You can read the Observer piece by clicking here.
The story was written by The Observer's Jamie Doward, who, I can reveal, lives in Whitstable. It seemed to be based on a single source - Cllr Simon Moores, friend of Sir Roger Gale and one of the island's high profile pro-Manston campaigners. Doward had previously written a positive piece about Simes being questioned under caution concerning the ongoing social media kerfuffle here on the island, so you can imagine why Simes would view the Observer hack as his new best chum.
And indeed, the Manston article did seem very pro-Manston, despite an unnamed source at the end (clearly Cllr Biggles) admitting that Thanet Council wouldn't have the dosh to take Ann Gloag all the way through the CPO process. It also perpetuated a number of Wiki-myths about the airport, such as it 'was designated as an emergency landing strip for the space shuttle', 'building homes on a graveyard has appalled some local people', not to mention leaving out the fact that it was losing £10K a day.
Would it be too much of a, er, flight of fancy to suggest that Doward's poorly researched article was motivated more by a desire to keep planes from flying over Whitstable if Boris Island was built? Perhaps, like the Save Manston Campaign which, I understand, has been hijacked by Rochester-based anti-Boris Island protesters, he needs to stop letting personal nimbyism get in the way of the facts. Kuh!
Meanwhile here's some more baloney about Manston by a fag-puffing dipsomaniac from West Kent who's been in the news recently...
74 comments:
Jamie Doward seems to be inacapable of checking his sources. Piss-poor journalism - could cost an organ a lot of money! I assume this will muck his luck!
Seems Peter Checksfield's and his "vast majority of support" didn't manage to infiltrate this one!
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=114351688
Seems Peter Checksfield and his "vast majority of support" didn't manage to infiltrate this one!
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?p=114351688
Interesting about Jamie Doward - so much for press objectivity hey? Still we've all had days when we had to file copy without having time to talk to anyone who actually knew about the topic haven't we?
I loved the space shuttle thing - wonderful factoid - straight out of the Ladybird Book of Manston.
You'd better perform some critical analysis on the "Garden City" story next!
Spot on. The Manstophiles' campaign has been hi-jacked by Rochester based Ant-boris Island campaigners, Aviation groups and a whole host of people who haven't set foot in Thanet, let alone troubled the KLM bookings website when they ran a few planes out of the old airfield.
Even a cursory glance at the retweeters on the pro side reveals that they are from outside the area.
A paltry 40 people turned up at TDC offices last week and at least a third of them had no connection with the brownfield site when it was an airfield. By my reckoning, if over 100 former-employees couldn't be asked to protest, you've got to wonder who these people really represent.
Not sure that Jamie Doward living in Whitstable is relevant but the question you need to ask and indeed research, is who owns Infratil? There's a well-worn popular expression: 'Follow the money' I'm told and perhaps you will find your own 'Poorly researched' answers there.
Gale, Sandys and rest of the political Manston fan-club are noticeably quiet all of a sudden.
Have the elections been and gone perchance?
@Schmoozyschlepp
Jamie Doward appears to be a serial filer of unchecked copy! I bet he doesn't drink Carling Black Label...http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/07/01/nsa-nutjob-anatomy-of-a-fake-observer-story.html
What a load of tosh there's an old saying none so blind as them that don't want too see they obviously cannot see 40,000 residents that have too be overflown in Ramsgate and still coming out with the planes fly strait out to sea I can say that most Ramsgate residents are pleased the night flight blight has ended,
Stargazer
Oh dear!
15 hours ago on Twitter, Keith Churcher appears to have accused Ann Gloag of Asset-Stripping. He clearly doesn't realise the seriousness of what he's said.
Let's hope that Ann Gloag's lawyers don't see it.
The Farage article is completely empty given manston has failed again and the Carter line about planes over sea etc.
The S S Richard Montgomery is interesting - yet another dangerous and toxic sites the councils and Environment Agency prefer to ignore. Who is in charge of this with Farage?
Why will the houses be built whatever the Manston-loonies say?
Because 15,000+ extra consumers is what a deprived area needs. When the bars, restaurants and retail outlets do their sums, the Manston lot will be pissing in the wind.
If they thought campaigning to keep a knackered old airfield open was hard, wait until they're up against the local business community.
Round One - lost.
Round Two - lost already.
It'll be funny listening to Sir Suddenly-Socialist, telling his erstwhile suporters in the business community why he wants to destroy their potential market.
