CHINA GATEWAY STALLED WHILST KCC AND TDC PLAY THE EKO LLP GAME?

Its that time of year for CGP to let its shareholders know how its doing or not doing and a Chairman's Report etc seems needed soon. One can expect further paper losses as land asset values have fallen and CGP can only make a profit when it develops and sells.
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Fellow CGP watchers will have noticed CGP becoming one of the AIM 'walking dead' with shares going as low as 3p, rallying oddly in April to 45p following IOTG announcing an offer of £3 million for KCC land at Manston Business Park and settling back to 28p.
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Its holdings at Dover would appear to be going nowhere at the moment; prospects at Westwood Park Wigan are looking dismal with West Midlands Development Agency and Wigan Borough Council rumoured to be considering other options. That leaves Manston Business Park and Thanet's China Gateway project as the main priority perhaps.
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CGP's problem in this recession is simply capital to proceed. Its running costs are minimal but it owes Israel Discount Bank £28 odd million that originally had to be paid back by Nov 2009 (6 months away). One can discount the recent MOU with UNIDO; CGP had an MOU with Chinamex and others in 2007 and collecting MOUs is perhaps the new version of stamp-collecting. However, if CGP is to proceed its only likely source of serious money is from China and China has lots of it and will beat both the USA and the UK out of recession and come thundering back onto the world stage.
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What has this got to do with KCC and TDC and EKO LLP (their little property company that is not under democratic control.)? The map above shows the land KCC owns at Manston Business Park; CGP's approved plans and existing development. TDC and KCC have been urged by me and others to release this land to CGP to enable it to proceed to develop an environmentally safer and less disturbing development to Acol. If this land had been made available last year as I urged TDC to do, sensible job creating development on Manston Business Park becomes a reality. This is what the TDC Councillors decided in October 2008 , after all.
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The problem is that KCC and TDC (EKO LLP) have been holding CGP to ransom, demanding £2.25 million for 5 acres for the envisaged Gateway building and a small ransom strip, whilst retaining the rest it owns. Just to make matters worse KCC paid over £6 million for 70 acres (which also includes strips and bits) in 2006 at the top of the market and even then it was reputed to be an excessive price.
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The IOTG reported on 17 April that CGP have made an offer to KCC worth £3 million to purchase 27 acres. This is good news. Chinese investment will come to Manston Business Park if the project is big enough; it could be with the extra land. That was 6 weeks ago and rumour has it that EKO LLP has not responded and that no face to face meeting with legal bods attached has yet taken place. How long will KCC and TDC stall on this. E & R reports at KCC, waffle, but still no decision? When will Councils and Councillors realise that business in a fast moving world cannot crawl along at the incompetent and slow pace that seems apparent here.
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If you are wondering why am so keen to see CGP use the whole site you will need to read back to last year's posts. Quite simply, this land is designated employment land; TDC has granted planning consent and yet CGP needs space. The present approved plans are unsatisfactory and pose a threat to Acol and the aquifer. CGP could redesign the whole project with more space and place X type warehouses and all HGV movement close to the entrance of Columbus Avenue, away from Acol and the aquifer.
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With the jobless level in Thanet now in excess of 4,000 it is time for EKO LLP to stop playing at being a property company and think about its priority of inward investment (albeit Chinese) and job creation. Environmentally, CGP could be 'persuaded' at the same as selling it the land, to move the HGV's away from Acol and the aquifer.
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This is a sad case of little men like Cllr Latchford and his KCC 'oppo' playing at property development and politics instead of realising where the priorities lie. It is not a question of hoping CGP's development will raise EKO's prices and thus making a tidy return; the land will remain a weed patch and no jobs will be created. We have a derelict Dreamland and a Manston Business Park empty and land-banked by our own Councils. This cannot be right, can it? If necessary take a loss on the land and get good and environmentally sound development underway as soon as possible. Just forget about Phases 2 & 3 on other farmland though.

