Tuesday 12 January 2010

THE LEADERSHIP MISLEADS ITS OWN COUNCIL AND THE PUBLIC











 The Ezekiel Party and Leadership at TDC has been trying to promote the idea of  600 luxury homes on the Eurokent Site for almost 2 years and now wishes to re-designate Eurokent from Employment Land to 'Residential' within The Core Strategy. Because they would thus create their own shortfall in employment land, they have stuck Policy 25 into The Core Strategy,  which means any development that promises 'loads of jobs' will be able to be approved and ride over all other policies protecting Thanet's open countryside.

Before Christmas we had 'Mauwice' in Council saying ' You tell me where we are going to build 600 houses if not on Eurokent ' and the same phrase repeated by Ezekiel Party Cabinet Member, Cllr Moores on BigNews Margate.

Have they forgotten/failed to read/ did not understand The Annual Monitoring Report April 2008 - Mar 2009 that was Annex 1 to Item 4 on the Agenda for TDC Cabinet on 4 December 2009 that they all attended and were given documentation for? It was only 5 weeks ago!

What game is going on at TDC and why do 'Mauwice', 'Woger' and Colin Fitt continue to claim that Eurokent needs to have luxury and executive housing on it to meet the requirement imposed on TDC by The South Esat Regional Plan 2009?  Here are some extracts that were part of the 'brief' prepared for 'Cabinet' by hard working TDC Officers, that clearly have not been grasped by The Ezekiel Cabinet or have been completely ignored:

'The Regional Spatial Strategy ‘the South East Plan’ was adopted in 2009. It sets total provision forThanet District at 7,500 net additional homes (375 per annum) over the period 2006-2026. The remaining requirement over the period 2010-2015 (calculation as per Annex 4) is 834 net additional homes.
In conclusion, the supply of deliverable housing over the period 2010-2015 exceeds the
requirement for that period by 293%.'

'The levels of actual and projected dwelling completions over the full period are such that it would not be necessary to aim to deliver more homes in any year above the set annual rate. Indeed, projected dwelling completions in the next few years beyond this AMR period substantially exceed housing requirements.
This, in turn is manifested in a reduction in the quantity of homes needing to be delivered year on year to meet the total requirement to 2026 (the ‘manage’ line). On the basis of this trajectory the total requirement to 2026 would be satisfied 8 years ahead of that date, and by 2026 projected delivery would exceed requirements by 714 dwelling units.'

'Indicator 11 
Projected net additional dwellings up to the end of the South East Plan Period

Monitoring and Comments

In the current monitoring year (2009/10) 1164 dwellings are predicted available for delivery. Over the remaining period to 2026 a further 5067 dwellings are predicted available.

Notional target met and exceeded.'



The Officer preparing the report makes the point that the figures only cover large sites with 5 or more dwellings and 'make no allowance for windfall permissions , which historically, have represented a very significant proportion of supply (of dwellings) delivered in the district.'

If you would like to read the report and grasp what it says in detail, try the link below:
http://tdc-mg-dmz.thanet.gov.uk/Published/C00000151/M00001644/$$ADocPackPublic.pdf

So Officers are reporting  ' WE WILL EXCEED THE 2026 TARGET BY 714 DWELLINGS AND HIT TARGET 8 YEARS EARLY' and yet 'Our Leader' and his cronies claim otherwise. The only conclusion is that not only are TDC's Councillors being misled over this nonsense at Eurokent and the need for it to be 'housing' but through comments in the local press, the public is also being misled and misinformed by TDC's Leadership.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

If we are running out of houses, perhaps we need to encourage certain people to stop churning out lots of children. Worryingly, it is us tax payers who have to pay, and some of them have no intention of ever doing a days work. Actually, many are unemployable anyway.

I suppose in a couple of years time, the Turner Centre can be purchased by a Housing Association and turned into flats.

Peter Piper said...

Oh Bertie, it makes sad reading. The only conclusion that can be drawn is that someone somewhere has a personal interest in the building of 600 luxury homes. With a developer as vice chair of planning and a carpet salesman as Leader it does make you think.

What is worse is that it could simply be that our leader has failed to grasp what is written in the reports which would not surprise me given his poor grasp of the English Language.

Anonymous said...

Major shareholder in CGI, the company wanting to build China gateway at Manston appears to be the HSBC Bank, according to a press release from last week.

HSBC being the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, formerly the Midland.

Should we read anything into this? Does this mean the funding is in place for the first phase to go ahead?

Can CGI now refund their original lender, the Israeli Discount Bank?

Strife Team into action, Bertie.

Anonymous said...

We will raise you an EKO for your CGI and god-damn it, we will bank on it!!

Posted by the Marshall's posse

Message ends

Anonymous said...

Peter Piper,

It would be interesting to know who on the council has an interest in any of these local sites.They would have to declare an interest but do they need to do that before this all gets to planning?

Perhaps someone can advise?

There's obviously more money in housing but that shouldn't be the main criterion for allowing a development.

If Policy 25 goes ahead heaven knows what will happen and remember an incoming Tory government, if there is one, is committed to abolishing most planning restrictions so what that could mean is anyone's guess.

Laura Sandys has been campaigning against back garden developments but her own party wants rid of these restrictions so she's behind the times with her own party on this one. Mind you, nothing new there.

Anonymous said...

Anon 13.00 Councillors must register their interests within 28 days of taking office or notify any change within 28 days. Each councillors declaration is available by clicking on their entries on the TDC web site. Its interesting that some of the tory cabinet members do not declare membership of the tory party. Once webcasts are available it will be possible to check up that they are declaring their interests at the relevent times in council meetings. There is a good example of this at this weeks KCC's cabinet meeting (on webcast) when Freedom Passes were being discussed and cllr Carter had to prompt a councillor for failing to declare but speaking in support of ther matter.

Anonymous said...

Had a quick look and Roger Latchford, for one, doesn't seem to belong to the Conservative Party and his register is for 2008 so he's a bit behind the times. Simon Day doesn't declare he has a property developing company.

I've only looked at a couple so far so not a bad haul.

Anonymous said...

So much for declarations of interest then. I bet none of them declare membership of the rolled up trouser brigade.

Anonymous said...

There are it seems, over 4500 units granted planning permission but not completed as of March 2009.

A unit is a dwelling so a flat in a block is one unit.

If all these were to be built the government's targets would be met but, of course, many may not be built so do targets apply to completed units or units that may be built? As applicants have three years to start building we should see some at least of these 4500+ started within the next year or so.

Anonymous said...

there is so much corruption within TDC whether it be in the planning dept or else where we just don't stand a chance and hearing this week, someone's confidential emails of complaint sent to TDC has actually been sent to the accused, is apalling.
Does this mean no one can send a complaints letter about an abusive neighbour to TDC for fear of a copy being sent to the abusive neighbour.
Is nothing sacred in life anymore. Do other areas have the same problems as we do in Thanet?