Thursday 21 May 2015

Chris Wells is crowned king of TDC, live council meeting updates, Little Ships, retro book covers and a ramble

I am putting this blog post together while doing other things so first the Tweets from the council, if I can make them work.

Here is the video of the Manston Council Meeting









Not really many Little Ships pictures this year as there are so many on the internet and timing didn’t work well for me this year due to family commitments.

Earlier today Cllr Latchford put a question about Manston to KCC here is the question and answer. 

COUNTY COUNCIL Thursday 21 May 2015 Question by Roger Latchford to Paul Carter,

 Leader of the Council Now that the Conservative Party have Nationally secured a commanding Majority and have clearly stated their support of Manston remaining as an Airport and both Thanet newly Elected Conservative Members of Parliament have publicly stated their support, together with UKIP who have always been totally supportive, it must be clear that the current situation is that all Groups now support Manston as an Airport. Will the Leader please tell this Council who at the historic vote here also supported Manston, whether TDC can now rely on the support of KCC for a CPO. Answer I am pleased that Mr Latchford has acknowledged the commanding majority given to the Conservative Government in the House of Commons. As Mr Latchford will know, the airport at Manston has now been closed for almost exactly 12 months, and in that time I have seen no credible plan which would restore to Manston a viable airport. Nor, I believe, has the new Conservative Government. 

Mr Latchford’s question asks “whether Thanet District Council can rely on the support of KCC for a CPO”. Neither the Government in Westminster nor Kent County Council can support the compulsory purchase of the Manston site on the information we currently have available. It is the absence of the relevant information which matters here. Let me quote from the legal advice addressed to Thanet District Council which Mr Latchford will have seen: “The Council need to be satisfied in promoting the CPO that it is able to meet the tests of Circular 06/2004 on the likelihood of the project going ahead. The Secretary of State will not confirm a CPO unless he is satisfied that there is a real likelihood of the project going ahead. If the Council take the decision to pursue a CPO, members would want to have assurance that a partner would take this forward. The Secretary of State will need to be satisfied that the scheme is likely to go ahead based on a realistic assessment.” The only plans which I have seen for the future of the site are those published by the new owners of Manston, Chris Musgrave and Trevor Cartner. I still, despite requesting this, have not been shown any business plan from RiverOak. Let me quote again from the legal advice: “The new ownership of the site since previous legal advice will be a major factor when the Council is deciding to make the CPO and when the Secretary of State is deciding whether or not to confirm a CPO. The overarching public interest test is whether there is a compelling case in the public interest. As the Circular advises (17), an authority should be sure that the purposes for which it is making the CPO sufficiently justify interfering with the human rights of those with an interest in the land affected.” The Secretary of State should therefore look closely at both business plans, carry out extensive due diligence before supporting any CPO process and decide which is best able to provide the best employment opportunities and grow the economy of East Kent. Until the Secretary of State completes his due diligence on both plans, it is premature to ask for an open-ended commitment to support Thanet and their CPO process. deciding whether or not to confirm a CPO. The overarching public interest test is whether there is a compelling case in the public interest. As the Circular advises (17), an authority should be sure that the purposes for which it is making the CPO sufficiently justify interfering with the human rights of those with an interest in the land affected.” The Secretary of State should therefore look closely at both business plans, carry out extensive due diligence before supporting any CPO process and decide which is best able to provide the best employment opportunities and grow the economy of East Kent. Until the Secretary of State completes his due diligence on both plans, it is premature to ask for an open-ended commitment to support Thanet and their CPO process.  


Here is a summery of the new appointments, just posted by Dave Green on facebook

TDC Appointments
Chair Rev Stuart Piper
Vice Char Alan Howes
Leader Chris Wells
Deputy Leader & Community Services Lin Fairbrass
Cabinet Corporate Governance Helen Smith
Cabinet Financial Services & Estates John Townsend
Cabinet Operational Services Suanne Brimm
Cabinet Regeneration ad Enterprise Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing
Cabinet Planning and Housing ?
Chair of Planning Committee Peter Evans
Vice Chair Edward Jaye-Jones
Chair of Licensing Linda Potts
Overview & Scrutiny Chair Conservative David Saunders
Vice Chair Glen Coleman-Cooke
Chair of Governance and Audit Vince Munday
Vice Chair John Buckley
Chair of Joint Transport Board Gary Taylor

I bought about 150 books for my bookshop today so I won’t bore you with pictures of them all.