TIME TO KEEP A CLOSER WATCH ON TDC

As I have been pounding the concrete in various parts of Thanet recently, I have been surprised at the number of people who have no idea who their Councillors are or what party they represent. I have to say that Conservative Councillors appear to have the lowest profile and it rang a chord with a commentator I heard today talking about the arrogance of MPs in safe seats and whether there was a correlation between expenses claims and the security of the seat occupied. I suspect the same arrogance exists in the ruling party at TDC.
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Ezekiel, sadly, seems secure for another year and has been consolidating his power base amongst his less principled supporters and hangers-on. Councillor Jill Kirby would appear to have been removed from Governance and Audit and rumour has it that she was one of the 12 who did not support him. Rumour also has it that sordid little deals were being made about who would get what etc, but that is what we have come to expect from Thanet Conservatives who seem to lack sufficient Conservative back-ground. Instead we have Labour drop-outs and those who were once Independent controlling the show.
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The area that worries me most is Planning. I believe our opposition candidates and the public in general now need to keep a very close eye on Planning matters dealt with by TDC for the next 12 months. What makes me say this?
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You will need to cast your mind back to August 2008. A certain application by CGP was to be 'nodded' through with minimum discussion by The Planning Committtee but 3 principled Conservative Councillors , Taylor, Jarvis and Bruce wanted the whole Council to view this application and voted with the 5 Labour members to enable this to happen. Rumour has it that they were summoned to explain themselves, although Planning is not a 'whipped' process. The vote was 8 to 7 and I still remember with some pleasure the surprise on the Chairman's face when he realised that even his vote wouldn't get a quick job delivered on the application.
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What those 3 Councillors, Taylor, Jarvis and Bruce achieved was to gain time for a closer look by The Planning Team, All Councillors and the public at a highly important and Thanet altering application and it was eventually approved by Full Council in October 2008 with many safe-guards and restrictions built into the approval. This was, to my mind, how such an important issue should be dealt with.
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The chance of this happening again is now remote. Taylor, Jarvis and Bruce have all been effectively 'removed' from planning and a glimpse at some new faces does not inspire other than in their political solidarity to their Leader. Crotty, Sullivans x2 and Mrs Judith Russell have now appeared. So we now have a motley crew that includes 2 Labour rejects, a local building developer and the wife of a developer, who, rumour has it, has social connections ; together with an Independent who seems to vote Conservative, having been rejected by Labour. I am afraid this does not inspire me with confidence.
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When Councillors say to me apologetically that they feel Thanet Earth and a house in Birchington 'slipped under our radar' without sufficient consideration, the last thing we need is a Planning Committee that has lost 3 Conservative members with integrity and independence of mind. Isn't it strange that at local Conservative level, the 'Leader' quite clearly hasn't been listening to or understanding a word his Party Leader David Cameron has been saying about The Conservative Party he wants to see.

OP CLEAN SWEEP IN WESTGATE TODAY

Regular reader, Chas , informs me that TDC's Op Clean Sweep were on a mob-handed dawn raid in Cambourne Avenue, Westgate this morning.
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"TDC's 'Operation Clean Sweep' landed in Westgate this morning with the multi agency team descending on Logi's Fish Bar in Cambourne Road. It would appear that he was in breach of his planning by opening for breakfasts, and also appears to have upset the Health and Hygiene people as he has been closed all day, with all the staff cleaning the place!"
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Logis Fish Bar has been a recent addition to Westgate's Lymington Rd area, with its handful of shops serving the area and hopefully,now having been 'Clean Swept' will be back to 'frying tonight' shortly.

BERTIE'S BEEN POUNDING THE PAVEMENTS AGAIN

I haven't been converted to the Labour Cause, but a cry for help from ladies in distress and in the interests of democracy had to be answered. So Bertie was up in the 'Tree Estate' at Broadstairs this morning pushing a few hundreds of the above through doors.
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KCC Highways new layer of tarmac looked pretty, even if it seemed unnecessary, and 'Our Ken' will be pleased to know that a number of his TDC constituents didn't want a Labour leaflet, as will Cllrs Hayton and Bayford.
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Found a very glossy leaflet for Conservative Candidates Hayton and Bayford, blowing in the wind so Michelle Fenner and Jenny Matterface do have some supporters up there.
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For my sins I have been asked to do a few extra streets for Cllrs Wells and Jarvis, closer to home, and will regard this as penance.
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My concern is that all this effort to get people out to vote on 4th June will be wasted as events of recent weeks may have hardened the electorate to avoid any main party and convince them to stay at home. It is difficult to get across the message that District and County elections and candidates have nothing to do with the shameful activities at Westminster.

