Historic Labour win in Westgate-On-Sea

After weeks of hard campaigning Thanet Labour have won an historic victory in Westgate-On-Sea. Thanet Labour have not won a seat west of Margate Central since 1999, and this victory came about after a 8.2% swing from the Conservatives to Labour since 2011.


We are now delighted to welcome Councillor Jodie Hibbert as the newest member of the Labour group, and also the youngest ever female Councillor in Thanet. Jodie has worked extremely hard throughout the by-election and will be a welcome addition to our team. This result sends a message to David Cameron and his Government that they are taking the country in the wrong direction. Victory in historically Conservative Westgate-On-Sea shows that the Labour party is appealing to people beyond the core areas, and we will continue to work hard for ALL people. Thanet Labour will continue to fight on behalf of the residents of Thanet and do everything we can to soften the blow of the Coalition's ill prepared plans.


Thank you to everyone who has helped support Jodie's campaign in Westgate-On-Sea, and thank you to everyone who voted.

Standing by our manifesto commitments

From Cllr Clive Hart - Labour Leader of Thanet District Council (TDC).

Amendments to Special Responsibility Allowances (SRA's)

In line with our Thanet Labour manifesto commitment, I have asked the Democratic Services team at TDC to bring a report to council on the 23rd February reducing by 20% the Special Responsibility Allowances paid to some councillors. SRA's are additional allowances paid to myself as Leader, the Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members, Shadow Cabinet members and Chairs and Vice Chairs of committee's. At present, in our 'inclusively' hung council, these extra allowances are spread across all political parties.

If agreed by council, the money saved will be used to reinstate a 'Members Community Grant Scheme' for all 56 councillors to use to support voluntary and community groups in their wards across Thanet. Around two years ago the former Conservative administration scrapped the original scheme which used to support numerous voluntary and community groups and projects across the island. Our Labour plans will see funding reinstated at no extra cost to the ratepayer whatsoever - sum neutral!

Special Responsibility Allowances are paid to councillors who take on posts requiring extra workload and which carry extra responsibility. I know how very hard these councillors work and that the SRA's paid at present are already in relative terms, low pay.

However, we are a hung council and no political party has an overall majority. We need to work together and find new ways to solve our problems. In this instance I am therefore asking those councillors receiving SRA's to sacrifice 20% of their own allowance for the greater benefit of our local community.

Response to Laura Sandys MP

Thanet Labour decision is reasonable, proportionate and appropriate

 

By Cllr Clive Hart - Leader of Thanet District Council (TDC)

 

Let me be absolutely clear.

 

My decision to change the public consultation on night flights proposals at Manston follows legal advice given to the council which explains that at this stage, the proposals DO NOT require a planning application.  Just as importantly, the advice goes on to state that the council’s role is one of CONSULTEE ONLY and as such the council will not be in a position to make a binding decision on night time flying at this stage.

 

My Conservative predecessor Cllr Bob Bayford had already spent several months and tens of thousands of pounds on this process before Labour took control of the council. His plans would have seen the council spend around a further £50,000 of public money on consultants to run the consultation process his way. Cllr Bayford may have been content to use ratepayers hard earned cash in this way and apparently Laura Sandys would like us do the same, but Labour will do precisely what is reasonable, proportionate and appropriate.

 

As for Laura Sandys' accusation that I am in some way 'watering down' the process, nothing could be further from the truth. The new TDC consultation process approach will now be focused here in Thanet with a strong weighting for the opinions of those directly affected by the proposals. I firmly believe this to be reasonable, proportionate and appropriate.

 

It is clear my Conservative predecessor was struggling with this issue. He had created a monster of a process that had got completely out of control. It would have left the council in the ridiculous position of spending enormous amounts of time and effort and a small fortune of public money on a consultation process that was only ever going to be used to form the council's 'opinion'.

 

Thanet residents, the airport consultative committee and the airports Chief Executive all complained to me about the long drawn out process we had inherited from the previous Conservative administration that was getting us nowhere. I therefore acted swiftly and did exactly what was reasonable, proportionate and appropriate.

 

Last but not least, I am pleased to see that on the serious issue of the environmental impact of the proposals, Laura Sandys shares exactly the same concerns as Thanet Labour and is firmly against night flights! 

Youth unemployment petition

Will Scobie, Luke Edwards and Linda Aldred

The Thanet Labour team were in Margate high street this morning asking people to sign the Labour petition on youth unemployment. The petition stated:



'Youth unemployment has hit almost one million and the Tory-led Government’s policies risk creating another lost generation like in the 1980s. Sign up to Labour’s campaign to call for the Government to repeat last year’s bonus tax and use the money raised to help create 100,000 more jobs for young people. Getting people off the dole and into work is the best way to get the deficit down – and stop Britain’s talent going to waste.'

