Wednesday 12 November 2008

Questions to the council

This is by way of an update on the questions I put to the council a while ago.

It’s strange really the council must waste so much time answering questions, whereas if they put the information on the website in the first place it would save so much of their resources.

I make a considerable effort to try and avoid official complaints, the freedom of information act and the local government ombudsman, the object being to get them to become more open in their attitude.

Click here for the questions and their responses

Click here for more pictures of Royal Crescent

I also asked them about deleting the leaders email address, which to my mind is just plain stupid, yes anyone who uses it gets an email back saying it was undeliverable, what they don’t get is an alternative email address to send his mail to.

I really don’t understand why so much of government has to handle IT so badly, TDC seems to excel at this.

Nor can I understand why there should be such delay answering the questions about the Sericol leak, if the vapour is coming out of the ground at Westwood and the expert advice I have taken concluded it must be then it begs some very difficult questions. Not the least of which is, is it safe for the people working there?

7 comments:

  1. I have still not received an answer about the Thor incident(s) in which TDC yielded lead agency to govt depts.

    I hope Beachcomber has had the chance to ask his historian pals for their information on the anthrax burials so I can pen off an FOI request to TDC on that issue.

    I bear in mind that maybe TDC did not want to call in Environment Agency to conduct, precautionary principle, soil sampling at the Westwood Cross site pre construction (given the proximity to the Sericol incident being concealed from public knowledge)

    I note that it is some time since you have been called a scaremonger on threads Michael. Funny how just one fact tends to exert the silencing effect ?

    Rear View Mirror returned to work only to succumb to illness. Rumour has it he asked his doctor if it is just flu or is it cyclohexanone related. Thus the message is written. I wish him a speedy recovery.

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  2. I can't allow Rick's planted axiom to stand unchallenged when he says that if there are no calls of 'scaremonger' then the matter must be true. There is no call because there is no fear: there was a spill, fact; for years it has undergone a cleaning process, fact; statutory organisations are cumbersome, fact. It's more lack of interest than lack of passion.
    Now when we had China Gateway threads running there was a 'virtual mob' mentality and opinions of all sorts flowed thick and fast. We believed, however wrongly, that our voice mattered. It was fun and informative although inevitably it produced more heat than light. Sadly, once the 'real world' entered the argument and decisions were made the fight seems to have gone out of the blogs.
    Thankfully Rick continues with his sterile (and surely libellous?) pursuit of ex-councillors for mail tampering, ex-police for perverting the course of justice, charity pioneers for complicity in a sudden death, the IRA for training in a local quarry, and local engineering firms for plotting to turn off the power and return us all to the dark ages. In the absence of anything better people should read his blog. No-one ever comments so I don't know if it has any traffic but it's the funniest thing around at the minute - funny if you tell yourself it's a spoof and ignore the fact that the writer is serious. Then it's just troubling.
    Can't someone just put in a contentious planning request or threaten a much loved landmark so that we can pull ourselves out of this malaise and be entertainingly irrational again?

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  3. Jack I think the main point here is that this sort of thing happens often on industrial estates and if we build a very large industrial estate bang in the middle of the aquifer, sooner or later there will be some sort of spillage.

    When I first looked at the China Gateway plans I realised the problem having worked in industry and my thoughts were that it would be best to look for other sources of water. Later on when Southern Water said that the aquifer is essential I realised that we are going down a rather stupid road here.

    As far as Rick goes you have to consider that you haven’t actually said anything concrete that contradicts anything he has said, so suppose he is right, where do you go from there?

    The expert opinion I have consulted on the Sericol leak is of the opinion that the vacuum extraction plant should never have been turned off, and my communications with the environment agency have left me with considerable cause for concern.

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  4. Jack

    (1) I have never said that the IRa trained in a local gun quarry. What I have said is that the quarry was granted plannomh consent and landowner consent for change of use to .22 range. That for 23 years Kent Police issued firearms certs in excess of .22 and, in spite of being advised by Home Office, they refused to disclose the range safety certificate and range safety template.

    A number of witnesses have been identified to police who they refuse to interview concerning the possession and use of suv machine guns and unlawful live fire paramilitary style training there (for which there are two witnesses)

    (2) Mail tampering was a matter I was told about by the leader of tory group and for which I have an FOI application in place.

    (3) The IRA attempt to black out mains electricity was reported in 1996 newspapers.

    (4) The fact that OIRA planned to conduct sabotage by infiltration of the trades unions was published in a Judicial Inquiry of 1972.

    (5) There has been a prima facie case for sabotage at Petbow Cummins for many years which Kent Police have failed to pursue.

    (6) In 1996 the Health and Safety Executive were unable to pose any alternative explanation than sabotage.

    (7) A company called Sandberg Ltd was awarded a contract to examine the number of failures of hospital backup generators.

    (8) The NHS has introduced new Security of Electrical supply regs taking into account technical arguments I had made to IEE.

    (9) The Police have been provided evidence of association. Including with a known member of the protestant paramilitary group UDA.

    (10) Anyone named by me can make their representations to Maidstone Justices of the Peace.

    (11) The basic issue remains that the matters I report are subject of Common law Obligation. And opinion (such as yours) don't cut it. Feeble jest such as yours don't cut it. The fact is that Michael Fuller was challenged, as part of my 2006 High Court statement of truth, to state that no sabotage of Petbow Generators occurred. He elected silence. The position in law, as I understand it, is that he has two choices (no availability of the Jack third way) he either states that no sabotage occurs and is prepared to prove it .. or he must act. He is having his cake and eat it Jack. Whereas it does not matter about you thinking as a child it does matter when a Chief constable fails to act the grown up.

    (12) It is clear that you accept the FOI finding of the Sericol incident as fact (whereas you do not accept the Judicial Inquiry published IRA Garland Plan as fact). It is a fact that EA assess the incident as a threat to the aquifer for years to come. It is a fact that the incident vindicates the warnings Michaewl has sounded about CGP. It is a fact that those calling him a scaremonger have stood down from that activity.

    (2)

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  5. I must correct Jack on one of his points.

    JACK there was not a "Spill". That is comfort thinking.

    There was continuous leakage to aquifer for thirty years before discovery.

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  6. And my final comment as I am actually sick of cowards like Jack.

    This is typical of their ilk "And surely libellous ?"

    In other words you question rather than assert and you hedge your bets Jack. What a little man you are.

    In future your comments will be read but not responded to.

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Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.