PROTESTORS FEEL GAGGED?

If you haven't found a copy of Your Thanet today, Sue kindly sent a link on another strand and you can access the electronic version of the paper at www.yourthanet.co.uk/ .


A reader has e-mailed me to say that this correctly spelled message from Amy Murray and her team has some significance that only half the members of The Planning Committee were not shown on the infamous site visit that Ken Gregory so vociferously defends in the paper. I now point it out to them and to those who did not attend.

Firstly they are standing at the NW boundary of the site and about 10m from where the two largest Gateway buildings will end; ie. the X type warehouses. The observant will note that Sparrow Castle Pumping Station is in the background about 250m away. These 'protestors' are standing 50m inside the Source Protection Zone 1 of the aquifer!

A well experienced Chair of Planning , like Cllr Bill Hayton, who 'Mowice' sacked in early May having allowed his Council to gag comments at Planning Visits in April, would have pointed out the way the two X type warehouses with all the major HGV traffic would not only be built on prime agricultural land contrary to TDC Policy CC9; but would also be built on SPZ 1 contrary to policy EP13 but in addition would be the most visually intrusive contrary to policy CC2 and would be the closest point of the Phase 1 plan to the village of Acol. (Acol only has 230 villagers eligible to vote, so they can be ignored of course).

My source tells me that The 'visit' did not even go up the public footpath to see for themselves the way the plans would look on the ground and did not even consider looking at the site from the outside in, to even consider their impact and whether the X types should not be built there but elsewhere in Phase 1.

This of course would have been EVIDENCE pointed out to them had locals, affected by the plan, been able to draw these issues to the attention of The Planning Committee during its 'visit'.

So forgive me if I regard Cllr Gregory's words in Your Thanet as utterly risible. He said ,

"What we should be doing is allowing officers to tell us what is proposed so when ALL THE EVIDENCE IS GATHERED, (my capitals) and it ends up in the chamber at the council, we do it with some knowledge of the area."

The problem about evidence is that what you ignore, leave out, fail to seek or do not search for, is often vital evidence when attempting to make a sound decision and I for one have little confidence that our Planning Committee members are being directed to consider ALL the evidence.

This might help explain why Amy and her team are up in arms and about to roll out another, 20,000 leaflets to encourage the people of Thanet to object to serious aspects of this application that are being treated in what appears to be a cavalier manner by TDC. It's called local democracy and listening to your electorate. A copy is shown below.




You can print it off if you want or wait for it to arrive in a street near you!