GREEN SPACE IN BROADSTAIRS PROTECTED

An amended scheme for a Broadstairs Town Council Community Centre in Pierremont Park should come back before the TDC cabinet on July 26th . After much behind the scenes work to protect open green space in the park carried out by TDC Leader, Clive Hart, Deputy Leader, Alan Poole, and Broadstairs councillor, Jenny Matterface, an amended scheme will now be considered at TDC Cabinet on July 26th.

Cllr. Matterface said, ‘The revised scheme has saved the park from an intrusive building since it follows more closely the footprint of the existing Park Hall rather than the original scheme submitted to Cabinet in January. The demolition of the old Age Concern building to create a formal garden will enhance the park. I do, however, still have real concerns over the financial burden this project will impose on the council taxpayers of Broadstairs and St. Peter’s at a time when many residents struggle to pay bills.’

Cllr Alan Poole said “The final decision to build a community centre in Pierremont Park is a matter for Broadstairs Town Council and the TDC Planning Committee but I am pleased that the new scheme does at least protect much-loved public open green space” Cllr Clive Hart said “I am very grateful to Cllr Poole and Cllr Matterface for all their help in protecting our environment. Thanet’s parks are wonderful green spaces that bring tranquil beauty into busy urban areas and our administration will fight to preserve them whenever and wherever they are threatened ”.

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.

Welfare Reform and Universal Credit

George Osborne and David Cameron seen having a good laugh at our expense. Are we really “all in this together”?

WHAT WILL THE CHANGES MEAN?

• Universal Credit will replace a range of existing means-tested benefits and tax credits for people of working age
• It will replace the Disability Living Allowance with a Personal Independence Payment
• It will restrict Housing Benefit entitlement and introduce a ‘bedroom tax’
• It will change the child maintenance scheme
• It will limit payments of Contributory Employment and Support Allowance to a 12-month period
• It will cap the total amount of benefit that can be claimed
• Local councils will be asked to reduce people’s Housing Benefit to make sure the total benefit income remains less than the ‘cap’ level set.
• It will replace Council Tax Benefit with a ‘localised’ Council Tax support scheme.
• The ‘granny tax’ will freeze the age related tax allowance. It will not be increased in line with inflation. Half a million pensioners will be affected.

WHERE WILL PEOPLE BE ABLE TO GO TO APPLY?

So far the government is not planning to set up a local office.

There are no answers to the questions:

• how and where will someone apply locally?
• what documents will they need and where will they take them locally?
• where will there be a ‘Universal Credit’ office?
• how does someone get face to face advice and help if they have a problem?

People will be expected to apply on-line or through a call centre.

UNIVERSAL CREDIT will be paid MONTHLY, IN ARREARS, TO ONE MEMBER OF THE HOUSEHOLD.

If anything goes wrong with the claim, a whole family could be without any income for a whole month!

WHO WILL BE AFFECTED?

By the time the new system is fully in place, 2017, it will affect 19 million people

It will affect particularly:

• pensioners
• disabled people
• people on long-term sickness
• families on low income and their children
• people living in rented accommodation
• unemployed people
• single parents

Do any of these people choose to be in that situation? Of course not! But they should all be treated with fairness and respect.

COUNCIL TAX BENEFIT

Local councils are being placed in the difficult situation by this Tory-led government of having to produce a localised Council Tax Benefit scheme but with less money to pay for it. The minority LABOUR administration at Thanet District Council will try to minimise the impact of the overall 10% cut in funding imposed by the coalition on Thanet residents who currently receive Council Tax Benefit.

HOW CAN WE CHALLENGE THIS?

• become active in the campaign
• join the Labour Party
• make sure you and your family and friends are all REGISTERED TO VOTE so that you can BOOT OUT THE TORIES at the next election.

YOUR LABOUR COUNCILLORS will do everything they can to defend the Welfare State as a symbol of a just and civilised society that looks after people who find themselves in a difficult situation through no choice of their own.


We will be available to help and discuss any benefit problems residents in our wards may have.

Published by Thanet Labour Group Councillors
North Thanet Constituency Labour Party at
South Thanet Constituency Labour Party at 28 Newington Road, Ramsgate.

Thanet falling behind thanks to local Tories

At the East Kent Joint Arrangements Committee meeting (EKJAC) held at the Guildhall in Canterbury on Wednesday (20th June), the Leaders and Deputy Leaders of four East Kent District Council's and the KCC Deputy Leader Alex King agreed that EKJAC, the forum which brought together County and District council leaders in East Kent, should now be dissolved. Furthermore, the district representatives were assured that KCC would maintain close working relations with East Kent Districts primarily through the new Locality Boards, as it does in the rest of Kent.

Thanet Labour Deputy Leader Alan Poole then immediately asked Cllr King to get KCC Leader Paul Carter and his Cabinet Member Mike Hill to create a Locality Board for Thanet as a matter of urgency!

Thanet Labour Leader Clive Hart was chairing what was probably the last meeting of EKJAC and afterwards said "Across the vast majority of Kent, these new Locality Boards are blazing the trail for closer co-operation between district and county council's and we most desperately need one here in Thanet.

As a gesture of good will, and in an effort to help foster a proper Locality Board for Thanet, our Labour Cabinet recently met with Thanet's Conservative dominated group of County Councillor's to discuss the issue of Youth Service provision in Thanet. The meeting was a great success and proved that cross-party working really can work for the benefit of local residents. Two different groups of councillors from two different local authorities and two different political parties came together for the benefit of local residents and despite our differences a large amount of common ground was found. Despite this resounding success, Thanet Conservative County Councillor's are still intransigent and simply will not move towards a regular and formal Locality Board for the residents of Thanet.
   