I think it's very important that we start identifying some of these people. When Pfizer closed its research division thousands of highly paid job were lost. I don't remember a single person protesting, either outside the gates of the company, or outside TDC's offices. Manston has been losing vast amounts of money ever since it was privatised. It was only a matter of time before it was closed down. So, why are these people so exercised by its closure? The whole thing seems to be driven by emotion rather than common sense. Unfortunately, poorly educated people like Checksfield are easily led, and they are just being used by the out-of-town NIMBYs who are trying to stop Boris Island.
Ah, but the BIG protest is planned for this weekend. I think they're hoping for 50 people at this one.
Save Manston campaigners are really losing the plot. They keep asking why did Gloag refuse to sell? It's simple really. She bought it. It belongs to her. She doesn't have to sell if she doesn't want to. The version which is less palatable to the Monstophiles is that she didn't sell because River Oak simply didn't offer enough money. I reckon that she would sell if they offered her £20-30 mill.
2:08 "at least a third of them had no connection" poses the question, how do you know? Do you really know all these people by sight and what connections they have? Of course you don't and, if truth be known, you were not even there.
You really are expert at making yourself look rather silly, but then, silly is precisely what you are.
whatever made it an airport before, has all but gone, the radar, the computers, the vehicles, the plant and equipment, gone its not an airfield its a field, a brown field site, to be built upon, jobs are not the issue people make it out to be, people do work locally and many travel to work to other Kent towns and the City, you do not have the right to work were you live, if you do great if you don't get on your bike. it was a commercial disaster as a former airfield, it will never work no matter how many votes the politicians hope for by supporting a 150 people and dubious names from other areas on petitions. whatever goes there will benefit local business, and economy, not to mention TDC, schools, homes, doctors, business, green energy, name it and it can be built there, creating hundreds of jobs for many years through construction, and jobs after as a multi developed site, this save Manston lot and the TDC and MP supporters are the real NIMBYS, Boris island also good, upward of 80.000 jobs to be created in the building of, and the 50.000 jobs in the running. The MP's and TDC are being completely irresponsible, where were they when Pfizer closed, NHS lost services, Ann Gloag is not asset stripping, she owns it lock stock and barrel, she can sell what she likes and put a deck chair in the middle of the field and sit on it, its hers, it did not contribute to the local economy, it did not provide futures for school leavers, how hard do 144 staff have to work in an airport with 3 planes a day coming in? Support Gloag, show your support, write to TDC, KCC, Government, and Gloag - MANSTON HAD TO GO, NO CPO.
When do the press write the facts, they write the convenient bits that gives them a story, they do not check leads, they are useless, not to be trusted, the amount of wrong information or part truths are littered in local history, its tomorrows chip paper, I do not believe they still show so many biased letters regarding the airfield, and place it in the paper as news, there is no news its gone, you want news, pollution in Ramsgate is improving, as is the general mood, the Ramsgate economy too with holiday makers coming and staying here, house prices increasing, children and elderly and everyone else is sleeping better, 40.000 in Ramsgate and 12.000 in the villages are much happier, that's news report a different angle, be objective, and give equal say to both sides.
3.59 I'd suggest a little game on Friday.
25 points if you spot an ex-Airfield employee
10 points if you spot someone from Thanet
5 points for Nicolas and his 'WhyNotTrumpton' mob and the Anti-Boris Island Anti-Lydd gang.
0 points for plane-spotters (well, sky-spotters as they're now known down here!)
500 points for those living under the flight-path in Ramsgate who don't sport hearing aids.
The winner buys lunch for Ann Gloag.
The manston brown field development site, is in fact worth upwards of 30 million undeveloped and true development value would give a profit of over 100.000.000 pounds. So dig deep TDC and Riveroak, or stop waisting time and delaying the inevitable development.
Nice and quiet in Ramsgate again this weekend. No training flights on the nice weather day, no early morning wake up calls from an ageing freighter.
Lovely!
If you read the Observer article it claims that Mrs Gloag company "Manston Skyport Ltd, bought Infratil Kent's entire share capital for the nominal £1, a move that appears to have made it liable for the £23m loan."
If its true then Manston has cost her a lot more than the £1 and the losses todate.
Looks like she needs an offer of at least £26 million to break even , but there again this could just be a bit of corporate jiggery pokery to offset or avoid paying future uk taxes.
With regard to the SS Richard Montgomery anon at 3:21, I don't think it is a case of ignoring it. Last time an attempt was made to salvage a similar vessel, the SS Kielce, in the English channel, the resulting explosion was recorded 5000 miles away, and houses were damaged in Folkestone.
