The forthcoming election will take voters in Thanet to 2015 but the document “Shaping our Future” is the proposed plan and policies to 2026. The document is long and often technical so I have listed the policies with a simple summary so you can judge how they affect you. Some of the policies are GOOD for Thanet others need amendment, I would like to help Thanet Villages have a real voice in the negotiations.
Please read "Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon" for the background information.
Please read "Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon" for the background information.
DCS1 - Overall aims of job creating development, airport expansion, new houses,
Westwood Cross expansion, revitalising Margate and Cliftonville West
DCS2 – Manston Park Business Park development (uses B1, B2 &B8)
DCS3 – Allocating land for Airport Expansion (up to 6 million passengers per annum)
DCS4 – Allocating land for “Airside” development and Airport Expansion
DCS5 – Land North of B2050 for Airport development
DCS6 – Land allocated for car parks in Airport Expansion.
DCS7 – Parkway Station adjacent to Cliffsend
DCS8 – General expansion policy for Westwood Cross
DCS9 – Further development of Westwood Cross town centre
DCS10 – Wider commercial development – North East of WC town centre
DCS11 – New Haine – High density housing (400 to 600 units) and business uses
DCS12 – Nash Road, North West of WC town centre - High density housing (1020 units)
DCS13 – Westwood Technology Centre – relocating Thanet College plus B1 uses
DCS14 – Improving sports facilities at Jackey Bakers.
DCS15 – Regeneration and development of Margate Town Centre and Seafront
DCS16 – Development of Cliftonville West
DCS17 – Ramsgate Waterfront development
DCS18 – Ramsgate Port development
DCS19 – General clause allowing development for economic enhancement.
DCS20 – General clause on allocation and placing of development
DCS21 - Maintaining Green Wedges – essential development only.
DCS22 – High quality design for new development
DCS23 – Energy efficiency in new developments
DCS24 – Placement of development for business use, Manston Park, Manston Airport
New Haine and Westwood Technology Centre.
DCS25 – Economic development outside designated areas (China Gateway 2 & 3)
DCS26 – 7500 new houses by 2026, 20% on Greenfield sites around Westwood.
DCS27 – Changing shops to residential in the Old Town Centres
DCS28 – Affordable housing incorporated in developments of 15 or more units
30% in urban areas except Broadstairs, 35% in Thanet Villages
DCS29 – Preference for houses not flats in new developments
DCS30 – Lifetime standards in new developments of 15 units or more
DCS31 – Restriction on converting existing houses to flats.
DCS32 – Provision of land for gypsies and travellers
DCS33 – New development compatible with transport, social, physical and green
infrastructure.
This is only a summary and may not contain every aspect of a given policy.
Items shown in bold have a direct effect on Thanet Villages.
Followed a link to this page from @thanetbloglist and I am mystified as to what I am looking at! I find the titles listed very interesting yet I know not what the document is that these listed titles are pertaining. What is the original document that this 'author' is alluding to that I might find out more? I find this page very annoying due to it's lack of adequate referencing or explanation of purpose in writing it in the first place. Is this man asking for people to vote for him? I would hope he would detail a manifesto better and indeed inform people that it were a manifesto that he was detailing and not something that will remain, forever more, a mystery!
ReplyDeleteThank you anon 02.41, I apologise for the lack of cross referencing on this post, I was assuming my readers would have seen my previous post "Crouching Tiger - Hidden Dragon". I have now amended the post with a link to the previous.
ReplyDeleteSadly, 2:41, it is but electioneering and scaremongering. Extracts taken from a Strategy Plan, much of which is far from certain to happen, and presented in such a way with minimal detail so as to alarm. Having raised awareness you then claim that it needs proper consultation which, for no reason disclosed, the present councillors will not provide.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, and Ramsgate Town Council is a prime example, independents in small numbers make no difference for they invariably side with one of the major groups. In this instance there is also remarkable similarity between the campaigns of the independents and the Labour activists. Oppose everything, spread scare stories about 747s thundering over rooftops every five minutes during the night and seek to discredit the existing council.
Where, one might ask, is their manifesto?
Anon 12.24 your statement "much of which is far from certain to happen" would indicate that you have some inside knowledge and I would ask, if it is unlikely to happen then why is it included? A core strategy document must be "deliverable".
ReplyDeleteI am not anti- everthing as you claim in fact I am in favour of a "good neighbours airport", I am not similar to Labour because I consider neither major party has served Thanet well and "parties" should be taken out of local politics.
There are 16 Independents standing in the district elections, making them the third largest group after the main political parties.
This would indicate that many people are unhappy with the status quo and seek a change
My manifesto is in the same place as the Conservatives "awaiting publication"
Ken, reading your last comment and, as I have said before, I would dearly love to go back to the days before Labour introduced politics into local government, when upstanding local citizens gave of their time freely to their communities. Sadly it is not going to happen.
