As most of you are aware the planning application for China Gateway, planning reference number F/TH/08/0400, is due to be reported to the Planning Committee meeting and according to this weeks Gazette with the recommendation that it is approved.Now most of you are also aware that a bundle of documents were found that suggested there might have been some impropriety between the developer, council officers and councillors.
Two worrying aspects of the documents being that they appeared to show that the recent visit by the two most senior councillors and the two most senior council officers, to China, had been funded by the developer and not the Chinese government as they had said, and that the developer appeared to be drafting and or amending correspondence from the council to the Chinese.
Now the bundle has been handed to Kent police’s serious economic crime unit who are holding an investigation into the matter, I have asked some of the councillors about this and they have either not responded or said, quite properly, that they cannot comment until the police examination and any resultant litigation is complete.
The questions that this raises is, should this be coming before planning before the police investigation is concluded and will the planning permission be valid if some impropriety is found to exist?
Surely the fact that this is subject to police investigation, doesn't alter the validity of the scheme itself - just the alleged integrity of those involved in its planning?
ReplyDelete15.55 I think the problems here are about whether the decision will be unbiased and whether the council has been realistic in the promises they have made to the Chinese, the China Gateways in other countries seem to be usually over 1,000 Chinese businesses on one site, which would suggest phases 2, 3 and a lot more development across prime agricultural land, now you and I know that this is not realistic but do the Chinese?
ReplyDeleteWhat we really don’t want in Thanet, where we desperately need jobs and investment, is to have this major scheme fail because the council have made unrealistic promises to a major investor, obviously this would put other people off investing here.
I have no faith in the council beyond the full belife that they will do whatever they like and then hide behind legislation and name calling untill the boo-hooing stops.
ReplyDeleteMichael, lets be absolutly clear the allegations involve Council Members and NOT Officers,whilst I am not party to any promises made to the Chinese or anyone else for that matter it is highly unlikely that professional Officers would make wild promises just to get the Chinese to invest here,,politicians on the other hand,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
ReplyDeleteHaving read the planning officer's report it looks to me likely that nothing will happen for months and the bank loan that's funding all this is due for repayment sometime next year. The archaeological survey alone could take months to complete. The company has to produce an acceptable drainage plan for Southern Water and that's going to take some time. The conditions, assuming the planning committee agrees, won't please CGP one iota as they had planned to start building work this autumn if not before. They won't like the restrictions placed on operating hours either as they had planned for 24/7 operations and they haven't got that.
ReplyDeleteWith the rise in agricultural land values perhaps they'll decide to grow food instead rather than import Chinese goods that'll kill off even more of our industrial companies.
Personally I think they should move the proposed scheme to Westwood. With the college going up there as well I think that will be the final piece in the TDC jigsaw of achieving their corporate aim of bringing the entire area to complete gridlock 24/7.
ReplyDeleteMatt I don’t ever recall working in an area where ordinary peoples perception of their council was anything like as bad as here and now.
ReplyDeleteMike perhaps I was misinformed, but I don’t think so.
19.37 There is a certain irony in the fact that one of the factors causing the world shortage of food is China’s increasing demands and yet China Gateway is to go on prime agricultural land.
7.59 I expect they would have done but for the fact that the is no space in WC big enough.
The fact remains, that this may be prime agricultural land, but it is not making the kind of profit that it should be for those involved in working it. If you had two farms and struggling to run them as a viable business, then it makes sense to sell the one where you don't live in order to financially support your primary concern. The responsibility for this situation ultimately lies with all of us as consumers, for we are the ones the supermarkets reduce the price of their fruit and veg for in order to keep our business. We all need to be paying a realistic price for such products if we want our green fields to survive. Farmers are businessmen not charity workers.
ReplyDelete15.38 As far as I am aware we have come to the end of a long period of a surplus of food in Europe, during which farmers had a particularly hard time, now we are moving into a period of food shortage and the farmers I know say they are getting more realistic prices for some crops.
ReplyDeleteNow the food shortage doesn’t seem to be set to go away, so it doesn’t seem a sensible time to build on prime farmland especially when we have all of the land at Richborough that has already been used for industry.
My understanding is that China Gateways in other counties are normally very large indeed so if we have one it needs to be where there is room for it to expand, I also gather that Pfizer’s are moving a substantial part of their operation away from their site here so we are likely to see quite a lot of that site empty.
We really can’t afford to build on the agricultural land in this area until we have used up the disused land that is already brownfield.
I try when I can to avoid using supermarkets and have stopped out of town shopping altogether, I would certainly like to see a farmers market here in Ramsgate, I would think it would get considerable support.
@Cllr. Mike Harrison: Don't the councilors instruct the officers? Also what stops an officer falling under the sway of party politics or personal charisma?
ReplyDelete@Michael: Yes it does seem bad - but bad enough for change...? As for food, farms and roads wouldn't make more sense to put things like shopping centres and big complexes onto a high capacity road infrastructure? That self same road network would increase the value of existing complexes and make airport investment more likely. It seems inside out to me.