This one seemed the most unlikely to find today.

On the retro book front I think this batch of 1950s military fiction and non fiction is interesting from a cover design point of view. 


This batch of books, also bought today, dating from around the beginning of WW1 shows a change in design.

Lunch at The Dog and Duck at Plucks Gutter today this is the pen sketch of The Dog and Duck, very difficult to get mock Tudor not to look like Tudor in  sketch.  



Followed by the inevitable walk by the river and copious photos








Next congratulations to Trevor Shonk who has become the new mayor of Ramsgate.

UKIP Councillor Chris Wells has been elected as Leader of Thanet District Council at last night’s (Thursday 21 May) Annual Council meeting.
This was the first council meeting following the 2015 elections held on Thursday 7 May which saw UKIP win 33 seats taking overall control of the council. The Conservatives secured 18, Labour four and one seat went to an Independent Councillor.
The annual meeting saw elections and appointments of all of the key council positions with Cllr. Lin Fairbrass elected as the Deputy Leader.
The Leader of the Opposition is Conservative’s Cllr. Bob Bayford and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is Cllr Jason Savage.
Chairmanship of the Council is now held by UKIP’s Cllr Rev. Stuart Piper, with party colleague Cllr Alan Howes as the Vice-Chairman.
Formal appointments for 2015:
Leader of the Council
Cllr. Chris Wells
UKIP
Deputy Leader of the Council
Cllr. Lin Fairbrass
UKIP
Leader of the Opposition
Cllr. Bob Bayford
Conservative
Deputy Leader of the Opposition
Cllr. Jason Savage
Conservative
Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairman
Cllr. David Saunders
Conservative
Overview and Scrutiny Vice-Chairmen
Cllr. Glenn Coleman-Cooke
UKIP
Planning Committee Chairman
Cllr. Peter Evans
UKIP
Planning Committee Vice-Chairman
Cllr. Edward Jaye-Jones
UKIP
Licensing Board Chairman
Cllr. Linda Potts
UKIP
Licensing Board Vice-Chairman
Cllr. Bertie Braidwood
UKIP
Governance and Audit Committee Chairman
Cllr. Vince Munday
UKIP
Governance and Audit Committee Vice-Chairman
Cllr. John Buckley
UKIP
Joint Transportation Board Chairman
Cllr. Gary Taylor
UKIP

Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet appointments:
Portfolio
Cabinet Member (UKIP)
Shadow Cabinet Member (Conservative)
Leader of the Council
Cllr. Chris Wells
Cllr. Bob Bayford
Community Services

Includes:

Community Safety, Margate Task Force, Events, Community Development, Indoor and Outdoor Leisure, Safeguarding Children, Sport, Youth, Your Leisure Kent Ltd, Land Charges, Licensing, Environmental Health including integrated Pollution Control, Street Nameplates, Statutory Nuisance, Food Safety and External Health and Safety, Health and Wellbeing Board, Housing Intervention, Private Sector Housing, Housing Needs/Homelessness, Housing Strategy, Client-side East Kent Housing, Building Control, Strategic Planning, Planning Applications, Planning Enforcement, Conservation.
Cllr. Lin Fairbrass

Also Deputy Leader of the Council
Cllr. Lesley Game
Corporate Governance Services

Includes:

Business Information and Improvement, Information and Communications (including Public Relations, Marketing, Press relations, Internal Communications, film locations and Records and Data Management), Business Support and Compliance (including Corporate Governance and Business Continuity), Policy and Business Planning (including Performance Management), Business Transformation and Options, Procurements and Contracts, Risk Management.
Customer Services, Customer Access, Human Resources (including internal Health and Safety), It.
Democratic Services including Electoral Management, Member Services and Legal Services.
Cllr. Helen Smith
Cllr. Rosanna Taylor-Smith
Financial Services and Estates