THE FUTILITY OF WRITING TO A CORRUPT MINISTER

Gordon Brown has yet to sack Hazel Blears, even though The Speaker has been 'hung out to dry' today. Here is what Gordon Brown had to say about the 'flipping', ACA claims and avoidance of Capital Gains Tax by his clearly corrupt Secretary of State:

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Ms Blears has admitted not paying capital gains tax on the profit from selling a flat repaired with taxpayers' money and has agreed to repay £13,332.
Tackled about whether further action should be taken against Ms Blears at his monthly press conference in Downing Street, Mr Brown said: "Hazel Blears has paid the money back. She has done so on the advice of me and others.
"But she has not broken the law, she has not broken the rules of the House of Commons.
"It is unacceptable behaviour and she has accepted it as unacceptable behaviour."

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So is it surprising that when a corrupt politician is sent a letter about unacceptable activity about a planning application, NO ACTION IS TAKEN? I show below a letter sent to this corrupt politician in her capacity as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.

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Rt. Hon. Hazel Blears MP
Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government
Elland House
Bressender Place
LONDON SW1E 5DU 15th October 2008


Dear Secretary of State,

THANET DISTRICT COUNCIL PLANNING APPLICATION F/TH/08/0400

You will be aware that I wrote to you on the 30 Jul 2008 concerning the above application. On Thursday 9th October, TDC in Full Council passed this application subject to conditions being referred back to Planning Committee of TDC.

You will be aware that since I wrote to you in July, even more public concern has been expressed in relation to the proposed further development of Manston Business Park, Ramsgate, Kent for redistribution warehouses and related purposes.

We are aware that this land is zoned for industrial use in the Local Structure Plan, has job creation potential and is potentially of importance to the local economy. We do not therefore seek to oppose development of any kind on this location.

However, on the basis that ‘The China Gateway’ proposals have considerable implications for Thanet’s natural aquifer providing potable water to Thanet (the Environment Agency has highlighted this); that the plan would impact on a much wider area than the site itself with upto 5,600 HGV movements envisaged per day (greater than Dover Docks) and that it involves the participation, albeit at arms length of The Chinese Government and that Phase 2 and 3 lie outside the terms of the Thanet Structure Plan, we believe that this application should not be determined by Thanet District Council but should be ‘called in’ for full and detailed enquiry by The Secretary of State.

I would also like to draw your attention to some extraordinary aspects surrounding this application:

1. The applicant first began enquiries in 2006 with TDC Planning and was lead to believe that a suitable case could be made for a development outside allocated development land (CGP’s AIM Document refers).

2. In early 2007 a political donation was made to Steve Ladyman MP and South Thanet Labour Group by Mr Ken Wills of CGP of £25,000. It has come to our attention that at or about the same time donations of £12,500 were offered to each of North Thanet and South Thanet Conservative Associations but were declined.

3. In June of this year TDC announced that CGP (the applicant) had made a donation of £12,500 to TDC’s ‘Big Event’ held in Palm Bay which was accepted by TDC’s Cabinet.

4. In May of this year, Acol Parish Council received a donation for its Fete of a DVD player and flat screen television from the applicant CGP.

5. In November 2007 the Leader and Deputy of TDC and Senior TDC Officers were hosted by CGP on a trip to China (admitted by Mr Ken Wills on the BBC Programme Inside/Out on Wed 8 Aug 2008.) This was shown in a TDC Press Release as organized and paid for by Chinamex and The Chinese Government and declared as such in relevant ‘Interest’ declarations by The Leader and his Deputy without any mention of CGP’s hospitality.