Steve Alexandrou

In just one morning the team were able to get over 400 signatures, and it is clear that this is an issue that many people feel very strongly on. Young people are our future and we need to make sure that we give them the training, skills, and experience necessary for their lives ahead of them. The Tory-led Government is trying to save money in the short term, but in the long term this is only going to cost more through social problems and schemes to get people back to work.


The Labour team will be visiting Ramsgate next to get more signatures on Wednesday 16th November. They will be on Ramsgate high street at lunch time, so come along and talk to your local Labour team.

Jodi Hibbert, Louise Drelaud, Will Scobie, Jenny Matterface, Clive Hart, and James Watkins.

Thanet Labour - Making serious matters clear

At the meeting of Thanet District Council on the 14th July Thanet Labour Group will put forward two motions to council in line with their 2011 Manifesto.  In doing so Labour councillors will make it absolutely clear what is acceptable and what is unacceptable here in Thanet with regards to two serious issues.

 

 

The first notice of motion is in relation to night time flying and has been proposed by Cllr Clive Hart and Cllr Alan Poole the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Labour Group at TDC. 

 

It reads: ‘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’.

Cllr Clive Hart said "night flights are a key issue covered in our Thanet Labour Manifesto for 2011 and the wording of our motion follows precisely the recommendations of the TDC Airport Working Party. The current section 106 agreement was put in place over a decade ago and has served Thanet well but the council has failed in it's commitment to update the agreement every three years and it is clear from recent reports sponsored by the airport that it may soon be pressing to extend its operations at night. The Labour Group therefore believes the council needs to give a clear steer as to what is and what is not environmentally acceptable here in Thanet. We support the airport but not at any environmental cost to the people of Thanet".  

The second notice of motion is in relation to live animal exports and was proposed by Cllr Michelle Fenner on 7th June.

Thanet District Council has just publicised the fact that it received legal advice on 23^rd June which “supports its views that there is no legal way to prevent the trade” but the unacceptability of the live trade remains unresolved.

There are still a number of conflicting legal documents from the UK law and various European Union regulations.

The fact that so far no UK court nor the European Court of Justice have justified the ban and that neither the UK Government nor the European Commission have legislated to prevent the trade does not stop TDC from taking part, as a stakeholder, in the EU review of its regulation on this issue to express its views and how it might be improved.

There will still be a motion on this issue from Cllr. Fenner at Full Council on 14^th July.

Cllr Michelle Fenner said "Since I submitted my motion on 7^th June I feel that TDC’s administration and Leadership have not been totally candid about the way they sought legal advice but I hope that in the interest of cross-party co-operation all elected members will support me at full council next week. I appeal to their sense of moral duty.”

Who will pay for our crossing?

Dear Kent County Councillors,

Will you please use your dedicated funding to pay for our pelican crossing?

At the recent Joint Transportation Board meeting, a petition with 400 signatures from local residents of the Hereson Road, Ramsgate, was presented by Ward Councillors Alan Poole and Michelle Fenner requesting that the pedestrian crossing in the road be upgraded to a pelican crossing with traffic lights.

Using this crossing near the junction with Lillian Road has always been hazardous but it is now extremely precarious and dangerous. The opening of the new Tesco’s store has made the situation worse as customers park illegally on zigzag lines and on the crossing itself. The visibility for drivers and pedestrians is reduced. As a result there are numerous accounts of pedestrians nearly being run over whilst using the zebra crossing.

Cllr Fenner said: “We should not have to wait until a terrible accident happens for the crossing to be upgraded to a pelican crossing. The safety of pedestrians must be paramount.”

Cllr. Poole added: “We have asked the two Kent County Councillors, Bill Hayton and Bob Bayford, to use their Highway Allocation to fund the pelican crossing. According to the latest publication by the Thanet Joint Transportation Board they both have uncommitted KCC sums totaling £113.000 to be spent in their division, which should easily cover the cost of it. We are eagerly awaiting their response.”

Ed Miliband praises Thanet result

Ed Miliband has spoken positively in The Independent about Labour's promising local election results in Thanet last week. “We made big gains in Thanet and Thurrock,” he said. “We made progress, it's a staging post.”

Elsewhere, on the Progress website, Luke Akehurst referred to Thanet as a 'bright spot' in Labour's electoral fortunes by acknowledging that “good hauls of seats” were won.

Though no party won an outright majority, it is fair to say that Thanet Labour made impressively strong gains, so it's very reassuring to see Ed Miliband and Luke Akehurst recognize the good work that went into achieving this.

Thank you, once again, to everyone who voted Labour last week. In doing so, you've helped send a strong message of discontent to the local Conservative group about the way they've been running our council. It's now time for them to listen to what the people of Thanet want!

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

May day with Harriet Harman

Labour Deputy Leader and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Harriet Harman was in Garlinge Ward on Monday supporting Thanet Labour.