Includes:

Budget Setting, Monitoring and Final Accounts, Treasury Management (Revenue, Capital and HRA), Insurance, Income Payments, Systems Control and Improvement, Commercial Property, East Kent Audit Partnership, Property Management (including asset disposal, acquisition and asset management), Housing and Council Tax Benefits, Revenues (including Debt Recovery).
Cllr. John Townend
Cllr. Ian Gregory
Operational Services

Includes:

Cemeteries and Crematorium, Emergency Planning, Coastal Engineering, Grounds Maintenance, Parks and Open Spaces Management, Playgrounds, Public Toilets, Street Cleaning, Recycling and Waste, Off Street Parking, On Street Parking, Street Scene Enforcement, Temporary Road Closure Orders, Thanet Coast Project, Water Safety and Beach Services, Foreshore, Allotments, CCTV.
Cllr. Suzanne Brimm
Cllr. Ken Gregory
Regeneration and Enterprise Services

Includes:

Economic Development and Regeneration Policy, East Kent Opportunities Ltd, Tourism, Business Engagement, Town Teams, Strategic Conservation Policy, Media Centre, Kent Innovation Centre, East Kent Regeneration Board, Invest Thanet, Business Engagement, Kent and Medway Economic Partnership, Port of Ramsgate, Ramsgate Royal Harbour Marina, Broadstairs and Margate Harbours.
Cllr. Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing
Cllr. Jason Savage

Also Shadow Deputy Leader of the Council

5 comments:

  1. Well, the council has voted to review the cabinet's position on a CPO of Manston. How bizarre. The new cabinet has only just been appointed. They haven't adopted a position on the CPO to be reviewed. And the old cabinet didn't adopt a position on this either. The only thing the previous cabinet did was to make a decision about Riveroak as an indemnity partner. They never got as far as making a decision about a CPO because they didn't have the information needed to make such a decision. Mr. Carter has highlighted this quite clearly in his remarks today. So, if I understand the current situation correctly, the council has taken a decision to review a decision which was never made. From here on it would seem that anything they end up doing is going to be challenged in court. It's hardly a good start to your defence when you are reviewing decisions which never took place.

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  2. Arjun I don’t really see new council have any option but to go down this road, however as always it is what wasn’t said that is important. As far as I can see from the Tweets and press reports Chris didn’t say that RiverOak have put the money to finance the initial stages of a cpo into a UK bank account so that the council can start the process.

    The critical point here being that the way our council and most UK councils comply with money laundering regulations is to rely on money sourced from a major UK bank as being compliant.

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  3. We await the PWC report with interest...

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  4. Michael

    Thanks for the varied post and TDC coverage yesterday evening, much appreciated as always.

    Strange coincidence that Thanet was shaken by a magnitude 4.3 earthquake only hours after the TDC decision to review the Manston CPO. I'm sure that in an earlier age this would have been seen as an omen or portent, both sides would have welcomed it as a sign of the justice of their cause!

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  5. Glad you enjoyed the post Echo, an advantage with blogger, which you can't do on Facebook is that you can make a twitter widget and embed it.

    With the airport and omens I think the key here is where the liability lies, if say RiverOak folds up.

    There is a sense wher the council could be better off using RiverOak money, I am not certain that they are covering all of the costs of a cpo so far or whether they have compensated the council for the money the council has already spent on the cpo, legal costs, external advice and officer time.

    Another aspect is how strongly the council would be tied once they started down the cpo road with RiverOak, while I have been supportive of a regional airport. I don’t think an airfreight hub would be able to operate within existing environmental constrains, particularly air pollution and the levels that would be reached in Broadstairs which is usually upwind of Manston. So say the council had already spent a considerable amount of RiverOak's money when they realised that they couldn’t pursue the freight hub idea, would the council face litigation from RiverOak wanting to recover the money?

    I am hoping that soon the councillors will become more broadly focused and start on some of the other Thanet issues.

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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.