ReplyDeleteThere would be some merit in a group of independent councillors holding a balance of power, but their very independence suggests that they do not work collectively. If they do, then they become a party called the Independent Party.
I do genuinely wish you well, even though I reluctantly accept there is no turning the clock back. We are no more likely to get politics free local governance than we are to see the resurrection of Lark Rise and Candleford.
Just because a plan is deliverable does not mean it is necessarily going to happen. On route public consultations, objections, financial constraints, lack of private investment and even unforseen eventualities can all play a part in changing or even stopping parts of any plan.
ReplyDeleteIsn't what you are doing raising queries over whether all the plans are desirable. If they were set in stone, very different to deliverable, there would be not point in your campaign.
My campaign is "simple simon", I intend to give Thanet Villages a REAL voice in the final negotiations on this matter.
ReplyDeleteThe Core Strategy will be brought before a Public Inspector for the Secretary of State, who will decide independently if it is a "sound" document.
Ken
ReplyDeleteAre there any rules that prohibit candidates expounding political views anonymously? And not just as "Anonymous" but as "Thanet Reaper", "Bluenote", "Bill Richards" etc.
Your 13:03; if the previous comment (12:24) were found to be another candidate or councillor that person may be acting outside the rules of the election. Incidentally, if you wanted my guess I would suggest that 12:24 lives in Westgate.
Andrew has a point but I am not sure what could be done about it. There are rules applicable to serving councillors on privileged information and all candidates have to cost their campaigns and remain within limits. There are also rules about deliberate lies about an opponent. As to opinion, unless offensive who knows.
ReplyDeleteEven if one had the technology to roll back the URL to the source computer, if that is located in an office or even multiple occupation family home, who is to say who exactly made the on line comment. Am I my brother's keeper and all that.
Unless someone engaged in blogging seriously detrimental to another candidate I reckon it would be a pretty hard prosecution to pursue.
Thanks 1727. Maybe the Returning Officer could be persuaded to clarify the3 situation
ReplyDeleteAndrew and Anon 17.27 from my point of view I consider "criticsm to be the best form of flattery". I must have rattled someone's blue cage.
ReplyDeleteMy gripe in this election would be the incumbent councillors saying everything is covered by "purdah" or to be PC I should say p.e.r.p.
This actually stands for "pre-election rules on publicity" and only applies to council officials giving inappropriate support to a particular party, or incumbent councillors using their existing positions to advantage.
Difficult for a rookie candidate to fall foul of those rules.
Ken
ReplyDeleteMy point was that 12:24 could indeed have an existing position which he or she was using to their advantage (making it look as if you were scaremongering), whilst hiding under the cloak of anonymity.
Sorry, Andrew, but having read 12:24's contribution several times I can only conclude that it contains nothing that I, and indeed anyone who follows Thanet affairs, did not know already.
ReplyDeleteWe are into electioneering and candidates seeking to break into the council do so more on critcising what exists than coming up with bright new plans. Ken is no exception and is scaremongering however he likes to call it.
Anon 09.59 I am bringing to the attention of the electors in Thanet Villages the true situation which exists with regard to future development proposals for their Ward. If you lable that as scaremongering then so be it.
ReplyDeleteIt is impossible to put forward new ideas without explaining what is wrong with the existing ones.
If you read my posts carefully you will find I am suggesting an Integrated Transport and Tourism Scheme, apparently along similar lines suggested by Laura Sandys MP, although I was unaware of that.
I am also suggesting a "good neighbours" airport where local residents and the airport can co-exist in harmony.
Most of all I am suggesting a 5 Villages Forum for all the Thanet Villages in the Ward I am contesting, to give them a greater voice in future negotiations on these subjects.
You may not like what I am saying but my primary responsiblity is to the electors in the Thanet Villages Ward, who will have the last say on the matter by either electing me or not.
0959. You should try reading a bit more carefully. I said "My point was that 12:24 could indeed have an existing position". "Could" not "does". My query was that we have no way of knowing whether comments on local blogs are from concerned voters or in-the-know councillors; or even worse, from council officials. As it happens I agree with you that 12:24 didn't really say anything that we didn't already know, but the question is still valid. Do you know who "Bluenote", or "Bill Richards", or "Retired" or "Thanet Reaper" are? For all you know TR could be one of our Councillors (he knows some long words so that narrows the field a bit!). The only thing thyat you can be sure of is that I'm not standing for election - and even then you'll have to take my word for it.
ReplyDeleteCan't help on most, Andrew, although I have suspicions, but Retired is Rick Card, well known campaigner on issues from the Adventure Cadets to the Deal Bombing. Having said that, who is Andrew? Even more to the point, does it really matter?
ReplyDeleteUnless a council officer was blatantly campaigning for a candidate I really cannot see the problem.