6. In August of this year documents found on Acol Hill regarding the relationship of TDC to CGP were handed to The Serious Economic Crimes Unit of Kent Police at Maidstone for investigation.

7. In March 2008, TDC and KCC formed East Kent Opportunities LLP and agreed to pool their holdings of land at Manston Business Park and at Eurokent. The Deputy Leader of TDC is TDC’s appointed director. It has come to our attention that EKO/TDC/KCC has agreed to sell 5 acres of its holdings on Manston Business Park for £1.25 million and a ‘ransom strip’ for £1 million. This makes TDC a beneficiary of granting its own planning consent.

8. A FoI request has revealed that in 2008 alone, CGP held regular monthly meetings with the applicant CGP from 4 Jan onwards with The Leader or his Deputy attending with Senior Officers and yet none of these meetings was formally minuted.

9. On 9th October, despite all CGP’s own statements on the subject both written and spoken (Mr Wills of CGP on BBC Inside/Out Programme of 8th Oct) and the evidence of the way the application was presented in 2007 for scoping and in 2008, TDC Full Council flew in the face of all the evidence and presented the application to Full Council as a ‘Stand-Alone ‘ application, when it is clearly the first Phase of a at least a 3 Phase application.

10. It has come to our attention that TDC, through EKO LLP, is proposing that the Eurokent Site be allocated for ‘housing’ instead of employment and has set in motion the request to then claim that TDC has insufficient employment land and will then need to re-designate land at Manston adjacent to Manston Business Park that just happens to have been purchased in 2006 and in 2007 by CGP, the applicants.

11. It has come to our attention that KCC has carried out a financial probity examination of the applicant, CGP, presumably in connection with purchases regarding land at MBP ‘owned’ by KCC and that areas of concern were raised but that this report has been left unactioned and suppressed.

12. At the TDC meeting on 9th October, the Chair suppressed the proposal by two Councillors that the re-location of two sensitive X type buildings be made a condition of granting outline planning consent due to the activity proposed (redistribution sheds with 100s of HGV movements) actually located on SPZ 1 of the aquifer and closest to the inhabitants of Acol. This matter is to be raised by Councillors but what was extraordinary was that the TDC Case Planning Officer admitted that ‘he had requested the developer to re-site these X type buildings and they had declined to do so’. I would argue that to allow the redistribution operation to be be sited on the NW corner of this site where it poses the greatest threat to the aquifer and maximum impact on the lives of people of Acol shows utter disregard to the precautionary principle in Planning Law, lack of due diligence and the lack by TDC of its duty of care as the LPA. You may wish to request the recordings of this Full Council Meeting. It is our understanding that no transcript will be made of the meeting as a record!

I urge The Secretary of State to ‘call-in’ this application for all the reasons outlined above. Not only does this whole ‘project’ have major implications for the ground water resources that are already in a parlous state but in terms of HGV movements, will have serious implications outside of Thanet.

There is clearly a lack of impartiality , evidence of bias and lack of independence in the way TDC has handled this application. If TDC has, as decision maker, a financial or other interest in the outcome of this application as cited above, then it cannot be, or seen to be impartial. My understanding is that lack of bias and impartiality “must be observed strictly to maintain public confidence in the decision making process.” This is clearly not the case here. There is a distinct appearance of bias in favour of the applicant that is contrary to the public interest and on such a basis I would suggest that the matter be placed in the hands of an Independent Inspector urgently.


Yours sincerely,
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Why rake over the ashes? The point is simply this. We expect a Secretary of State to act with integrity. How can we expect integrity in decision making when the integrity of the decision maker is non-existent? We need a General Election as soon as possible to rid us of this 'den of thieves' who claim to be our Government.

THANET NORTH - HOW DOES OUR OTHER LOCAL MP COMPARE?

