Port and harbour neglect continues under the Conservatives

By Cllr Clive Hart - Labour Shadow Leader of the Council.

 

At the Thanet Council Cabinet meeting on Thursday 17th November, Conservative Cabinet member Cllr Martin Wise announced "A Ramsgate Port and Harbour draft master plan has been developed and presented to Scrutiny". 

Now I'm used to ambiguous language coming from our local Conservative party but this statement was quite simply 'a fudge too far'.

I have spoken with the Chairman of the Ramsgate Port and Harbour Scrutiny working party and he says he would dearly like to have sight of the document he has been promised for such a very long time now. He waits and waits but despite his constant requests it never comes.

For clarification - the actual facts are: at the earlier September Thanet Council Cabinet meeting the Commercial Services Manager explained that the initial draft Master plan for Ramsgate Port and Harbour was considered to need additional work and that the plan itself had not been circulated to the members as it was considered to need 'further development'. 

It was also decided that a Cabinet Advisory Group would be needed for this 'further development' and on the 6th October I met with Conservative leader Cllr Bayford to agree the make-up of the group. We agreed the cabinet advisory group would consist of three Labour members and three Conservative members. On the 12th October I informed Cllr Bayford and the council that our Labour members would be Cllr Poole, Cllr Huxley and Cllr Fenner.

Yet another month has passed in this sorry saga and my members are all still eager and waiting. As with every other step taken on this elusive master plan project, procrastination and navel gazing appear to be the order of the day and to date no meetings have been planned.

Ramsgate Port and Harbour should be our islands 'jewel in the crown'. Instead we've had eight years of Conservative rule at Thanet Council and eight years of neglect.

Proud to be Pluralist

By Councillor Linda Aldred

The results of the recent District elections left Thanet with no one political party gaining an overall majority. Within the two main groups (Conservatives 27 - Labour 26) there are very different scenarios indeed.

The Conservative group is made up of 20 men and 7 women. The Labour Group is made up of 14 men and 12 women.

At Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet level the differences are more pronounced. The Conservative Cabinet is totally made up of men whilst the Labour Shadow Cabinet is made up of 3 men and 2 women.

Now I'm a great believer in the right person for the job, whatever their gender, but are the Conservatives really saying that there are no women members in their group good enough for the job? What message does that send to the general public as a whole?

At the first meeting of Thanet Council since the elections I was very pleased to look around our assembled Labour group and see a real cross section of the communities we represent. There was a reasonable balance of male and female members from a wide range of age groups, and our number came from many walks of life.

The view on the Conservative benches was altogether different. A group very much dominated by, and exclusively led by, 'senior' men.

Oh Roger

Roger Gale appears to be trying to rewrite history to turn last weeks local elections into a victory for the Conservative Party in Thanet. Lets look at the raw facts.

1. The Conservatives lost five seats, one in North Thanet and four in South Thanet.
2. They only just held onto two more of their seats as they won by twenty five votes in Garlinge and only two in Beacon Road!
3. There was a 5% swing in the vote from Conservative to Labour.
4. Nearly every other Conservative Council in Kent was able to hold power (except Gravesham) and in many cases actually gained seats.

The result for the Thanet Conservative party when compared to the rest of the South East and Kent is appalling. When you look at Thanet against seats just like it in the South East like Dover and Dartford it really shows how bad the Thanet result was. Roger is right when he says no party won, but after his party has just taken a pasting in the elections perhaps he should think before he writes.

After the dust has settled

Thanet Labour would just like to thank everyone who voted Labour on Thursday. The people have spoken and they have said that they have had enough of the local Conservative Council.  Six seats have been gained by Labour. Labour has gained two in Dane Valley, two in Nethercourt, one in Beacon Road, and one in Central Harbour. Labour also came within 2 votes of winning the second seat in Beacon Road, and 25 votes of winning one of the Garlinge seats.


The full results can be found on the link below:


http://www.thanet.gov.uk/news/latest_press_releases/election_results_2011.aspx

Tories Wish List Launched - Venue Says More Than Their Document

By Clive Hart

As usual, the last minute Tory manifesto tries to rewrite history. In his introduction Bob Bayford says the Tories have tried to do their best for four years, but local residents have actually suffered under Conservative control at TDC for eight long years, and boy don't they know it!

 

The Conservatives say they have 'helped traders by encouraging residents to shop locally', yet their Tory 'Shop Local' scheme is in tatters and they get their own Conservative election leaflets printed in Canterbury.

 

Like so many of the numerous 'visions' and 'masterplans' we've been bombarded with over that past eight years by Thanet Conservatives, their manifesto is just another wish list. Our town centres and harbours have been neglected and too many of Thanet's streets are under maintained. No amount of last minute window dressing can hide them and four more years of Tory rule would simply prolong the negligence.

 

Their decision to use the Oval lawns in Cliftonville for their manifesto launch on Tuesday was yet another Tory bungle.  Just a few hours after the Conservative bash, Cliftonville Residents Association held their AGM in a hotel overlooking the lawns, and there was genuine local anger voiced at the way Tory-led TDC had dealt with matters concerning the Oval arena and bandstand.

 

For his first announcement, the CRA Chairman explained that TDC had recently contacted the residents association with a very worrying communication asking 'what agreement the association actually had with TDC to run the food kiosk and how much rent does the association pay for it'?  The fact is, Cliftonville Residents Association is an extremely hard working voluntary organisation that has done sterling work for fifteen years and for the last ten years they have provided the regular award winning Farmers Markets.  Among numerous other community projects the residents association also stage regular band concerts for local residents and visitors.  The residents association should therefore be given every assistance by TDC to help them.  They certainly should not have hurdles put in their way!

 

Just to make matters worse, the Conservative Deputy Leader of the council explained to the residents at the meeting that 'someone had approached the council wanting to use the kiosk seven days a week'.  Could that mean that after a decade and a half the residents association could just be ejected from the venue?

 

The next matter raised by the residents Chairman was the regular band concerts, also staged at the Oval by his association.  He said he hoped funding of £4,000 to continue the concerts would soon be forthcoming from TDC.  Once again the Conservative Deputy Leader of the council dissapointed residents by telling them he had 'no knowledge of any such funding'.

 

Lastly came a report from the residents chairman on the condition of the TDC owned Oval arena and bandstand.  He said that paint was peeling on the bandstand roof at an alarming rate and that much of the arena fencing was dangerous.  Calls came from the floor for (Tory-led) TDC to get on and do the work to restore the venue.

 

So basically, for their manifesto launch, the Conservatives used a much loved community facility that's been virtually neglected by Conservative-led TDC, consistently starved of funding by Conservative-led TDC and a venue that now has a less than secure future thanks to Conservative-led TDC.