Time is slipping by and Thanet is losing out. At the last Kent Forum of Leaders and Chief Executives public meeting held at County Hall in May, I had to request firm intervention from KCC Leader Paul Carter and his Cabinet Member Mike Hill and now my deputy has had to do the same at a public meeting here in East Kent. Our Labour administration is 100% committed to a Locality Board for the people of Thanet but I am extremely concerned that Thanet residents are being denied a fresh, vibrant and progressive level of representation and co-operation enjoyed by the vast majority of Kent residents".

Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office, 44 Northdown Road, Margate, Kent, CT9 2RW.

Consultation response to night flying proposals

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

On Thursday evening (10th May) our TDC Cabinet Committee confirmed its support for Manston Airport but recommended that the council should not support the introduction of scheduled night-time flying proposed by the airport.

The Cabinet's final recommendations were made following an open and transparent public consultation process where absolutely no leading questions were asked, yet 73% of respondents proved to be opposed to night flights.

An independent assessment of the airports proposals was commissioned by my Conservative predecessor and their thorough work also informed our recommendations. 

Subsequently, a draft consultation response document went through the cross-party, Conservative chaired, Airport Working Party where several additions were agreed and through the cross party, Independent chaired, Overview and Scrutiny Panel where no further changes were made. Consequently, on Thursday evening our Cabinet Committee unanimously recommended the report to full council completely unchanged in any way.

As well as underestimating the potential negative impacts, we felt that the proposals overestimated the potential economic benefits, overstated the potential number of jobs and did not consider the detrimental impact of night time flying on Thanet's recovering tourism industry.

Having considered the views of local people, the findings of the independent assessment and the proposals themselves, it was clear what our recommendation to council had to be. We are however, fully supportive of the airport and I have written personally to the airport Chief Executive to clearly reassure him of that.

Encouraging regeneration in Thanet and supporting local business is vital to the success of the area, but this can't come at any cost. TDC will hold an extraordinary meeting of the council on 24th May to approve the final consultation response to Manston Airport's proposed Night Time Flying Policy.

Ramsgate Maritime Museum to open

Ramsgate’s Maritime Museum is set to re-open to the public in time for the May Day bank holiday weekend.

The museum was first opened over 25 years ago and prior to being closed down in 2008 by the East Kent Maritime trust, had become a well established, nationally recognised community asset, housed in the landmark grade 2 star, listed Clock House building in the Pier Yard. In it’s prominent position at the Royal Harbour , it was visited and much appreciated by many local residents and visitors to the town. This included students and tourists from across the world, as the museum visitor’s book would testify.

In February 2008 a petition signed by almost a thousand local residents called on Thanet District Council (TDC) to “Save our Maritime Museum”, demonstrating their concern regarding the closure and possible disposal of the valuable collection of maritime artefacts. This petition was noted and then completely disregarded by the Conservative administration of the time and the listed building has remained closed up and forlorn since 2009, with both the fabric of the building and it’s collection at risk, due to damp, rot and vandalism.  

    

Labour TDC Leader Cllr Clive Hart said "I'm delighted members of the public will soon be able to view the artefacts again, with displays and information that details the work, courage and sacrifice of our maritime nation’s seafarers. This includes the 18^th century jack tars of Nelson’s navy aboard the HMS Stirling Castle sunk on the Goodwins, the brave 19^th century Ramsgate Lifeboat men and the 20^th century servicemen during world war 2, at Dunkirk and in the Royal Navy coastal forces based atPleasurama, the servicemen who helped save our country from the Waffen SS, the Gestapo and the 

Concentration camp. From “England Expects” to the “Dunkirk Spirit”, they all deserve to be remembered and honoured by both the people of today and future generations". 

Cllr. Clive Hart, TDC Leader, hands the keys of the museum to Mr. Michael List Brain, Chairman of the Steam Museum Trust, who will now operate the museum, following the signing of a 25 year lease for the Clock House and Smeaton dock.

 

Business don't like uncertainty

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

 

There are suggestions being made by our political opponents that the Thanet Labour policy to protect our local environment has in some way caused the proposed sale of Manston Airport. 

 

Well, to quote Thanet Tory Cllr Simon Moores - "businesses don't like uncertainty". I agree, and Infratil's decision is more likely to be down to the effect of procrastination, indecision and navel gazing by the previous Conservative administration in relation to the airport, where he was part of a dithering Tory Cabinet. The Conservative's finally accepted the revised night-flying proposals from Manston Airport in October 2011 and despite suggesting at a public meeting that the consultation could start before the end of that year, when we took control of the council, we discovered it was not planned to start for months to come, and after that, take several more months to complete at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds of public money.

 

Indeed, had I not taken swift action to initiate a more focused consultation earlier this year, we would almost certainly now be at the start of a long, drawn out and costly Tory planned consultation process as this latest news hits us. And where would we have been then?

 

Fortunately, our more focused consultation process had just ended before this latest news from New Zealand, so all the consultation responses have been received and can now be processed accordingly.

 

Thanet Labour's concern for our local environment is something I am very proud of and an issue the public is increasingly in tune with. I do not believe it had any impact on Infratil's decision. They have chosen to sell off the airport, to use their own terminology, as a 'no regrets' decision, and they list Manston as an underperforming asset alongside another they intend to offload.

 

This weeks news for Manston is not good, but thankfully the council at least is on target to complete our local consultation process.