It will clearly have to be dealt with at some time in the future but it is estimated that if it went up then every window along the Thames estuary would break, and that would be the least of our worries. I wouldn't want to be on the bomb disposal team dealing with 1,400 tonnes of explosives.
New party for next years election, need cllrs to stand, people's democratic Republic of South Thanet, we want our own trade links with the world, our own soveriegn currency (sterling worth the same and excepted) we will get our harbour running, develop our brown field site near Manston village, promote our costal towns and villages, claim EU funding like all new revolutionary new found countries, our own police, council, come the revolution brothrr ( and sister to keep it gender equal) the south thanet popular front will expel all extremists, manstonphiles, tories and UKIP, they can go forth to westgate and bitchington.
Public enemies are Bayford, biggles, wise, gale, sandys, Roger Latchford, ian driver, farage, wiltshire, and west ham supporters. Any aircraft in our airspace without prior consent will be shot down, our harbours will be patrolled, and our kids tought the bible, honorary citizenship will be given to frail Scottish ladies with more money than most small countries, lewis hamilton, jimmy greaves, boris johnson (he should be a socialist) anna friel (one indulgence) brian blessed, Archbishop of Canterbury, the queen, the rolling stones. Sign up by reply on this blog, join the real peoples barmy army.
So Infratil loaded Manston with debt?
Boris Island will be good for jobs? Yet the aviation industry in the UK don't want it, say it's in the wrong place and could seriously impact on Heathrow/Gatwick/Standsted/Luton and possibly shut City altogether...
When was the SS Kielce salvaged? And how long after 1944 should we wait on the Ss Richard Montgomery...
Looks like lazy council and bomb squad to me
The 23m loan was between Infratil companies?
Gloag would be liable for the fines too and pollution liabilities like dumped jets.
Her Infratil mates have stitched her up.
Garden City or Airport?
I think Thanet could not cope with a City plonked on top of it, Southern water can't even cope with a small shower, so 1000's more houses and it be constantly emptying shit into the sea. Plus the fact Manston is on Thanet water supply and houses on top of it will mean no water for Thanet.
Surely if Thanet is too bloom, Manston must not be a housing estate.
5:48 when was the radar removed? Buchanan is still there?
Boris island or similar is the answer but when the quote of thousands of new jobs is used, caution has to be taken. Any new airport designed to be the southeast hub will be in place of Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Southend and Biggin Hill so those who work/worked at these airports will be taken on at the new airport, so the actual figure is lower, plus the local supporting firms based around the existing airport will be impacted.
Trouble is the UK is Knackered and needs fresh new blood running it, ones who are not afraid of change, sod tradition clear out and clean up.
Bemused of Birchington
I bloody would!!!
Pull that one off and name your UXB price anywhere in the world.
Luvvly Jubbly!
You've got to admire Ann Gloag.
Until last week, the gaggle of Manstophiles were all self-proclaimed experts on takeovers and high finance following a few dips into Wikipedia and a quick shifty on Google. They had God on their side and no-one was gonna shut their airport which some would lead you to believe, had an entry in the Domesday Book.
Fast forward to today and a judiciously placed piece about a Garden City has them all scurrying back to their Sinclair ZX Spectrums to become, you guessed it, experts on Garden Cities!
Now even I'm confused. Have they finally realised that their airfield is never coming back and that all that is left for them to do now is just be anti-anything that's proposed for the Brownfield site?
Also, how comes that Churcher fella was all alone with his hand-painted bedsheet in Maidstone today. Is he to become like the Japanese soldier who emerged from the jungle only to be told that the war is over?
Ah the ignorance of the why not Manston brigade.
Can anyone tell me how i can get one of the car stickers with a ghost buster style sign with a jet and Say no to Gale and another one saying Hell no CPO?
EMBOB
Ann Barnes recruited £90 grand per year Mike Stepney
If she is paying that much public salary for some sage advice how come she did the documentary ?
Stepney hadn't been in role for long before he was researching Thanet matters on internet. And he wasn't in post long before the John Hamilton and Simes inquiry was mounted ?
SS Keilce exploded in 1967. Look it up in Google.
If you want to make the SS Richard Montgomery safe anon 8:31 pm let me know first so I can move to the far north and become Even More Bemused of Inverness.
Anon at 9:42 pm, you speak in riddles, totally off topic and looks as if you have crossed over from another blog. But to answer your question, it's all about money, so that's two members of the female gender with control of more money than most of us will earn in a lifetime, having an effect on the lives of us in Thanet and Kent.
Aahhh, all these secret little meetings between Tdc , KCC and Annie. Reminds me of all the un-minuted meetings held between sandy, Brian White and infratil back in the day.
