Tuesday 4 December 2012

Whose £6.8m, does it include the parkway station at Manston and London to Ramsgate in an hour?


Having an end of the evening trawl of the web I discovered a recent, sometime today Isle of Thanet Gazette web article saying:

“Transport Minister Simon Burns MP will visit Manston Airport tomorrow (Wednesday) to hear Kent County Council's plans to reduce rail travel time between London and Ramsgate to less than one hour.”

It also says:

“Do you have a question you would like the Gazette to ask Simon Burns MP, Paul Carter or Charles Buchanan? If you do, leave a comment in the box below or visit our Facebook or Twitter pages with your suggestions.”

Well there aren’t any comments their on there website, perhaps no one has anything to say on the issue, perhaps no one discovered the article, here’s the link to it http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Transport-minister-visit-Manston-Airport/story-17495420-detail/story.html no comments on their FaceBook thingy either, although frankly I don’t understand FaceBook so perhaps I wasn’t friendly enough.

I can only assume the paper only discovered this today, there doesn’t seem to be anything on the KCC website, the airport website. Doesn’t say anywhere if this is a public meeting.

I don’t really know if this is some sort of oversight, or a done deal, “we invited and informed the local press” type of job.

Who knows, you may even be able to go and ask your own questions, like will they be keeping Ramsgate station?

No mention of our own MPs so I don’t know if they are involved, I don’t think our county councillors have any sort of internet presence, do they?

I am sure there is nothing to concern us locals about here, but I just though I would mention it. With such a huge result to the recent Manston KLM consultation one would have expected someone to say something.

13 comments:

  1. That will be handy for all those commuters living in all those houses they are going to build on it

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  2. I dont think you will gwt a decent station as well for £6.8 millions. Over at Southend Airport where the line was already in place, the cost of the railway staton was £12.5 mllions and it took 23 months to build.

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  3. My understanding is that this money is for line improvements through Canterbury to Ashford with the intention of having a high speed link to Ashford. The funding of Manston Parkway is the next step/application. I note pnce again Michael you cant wait to trot out socialist propoganda regarding Ramsgate station. The local socialist luddites want the high speed train only into the three stations at Ramsgate Margate and Broadstairs and no parkway station. As usual they are anti developments which may help the island and their argument as usual is flawed, cos we could get both; and elsewhere in the country parkway stations have really helped inward investment. Rather think the socialists want neither so they can continue moaning. God help Thanet if Hart is now to concentrate solely on economic development he has no understanding of the issue at all. Thought I had better say that Michael, cos you certainly wont. Hart's last explanation of his fit for the post of economic regeneration was that he had worked on many of the buildings which may be involved. So far they have developed a meaningless draft strategy with no real targets; which was expected in February and arrived last month; and promised three more stages of draft waffle before drawing any conclusion. ASgain Michael thought it best to inform your readers as you wont. No doubt you will shortly say it has been covered elsewhere.

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    1. Thanks for the clarification Chris, my point here is not so much that the idea is wrong, I would think the high speed to Ramsgate will be beneficial. It was more that local people should be a bit more involved in a local government process i.e. KCC should have communicated this in some way.

      You don’t need to continue to rub in my unfortunate socialist ideals, I have already admitted that like most small businessmen and women in the area – this is only a cover – and I am actually a Marxist Leninist mole. When we get the signal ‘frad to say it will be Conservative district councillors up against the wall first, followed by county councillors, before we move on central government. There will be no move on the EEC until we discover if they are on the same side, very difficult with the cell method of operatives.

      Anyway needless to say I am fully supportive of the airports moves towards being a uk air tax evasion hub, up the revolution!

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    2. Once again we have a councillor (KCC elections comming) that is trying to score political points by trying to rubish your blog entry Michael. I can not find anything in what you said regarding Ramsgate station that is socialist propaganda. people of Ramsgate would like to know what the government and KCC are planning/proposing for rail in the areas. The only flaw in current argumens for and aginst a parkway station seem to be that what infratil plan to do withe the airport is very much unknown and a station their could become a white elephant. One thing is for sure, KCC will apoint yet another company to run a survey just like the £38,000 they have just wasted on a budget survey when all along they had already made the budget decisions and it was hardly supprising that just a handful of people replied. There is another one going on at the moment -
      Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (www.tfconsultancy.co.uk) is carrying out research into Kent’s Creative Hotspots, are you going to the local meeting? Thursday December 6th, 4pm-6pm: Margate Media Centre, 11-13 King Street, Margate. I though KCC employed plenty of staff and had councillors that should already be on the ball.

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  4. Methinks in recent years some conservative councillors may have found the wall without your help!!! As this makes you a Marxist Leninist failure, I presume you are available for 'turning'.

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    1. Chris, don’t you think in true Orwellian fashion is should stick with my fictional nemesis and keep my aspidistra flying?

      I guess one way and another I have never really need to keep my back up against the wall and have tended to face in whatever direction takes mi fancy.

      Good opportunity for the Conservative group to get some Ramsgate credibility back at council tomorrow over Pleasurama, inasmuch as either driver is barking up the wrong or you lot were had over at the 1009 cabinet and the supporting docs were not what you thought, in which case you could easily find out and say so. Alternatively everything was fine though god alone knows where that takes you, but it must be better that the current situation of fog.

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  5. I have no fog about 2009, I spoke as a backbencher against the change because I believed the business plan was inadequate and only voted for the motion because of Cardy's involvement - which I stated that night. I also pointed out the original labour failure of selecting a partner over whom no proper due diligence could be done. One R Nicolson of Ramsgate took exception to this and threatened all sorts..but of course could not follow through because it is true. Just keeping your readers in the loop of pre 2009 history - the facts not your usual excuses for socialist ineptitude. All those decisions were taken by full council; it is only this labour administration which consistently chooses to hide decisions away from proper scrutiny whenever they can - something else you seem to ignore Michael. The Conservative proposal is simply to place the decision once again before full council not hide it away as the labour admonistration plans.

    For the record Michael, the 1009 cabinet coiuld well have reached a different decision - perhaps to build something in Hastings instead?

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    1. Chris I don’t think developments in Hastings took place until 1066.

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  6. I believe as a good socialist it is now your duty to report yourself to the diversity champion regarding your backs to the wall comment. I am disappointed in you Micheal, and feel you should be thoroughly shriven for your homophobic reference.

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    1. Chris I didn’t say I had to keep by back to the wall, I said I didn’t have to. This I am sure you will agree is quite different.

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  7. Are you sure its not a jibe at bi sexuality? Reads that way. Perhaps you are a dysfunctional blogger. Should I phone the BBC? It would take from 1009 to 1066 to get planning permission.

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    1. Chris with sex I subscribe to the Aristophanic view than humanity was once creatures whirling round on four arms and four legs, eight in all, with incredible rapidity. Creatures separated by the gods to reduce their power they cannot exist in isolation, must be reunited if they are to be perfected and that love is the mediator and reconciler of poor, divided human nature. The loves of this world are an indistinct anticipation of an ideal union which is not yet realised.

      Like Aristophanes I feel this will all be sorted out in some sort of after life however rejecting human love, gay or straight, will result in a dysfunctionality, bit like the council really.

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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.