News, Local history and Thanet issues from Michael's Bookshop in Ramsgate see www.michaelsbookshop.com I publish over 200 books about the history of this area click here to look at them.
Saturday 25 March 2017
13 comments:
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.
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Michael,
ReplyDeleteI hope you will not be upset by my returning to the subject of Manston Airport and River Oak.
You have often complained about what you perceive to be the paucity of financial information emanating from River Oak. Consequently, you have long concluded that they had neither the funds nor the know how to create an airport. I hope following article will go some way to allaying your fears. It was written by John R Richard.
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“The Thanet Extra article of 22nd March, we're happy to say, was in error and will, we believe, be corrected after the weekend. River Oak were always going to need a UK-based limited company in order to meet requirements set by the Civil Aviation Authority for a license to operate an airport in the United Kingdom. That company would need to be, in effect, free-standing.
The company formed to do that was initially set up as a shell back in July 2016 with Tony Freudmann, the Managing Director of River Oak's aviation team, shown as having overall control.
The reality, of course, is that most of the money injected into that company thereafter has belonged or been invested on behalf of others by his fellow shareholders, particularly after three Swiss-based directors (two Swiss Germans and one British national) became shareholding Directors of the company in December 2016.
That only required to be updated at the end of the company's financial year in July 2017. But in view of the mischievous or idiotic spin that others have put on what they saw, River Oak are taking steps to ensure that the Companies House records will be updated shortly.
In the meantime, you can examine the form and substance of all six of the directors, who between them have successfully managed funds worth many billions of pounds sterling and each of whom can be expected to make sure that whatever they stake their personal reputations on as directors of an international airport that is bound to be seen as a hugely important and highly visible joint venture going forward will be run with great skill and made highly profitable. What is profitable for them will be profitable for Thanet and East Kent. And the benefits to the South East of England and to the United Kingdom as a whole will become evident as documentation in support of the Development Consent Order will be published in time for a formal statutory public consultation in May or June of this year.
Naturally, this new company will not have to put up front £300 million or more in cash to meet the needs for funding the DCO process, re-equipment of the site to the point where they expect it to become the most sophisticated and efficient air cargo hub in the world (as Tony Freudmann and Sir Roger Gale said last Sunday they expect it to become), and negotiating long-term deals with airline operators, hauliers, suppliers and other partner institutions. The investments required to achieve all of that will be scaffolded in phases, coming on stream as and when required. That's what international fund managers like these gentlemen do, and they will ensure that the men and women who are employed to do the work required as and when it needs doing will be available and fully supported with everything they need as and when anything and everything is needed, just as happens with the joint venture capital fund managers who own and run Heathrow, Gatwick and other major airports round the world.
Be in no doubt: Manston Airport is going to be a class act and one that will instil pride in the hearts of all of us who live in East Kent (oh, apart from a few nutters who hate all airports and probably much else besides).”
Four directors who are financiers. Three directors who are property developers. This sounds a lot more like a land deal than an airport.
ReplyDeleteI do not understand your comment.
DeleteIt's very straightforward. Nobody involved has the slightest interest or experience of running an airport. All we are looking at is an ever-expanding circle of sharks smelling money. Now, we find that the company which is supposed to be pursuing the DCO is being backed by money lodged in the offshore tax-haven of Belize. Whose money is it? Rumours abound that it's some Russian "businessman." The only thing we know for certain is that the US company, RiverOak has flown the coup and is no longer involved. Why would they do this when we are told it's such a sure-fire success?
ReplyDeleteNonsense, you are just making this up as you go along. At the very least I suspect you are judging others by your own standards.
ReplyDeleteWhat's nonsense? You are sounding rattled. After the Ramsgate seafront debacle, I imagine people will be horrified to learn that an offshore company with faceless investors is again involved with regenerating a key element of the Thanet economy. Let's hope that UKIP's councillors stop this nonsense in its tracks. After all, they were elected on a promise of transparency.
ReplyDeleteOh dear, now I recognise your argument. You have taken the facts surrounding RO & RSP and twisted them into a series of accusations that is worthy of Alistair Campbell at his mendacious best. At your best you are delusional but harmless.
DeleteWhat accusation have I made? The trouble with muddled old fools is that they can't abide someone pointing out an inconvenient truth.
ReplyDeleteFair enough what is this truth of which you speak? Are you claiming that: RO & now RSP do not intend to build and airport, and that all along they intended to build houses on Manston; and RO & RSP are guilty of the crime of money laundering?
DeleteI shall ignore your risible statement about Russians.
As for Ramsgate 'Sea Front' I suggest you speak to Barry James. The two of you have much in common; very much.
John, Col I have changed the comment notifications and hope it will work better with more timely publication but can't make any guarantees
DeleteI'm not sure why it is acceptable for John Holyer to imply that I am a liar and to call me delusional, but it's not acceptable for me to answer in kind. It would seem that some personal insults are approved and others are not. Holyer is a cantankerous know-all, who seeks to dominate discussions by demeaning the views of others. Now wonder he's pretty much the only person left commenting on this blog. I shan't bother again.
ReplyDeleteWhereas you consider it acceptable for you to impugn the probity of RSP and their named directors.
ReplyDeleteSorry about the delays in approving you comments chaps, I should point out here that the spam comments outnumber the genuine ones in gargantuan proportions because this blog gets about 1,000 hits a day. Vide the google-controlled counter on the sidebar. For the past few years most of the comment has been on the facebook groups which I link to when the post is appropriate, however not the save Manston ones as I just get blocked, this means that I don’t link to the pro Manston ones either, as I am not either pro or anti airport. I am of course against a major airfreight hub mainly because as all of this has progressed so have findings on the problems associated with particulate air pollution. Hence diesel vehicles which were in the ascendant when the airport closed are heading towards being discontinued. You can’t really gat around the fact that a 747 type freight plane burns a ton of avgas for every movement, landing or takeoff and because of the prevailing wind direction we will breathe some of the fumes in, which will shorten our life expectancy. So while I would like a regional passenger airport, I am just not a turkey who votes for Christmas.
ReplyDelete