Thanet District Council have started the week by deleting
the news item that they put up about RiverOak a couple for weeks ago on their
website.
Here is what they have deleted:
"Thanet District Council is currently reviewing its
position around whether Riveroak is a suitable indemnity partner for a
compulsory purchase order on the Manston Airport site.
This followed a Cabinet decision in July which committed to
re-opening discussions with the American firm.
Following a final request for financial evidence promised by
Riveroak, Thanet District Council’s solicitors have now reviewed the
information submitted by the company on Friday 14 August.
An important part of this process is for the council to seek
financial assurances from Riveroak given the significant financial risk of
pursuing a CPO by a publicly-funded authority.
Two redacted letters were provided which do not identify the
names or addresses of the investors who Riveroak suggest could provide the
financial security required.
This approach to providing information in a redacted format
is for a local authority, highly unusual and prevents it from being able to
gather any financial assurance from it.
As a consequence the council has now asked for confirmation
of the bond agreement as detailed in the draft indemnity agreement submitted by
Riveroak."
As a local historian I get a bit worried when the council
start removing the news.
Anyway here is the Newspeak
"RiverOak Aviation Associates and Thanet District
Council anticipate a number of meetings in the coming weeks, in a variety of
formats and venues. We jointly acknowledge there are a number of points to be
negotiated and settled prior to indemnity partner status and any CPO, and are
agreed these confidential negotiations are best conducted in private. Thus, for
a period of at least the next 30 days, updates on progress will be made, as
with this statement, in a jointly agreed wording, appearing simultaneously on
our websites.
Both participants in the negotiations wish to avoid
repeating some of the misunderstandings of recent weeks, and feel this is a
significant step forward.
George Yerrall, CEO RiverOak Aviation Associates stated:
" both parties agree some serious, and confidential, talks will clarify
any confusion and help iron out the difficulties to ensure a successful
conclusion...." Chris Wells,
Leader of Thanet District Council added...."I have been calling for calm
over recent weeks, and, along with George, hope the campaigners will now
respect that request."
This initial statement appears at 10 am in the UK, Monday 7
September; in America Tuesday 8 September due to the Labor Day Holiday."
Here in the bookshop the week started well on the home
decorating book front
We usually have more on decorative fabrics (this is from a
1908 book we have in stock on fabric printing, samples of fabric being stuck to
most of the pages)
Anyway this morning I bought a small collection of modern
book about wallpaper, I should stress here that we are not talking bestsellers
here, but if it is obscure enough I will probably want to buy it.
Of course we do have other books on the diy and decorating already,
this is an interesting example from 1879.
Sorry I guess I have drifted off into the world of
bookselling and have lost the thread on the Manston issue.
Still the real Manston issue seems to be that
while a lot of local people appear to want a passenger airport, the council's
response of pursuing an airfreight hub there that we can't fly from seems a bit
strange. Perhaps a public consultation, who knows.
You may already know this but Morrisons have sold all of their local stores and the 10 closed ones including Ramsgate which are to reopen as "My Local" stores.
ReplyDelete