Sericol incident and 1998 inquiry at Sericol, not at KPA who had a call for inquiry with Chief constable, not with REME Association and MOD Police)
The position taken by TDC solicitor Mr Borley when this matter went to TDC standards was based on his assertion that Hayton would have been a witness of fact. And that as such he had no duty to check his facts because that would in effect be someone's elses evidence. To help this interpretation of law along Standards at TDC sat without being given the complaint case file.
Whilst Hayton all these years has maintained the silence of the night time rat it seems that he may have thought he could be a witness of fact and give evidence only related to one aspect of the case. Maison punching Mrs Mortlock at a TDC meeting. However it may be that at the time of this alleged incident Hayton may have been on honour withdrawal. In which case he was not a witness of fact. He was expert by vurtue of the offices he was elected to.
And if he failed to check his facts or if he deliberately concealed all the above matters that would be perjury.
I feel that what is going on with KPA is that they are delaying a Standards decision waiting to see if the Rosemary Nelson Judicial Inquiry rule the matters outside their terms of reference. If this happens then KPA will in my view give a quick non jurisdiction decision by saying the matters occurred before the 2002 Code of Conduct. IE They will not examine the witness status and whether there is ongoing duty to the Court and to account.
Maison and Hayton ? And Maison's erstwhile associate Cyril Hoser. Planning Committee men in their time .....