Unlike Dr Steve, who displays a breakdown on his site for the nosey to look at, Roger's site just shows the totals of Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) or second home allowances, without any breakdown and is rather boring.
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What however, is significant, is that as his circumstances have changed, he has reduced his ACA appropriately and I hope will be seen to have been behaving in a manner that will commend itself to the North Thanet Conservative Party and his electorate, unlike too many of his Westminster colleagues.
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A modest series of ACA claims has been the situation since 2005/6 since the high of 2002/3, as the table below shows:
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2007/8 : £ 9,375.00
2006/7 : £ 9,197.00
2005/6 : £ 7,368.00
2004/5 : £14, 873.00
2003/4 : £ 16,293.00
2002/3 : £ 19,558.00
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We should also be aware that Roger has been ahead of the Commons Speaker for some time on the need to reform the unacceptable state of MP's expenses. Here is an extract from Gale's view of July last year:
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Gale’s View - 9.7.2008.
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"I have for years believed that the existing system of parliamentary pay and allowances, widely misunderstood by the public, deliberately misrepresented by the press and exploited by a few has been long overdue for reform. Sadly, last week’s vote in the House of Commons is unlikely to put the matter to rest........".
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Prophetic words from a principled and experienced MP.
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Rumour has it that he stopped the nonsense being proposed by Cllr Ezekiel to accept political donations from CGP for Thanet North and South Conservatives a while ago. It is a pity that too few Conservative Councillors had the same high principles as their local MP, when it came to selecting their own Council Group Leader.

THANET SOUTH - HOW DOES OUR LOCAL MP COMPARE?

Before I get accused of being a Conservative just having a 'bash' at Dr Steve, let me state that I have resigned from NTCA and am feeling Independent minded tonight. I will be looking at Thanet North tomorrow.
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I am all for 'out of town' MPs being able to claim for subsistence through Additional Costs Allowance (ACA) aka Second Home Allowance but clearly the abuse of the allowance is what has shocked us and it needs sorting out and quickly.
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Yesterday's DT had something interesting that perhaps the Telegraph chaps have not commented on yet themselves. When carrying out audits in my military past I was always interested in patterns. When you look at the 'pattern' below you will see what I mean.
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The following MPs had identical ACA claims for certain years: Anthony Steen, Derek Wyatt and Crispin Blunt all claimed exactly £21, 634 in 2005/6. They were joined in 2006/7 by Frances Maude and they all claimed exactly the same again; £22, 110. (Blunt must have been slipping because he missed by £1). In 2007/8, they all claimed exactly the same again; £23,083.
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When you consider that ACA is meant to be an individual claim for precise costs relating to an individual MPs particular circumstances, then this pattern looks odd to say the least.
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Now to Dr Steve. My maths could be wrong but he appears to have claimed £22, 563.22 for 2007/8 and £21,548 in 2006/7. What is interesting is the pattern in each monthly claim.
In a standard month in 2007/8 he claimed for:
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Mortgage Interest: £991.95
Council Tax: £238.63 ( Except in Feb & Mar)
Food: £340.00
Utilities: £ 95.00
Telephone & Comms £ 52.00
Cleaning £ 80.00 (unchanged since 2005; apparently no wage increase for cleaner)
Service/Maint £ 50.00
Repairs/ins/sy £ 72.46

So he had 10 months at £1920.04 and 2 months at £1681.41 (no council tax). What I find fascinating is the consistency of the claim each month. Always £340.00 on food; identical use of phone etc; identical cleaning for 2/3 years. Did he not holiday; did Parliament have no recessions etc.
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The only query by the Commons Expenses chaps was a muddle in Apr & May 2005 where a pro-rata change ocurred for 37 days out of 61 for some reason. However they didn't seem to mind paying out for Council Tax in Feb & Mar of 2006 of £216.32 for those months! (What Council collects Council Tax in Feb & Mar?). Also Dr Steve seems to have gone hungry in May 2005 when he only claimed £50.00 for food as opposed to the normal £300 per month for that year.
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I am not suggesting that Dr Steve has abused or broken any rules but quite clearly the way the claims look, they appear to be a 'blanket' claim system rather than a detailed accounting for his actual Additional Costs. I would be happier to see each MP get a £25,000 pay rise than have this extraordinary system.