I apologise for the quality of the picture but I am trying to show an over-view of how we are gobbling up agricultural land in Thanet with gay abandon and creating our 'exciting' NEW TOWN.The 'blue' in the top left shows how Two Chimneys Caravan Park and Quex Caravan Park have and are expanding to create a 'village' that is larger than Acol.
The 'green' in the bottom left shows how Cummins and The New China Gateway has and intends to put 'business accommodation on what is currently agricultural land' (Commercial Group Properties blurb).
The 'green' on the right shows the present commercial shopping centre and recreational facilities that is the 'hub' of Westwood Cross and the 'blue' to the left shows the area for proposed housing around Nash Farm. The 'blue' below shows the proposed Eurokent Business Park or is it no longer a'business park'? (Click on the pic for more detail if you want it!)
So what is actually going on here? I was under the impression that Thanet Reach was planned as a 'business park'; it is now largely a Thanet Campus. I also thought that the road outside Saga was the northern boundary of The Eurokent Business Park?
No, the Business Barons of Rose Farm Estates and Ken Wills at Commercial Group Properties seem to have other ideas that TDC et al are going along with. My theory runs like this; Commercial Property Group: you guys can go and cover all that land down in Manston with 40 industrial/business sheds to create 'jobs' called China Gateway and we no longer have the need for business units at Eurokent over at Westwood. Let's have a jolly good re-think and wow! we can have a new master plan for Eurokent! It could be used for more 'jobs'(those silly TDC councillors and planners love that added to a scheme as it gives it credibility) "better recreational facilities, family homes (nice touch from the PR team there, 'family' gets us all feeling warm), NEW SHOPS and MUCH MORE!" ( And between them all they make more £millions) . I am quoting from the www.eurokent.org site. Go and look at it.
So Ezekiel and his Tory bunch are happy to carry on seeing the building and expansion of Thanet's NEW TOWN , whilst the rest of you businesses around Thanet can just get on and quietly die without making too much of a fuss.
Hasn't the problem here been one of big business telling the 'little' men and women of OUR council what they want and our elected representatives have just gone along with it? More organised, democratic Councils, who properly represent the interests of their electorate do not behave in this way. Better Councils plan properly and then set the parameters for big business; "You can do this here and that there , as long as you comply with OUR plans.
So whilst the big business barons carve up Thanet around us in pursuit of their self-interest, you and I, fellow serfs, can do nothing about it as we wander through the dereliction and decay of what used to be thriving towns admiring the TC arty-farty murals on closed and boarded High Streets and idly speculate whether TDC will actually enforce the re-build of our scenic Railway.
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5 comments:
Well said, Bertie. With all the recent talk about food prices and concern over how we will feed ourselves in the future when the world's population continues to grow TDC allows prime agricultural land to be turned into factories. Developing countries will want a wider range of items like wheat so we need to plan ahead and consider how we in the UK will get enough supplies for our own population. Of course, two factors arise here. One is money for the landowner who can see an easier life selling off land and the other, is the magic word 'jobs'. Can no-one see that many of these high-tech jobs employ skilled workers in small numbers? The paper manufacturer at Sittingbourne is very high-tech and computer-operated where one man can start the process producing tons of newsprint for the newspaper industry. One man, not dozens of semi-skilled unemployed Thanet folk.
I see the basic flaw in your analysis, you have credited TDC with 'mind', this is a understandable slip as most of us have 'mind'.
Allowance should always be made when figuring any scheme involving TDC that 'mind' is forbidden under Health & Safety guidelines imposed by the unelected popinjay's who for some strange reason our elected officials fail time and time again to control, one could almost get the impression that it is the executive officers who run the council not the elected representatives.
A case of the tail wagging the dog?
No-one seems concerned about the impact all this concrete has on the capability of rainwater to drain away when everything is concreted over. A major factor in some of the recent flooding has been the impossibility of excess rain to drain off since so many front gardens are concreted for parking. No gap is left for anything to drain so it has to go into the rarely emptied gulleys in the streets. Trees, shrubs, hedgerows and gardens are vital for flood protection. One reason why Bangladesh is so affected by flooding (apart from lying 1 metre above sealevel) is the deforestation of the Himalayan region. Thanet Earth's impact on the area hasn't been properly evaluated and depending on the slope of the land we could well see floods in Monkton and Birchington.
I am told that block paving for people's off street parking now has to have holes in it to allow water to seep into the ground below rather than run off to drains. Is this true? It seems sensible.
Don't know if true but there is concern in some flood-prone areas that the lack of open ground will increase flooding. I remember after the drought of 1976, when it rained heavily in September the ground was obviously bone-dry and there were floods here and an elderly woman died as she couldn't get out of her flat on the Canterbury Road, Westgate. Concreting over must have the same effect as that dry summer when the ground couldn't absorb the rainfall.
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