CHINA GATEWAY - HARDLY BELIEVABLE TIMING FROM SOUTHERN WATER

You would think this is the stuff of fiction. Pop across to Cllr David Green's site at http://www.eastclifframsgate.blogspot.com/ and read about Southern Water's 'Consultation on Our Strategic Plan for Water Resources dated April 2008. Amongst the detail 3 salient points emerge:

1. Southern Water want us all on compulsory meters by 2015.

(Have no doubt that this is a profit increasing bandwagon. Silly environmentalists have convinced this even sillier Labour Government that water in the UK is a precious resource and water-metering will make us all more careful with its use. Well if water companies like Southern Water will insist on relying on local Victorian aquifers built in the the 1890s to provide our water for a population that has quadrupled in the South East, no wonder there is a supply problem. The solution is quite simple, catch more of the stuff that falls out of the sky for free?) I digress!

2. Southern Water wants to source extra groundwater supplies.

3. Southern Water wants to improve the ability to share water with other regions. (About time too! The Victorians linked Lake Vrnwy in Wales to Liverpool and Thirlmere in Cumbria to Manchester over 100 years ago!) I digress again.

Let me remind you that China Gateway is planned to be built smack bang in the middle of Thanet's major water catchment are with two huge warehouses encroaching into the Zone 1 area of Sparrow Castle Pumping Station with only a 50 day contamination delay of our aquifer should there be a spill.

Just in case you haven't twigged the significance of this, let me explain. Building on a water catchment area automatically reduces surface water (rain) percolating through to the underground reservoir below the chalk in Thanet. If this wasn't bad enough , CGPLtd's own application quite clearly states that there is a grave risk that contamination of our aquifer in Thanet could occur and in the worst case render the aquifer unusable, PERMANENTLY!

So what value is the 'Consultation' by Southern Water dated April 2008 on its Strategic Plan for Water Resources if it seems to be doing nothing at all in regard to the planning application for the China Gateway submitted by CGP Ltd?

Meaningless 'twaddle' springs to mind except that the end result is that we pay even more for water to come to us from 'elsewhere' rather than from under our feet. Get your protest into TDC fast; time is running out. If reports of a delayed date are true, then you can always elaborate your objections at leisure later.