I didn't hear the pro manston brigade moaning so much about it then.
Still, what goes around, eh?
There is no licence and the radar is there but going as everything is being sold off, I may go on ebay and see if I can get a deal.
Come on Ann MANSTON HAD TO GO NO CPO
ECR,
Your latest post purports to be satire but lacks any semblance of humour. It is pure venom. Nothing more than a foaming outpouring of the inadequate you know yourself to be. Pip, pip old boy.
If Manston is to become a Garden City, what will it be called? RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport Emin Thanet Scotland Garden City.
Is it just me or is anyone else having major suspicions over the Chairman of Save Manston? Tory plant, possibly?
11:33, and the reason for your suspicions? Where are these hot clues you have latched onto that suggest the chairman is a Tory plant? Then, why a Tory as the Save Manston campaign has cross party support? As ever, sense is something you simply do not make.
Jamie Doward? The Guardian Deletes NSA 'Scoop' That Quoted Conspiracy:Theoristhttp://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/the-guardian-deletes-nsa-scoop-that-quoted-conspiracy-theorist
Two thoughts.
Firstly - and others may have already made this point, in which case apologies - I guess what Gloag is saying is that she doesn't believe Riveroak is a credible bidder because it is unlikely to make a success of running the airport. That would see Riveroak eventually closing it and reaping the financial benefits that Gloag sees in prospect now for herself. She would be denied them if a CPO were successful, but I imagine her advisers have said a CPO is unlikely to succeed. I am no fan of hers, and she may well have gone back on her pledge to keep the airport going for two years, but you can see her point. Why should she let Riveroak have what she can take for herself?
Secondly, if Moores has something relevant to say about Infratil, why does he not set it out rather than drop coded references? He seems to get off on these little "suggestions" which he invariably fails to explain.
The Montgomery has been there for over 50 years and it will be there for another 50. The munitions are old and deteriorating and, contrary to popular myth, this means they are very unlikely to explode. Think about it. You often hear about WW2 munitions being found but when did you last hear about them blowing up? I'm afraid the SS Montgomery thing is just scaremongering on the part of people who are desperate to find reasons why Boris Island could not or should not go ahead.
I bow to your superior knowledge, 6.39pm. That said, I thought Belgian workmen were still being blown up by WW1 munitions?
Manston is about 700 acres. Welwyn Garden City and Letchworth Garden City were originally 4230 and 5000 acres respectively when built. On this scale we are talking about Manston Garden Village/Hamlet.
http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/
http://petergeekie.hubpages.com/hub/SS-Richard-Montgomery-Massive-explosion-waiting-to-happen
Some unprejudiced reports on SS Richard Montgomery.
And much of the Egyptian and Libyan deserts are fenced off because of WW2 landmines.
Or the Pegwell mine detonated just last week. ..
I am an expert on WW 2 salvage. What you need to do is stand on the deck at low tide and hit it with a big hammer. But you must wear the right protective clothing if not you will injure yourself.
All this talk of salvage and "Hell no CPO" has made me think of one thing - and its a big thing, that should be of great concern to i don't care for Ramsgate Johnstone and that is TDC cannot adhere to the house building edict from the Government so we will have grade 1 agricultural land bulldozed. Things do not have to built but planned for -and currently due to inept Officers at TDC we now have a real problem? The thing is, who died and made the officers dictate us in Ramsgate how we should live and live with an Airport that can never make its way?
Anon 3:28,
You say, "Why will the houses be built whatever the Manston-loonies say?
Because 15,000+ extra consumers is what a deprived area needs. When the bars, restaurants and retail outlets do their sums, the Manston lot will be pissing in the wind."
Clearly you have not thought this through. Where will these 15,000 extra consumers earn the money to spend as you suggest, bemefits perhaps?
Come next year's TDC elections, those that were keen on the ludicrous idea of housing will be voted out.
Those TDC councillors who were keen on the ludicrous idea of housing at Manston will most certainly be voted out at next year's council elections. Thanet is massively overpopulated with traffic congestion everywhere and no jobs.
10.59
Expensive coastal housing built for DFLs. Why do you Thanetians assume that everyone's as unqualified, lazy and incapable of commuting as yourselves?
You really should travel further than Minster once in a while.
12:49, when did you last travel further than Harbour Street or a seat down the sea front where you pretend you can do the crossword. Do try to be a little more appreciative of your fellow man than your constant boorish insults.
The Suburban Communists of Broadstairs have issued another Thanet Watch: one interesting point is EKO and Clive and Sue still on the board of the TDC/KCC quango to build 550 houses near Manston.
