Yikes! Yes, it's yours truly here! I'm currently getting tanked up in Tbilisi but I just had to rush to the blog on the news that our beloved council's planning committee has voted 8-7 to defer the planning decision for CGP's 3m sq ft China Gateway business park to a full council meeting.
What a shock result! It seems the Blue Rinsers have dissenters in the ranks. A quick call to my spy on the spot last night elicited the following eyewitness account:
You should have seen the look on the CGP chap's face at the end - priceless! Blimey, I bet Ken Wills is climbing up the walls of his mansion right about now.
Cllr Gregory (head of the planning committee), cheerful soul that he is, tried to put a brave face on it but eeeeee, I dunno, don't think this one's quite done yet. Moores and Kirby were on the sidelines looking happy that the issue has been put back. I get the feeling that it's Moores and Bruce who could really be the key men in blocking this, if, and it's a big if, they'll make a stand against the gruesome twosome...
So, the plot thickens! What's just as surprising is that a quick call to my broker confirmed that CGP has yet to announce this decision to the stock market. Surely it must be regarded as vital market information? I think the shareholders should be told!
Right, I'm off for a coffee and shot at Near Opera, a cafe which, as the name implies, is, er, near the opera. There's a very attractive waitress there who keeps giving me the eye. I must say, over the past few days she's been on my my my my mind quite a bit!
ECR
Update: The full council meeting to decide this issue has now been set for 7pm on 11 September.
13 comments:
Due to the lack of opthalmic surgeons in Tiblisi I think you might find , "the eye" she is giving you is glass, possibly an old marble.
It is a common mistake by many a traveller, if you hear a strange scraping noise as she goes past your table it might be mean she also has a wooden leg.
But what about Mrs Caucescu (relation)?
Interesting the decision has been deferred. Possibly the council wanting to be seen to be looking at the options rather than ploughing ahead. Criticism that jobs will go to outsiders is as dumb an expectation as to make enforced only by our geography, i.e. we are surrounded on three sides by sea. If the same business park was built in Crawley for instance do you honestly think local people's expectations would be for only people from Crawley and local villages to have jobs there? I can tell you a definitive 'No' having lived near there. People travelled in from Eastbourne to Sutton. Likewise the same would apply to anywhere else not too isolated. The advantage too of outsiders coming into Thanet is that overtime they will see what we have to offer with great beaches, interesting coastline, towns, villages etc, move in and hopefully push out some of the local dross that we have had to live with for so long. I grew up here in the 60s through to the 80s and I have never seen the area's wealth increase, only decline with a dying seaside trade operated by die-hards, the opportunities available with this and other projects rub it in the face of people who bought the area down in the first place with their lack of vision to name only one reason. Problems of contamination can be dealt with by way of civil engineering works and if I am not mistaken the China Gateway is now to be linked into the main sewage network...if it occurs. If it doesn't occur I hope those people who bring its demise do something to bring in other investment.
The CGP man forgot to mention the number of Chinese nationals who are employed at Gateway projects already established in other countries. It can range from 500 to 2000. Housing is provided for them on site or close to and they bring families as well. They normally get 'concierge packs' for the area or web-sites to visit.So much for Thanet people being employed?
Not the decision they expected!
CGP release in July!
:
Commercial Group Properties PLC
18 July 2008
Commercial Group Properties PLC
('Commercial Group', 'CGP' or 'the Company')
Information Update
The Company was informed yesterday that as at 2 July 2008 HSBC Holdings Plc
through HSBC International Trustee Limited holds 1,798,000 ordinary shares in
the Company representing a holding of 8.56% of the Company's issued share
capital and voting
rights. We are pleased that HSBC continues to support the Company and has raised
its shareholding.
Next week we welcome the visit to the Manston 'China Gateway' site by Mr. Feng
Jun CEO of Beijing Huaqi Information Digital Technology Co. Ltd. Huaqi,
established in 1993, known through its international branding as 'Aigo' is a
leading manufacturer of
portable storage devices, digital products and DIY computer components. We are
currently in negotiations with Huaqi with the view to them leasing property on
the site.
The planning process for phase 1 of the Manston site is ongoing and we expect a
decision next month.
End
Go and visit the following for bluff and bullshit:
http://www.commercialgroupproperties.plc.uk/CGP_Reports_November_2007.pdf
Oh! Pictures of buildings that don't exist litter it, 11.20pm! Wills has
6,061,039 shares and Christopher Seymour Prosser has 7,611,761. Do any members of TDC have shares as well?
If any of TDC councillors have shares they have to declare it. I think council officers don't have a register of interests so presumably they are exempt.
To the poster who talks about the benefits of outsiders coming in I think you should think about Thanet Earth where there were to be 500 jobs for locals. That ensured planning application got approval. Odd that soon after construction started job ads started appearing in Polish-language papers. Now a local caravan park has an application to site 51 caravans on farmland. Co-incidence?
Matter of fact. Declarations of councillors interests. No need to declare if the number of shares is less than a certain amount of the total issued. I would state that I only have a few shares in National Grid. None in any other companies. Oh and perhaps protestors against any company should declare if they have shares in a rival company?
They are obviously getting the willies. They can see the gravy train derailing at the next local elections maybe.
11.20, don't you mean:
www.coomercialgroupproperties.plc.uk/
CGP_Reports_November_2007.pdf
Oh stuff it!
www.commercialgroupproperties.plc.uk/
CGP_Reports_November_2007.pdf
(apologies)
"Other investment" doesn't have to mean concrete and HGV's. A development like this with the traffic and pollution problems it will cause will finish off the seaside busines good and proper. "Come to Thanet's beautiful beaches if you can get there alive and sane after running the gauntlet of 3,000 lorries on the 299."
We have a major resource on our doorstep. It's called the sea. Most people live by the sea to have a decent quality of life. If you really think this development will enhance all our lives, you are kidding yourself as the developers are kidding us.
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