Presumably dregs of the 4th town are still sloshing around in TDC with only WC built?
How can EKO be cancelled and the costs etc made public?
Ramsgate seafront didn't look very busy today, unlike Broadstairs, Margate and Joss Bay. So much for blaming the planes!
12.49
Ditched newsprint many years ago my delusional little stalker x
4.02
Were you running, town to town, from drug-dealers...again?
Get. A. Full. Time. Job.
I had one 6:21 as an air traffic controller at Manston, but it has gone. Now I have a temporary post as a tourism survey assistant checking out visitors to our resorts.
Think I saw you in my travels, a fat bloke on a bench near Ramsgate sea front.
12.37
Ever thought of applying for a job at an airport???
Sorry I forgot, ex-Manston staff can't navigate their way around motorways. Btw, benches are for the old and unemployed so wrong again babes x
Am sure I saw a plane which must have taken off from Manston today. Didn't see any builders on site at beach development this week.
Benches are also for the overweight living of the wife's earnings types as well.
How polluted is the airport
Farage is almost certainly standing in Thanet South for the next election, and Scobie and co stand no chance against him. UKIP have vowed to not only reopen the airport but extend it too!
10.27
Oh Eppy,
Only an old dodderer like you would have time to stare at benches. Is there a charity we can send a few coins to? It must be hard for you x
Why do you think ageism is acceptable, Tim, when I am quite sure you would be mightily offended if others started using racist abuse. Whereas your mental condition may effect the quality of your comments, people's age has little or no bearing. Indeed, some of our finest writers produced quality work well into their old age.
1.10Pm
So that will mean, hang on a minute, times two...
So 20,000 Ukip jobs, not the pathetic 10,000 mentioned ad nauseum by Sir Windy. Wait for the UK's most confused Green Party Councillor - he'll have it up to 50,000 by next week and damn what his leadership, political ideology and sanity tell him. It's like the Klondike round 'ere.
Ann will build the houses.
I love these low-rent politico types.
Bloody Ukip and Green idiots!!!
Surely a real Green councillor would be asking intelligent questions of the owners? Where will he flip-flop to next in the search for publicity and votes if it turns out for instance that Ann wanted to build say, Eco-homes on the site.
Would this Jolly Green Giant still want to screw Thanet over with a lame-duck pollution machine?
Gale swings to the Left.
Driver pimps himself out to the airline industry.
Does any part of the country have politicians with so little respect for the views of their core voters? How can a 'Greenie' take Driver seriously? Opportunist publicity seekers. Particularly the aforementioned pair.
Apols.
S/be 'Wally Green Giant'
8:55, I know who the Jolly Green Giant is because I see him on my tins of corn. I do not know this Wally Green Giant! Are they in some way related? What is Cllr Driver's connection to them? All very worrying and I may have to change my grocer.
Talking of the Colour-Blind councillor, I see he's trying to justify his support of Manston on his blog right now. He's either incapable of joined-up thinking, lacking any aspirations and/or failing to accept that not being privy to Gloag's intentions for the site, he is just knee-jerking in his support for the former airfield.
I agree with the earlier post. In short, this man is backing the return of a known polluter because he's scared of what may take it's place. Shouldn't he just be pleased that the damn thing is no longer a threat to the area and that he should be working towards a positive outcome for the site? As was mentioned, Green homes.
He's lost his constituency, that's for certain.
Splits are emerging in the petrol-heads coalition of the stupid. Ian Driver is effectively saying that Manston could never be a major player but he's 'crossed the floor' out of sheer political expediency. It seems that on the one hand, he wants taxpayers money for a CPO but by his own weird internal logic, for that CPO to be valid, the brownfield site would create more road traffic (plus air-engine exhaust pollution) than traffic as a result of his imagined 15,000 new homes.
Does this all smell a bit fishy? If I were one of the Save Branston brigade, I'd be very wary of having him on-board. He doesn't want a successful airport (stifles laugh), he just doesn't want houses.
Now where did I put those hymn-sheets?
Perhaps Cllr Ian Driver, Green Party would like to get in touch with Steve Dawe from the Kent Green Party and explain himself in response to part 9 of a Green Party document released when Manston was put up for sale.
9. The expansion of Manston, which we believe is economically unlikely given the distance from any major population centre, would be at the expense of the health and well-being of Thanet residents. We have drawn attention to the unregulated problem of aircraft noise in our submission to the Thanet District Council consultation on Night Flights. Bold Steps for Aviation ignores the effects of aircraft noise (and aircraft air pollution) completely;
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