The results of my big poll on the future of Manston are in! And the winner is.... well, it's a dead heat actually.
Asked what you thought RAF London Kent Manston Etc Airport should become now that its days as a runway are rapidly coming to a close, 22% of you went for 'leisure', while another 22% of you opted for a '700 acre cannabis farm'. Hmm. I suppose the two aren't incompatible. And when you add in the 15% who wanted the airport to be returned to agriculture, I think we have a pretty darn good consensus!
That should please Councillor Ian Driver, our appropriately Green local representative who is campaigning for a cannabis caff to open up on Kent's Ramsgate Peninsula. I mean, cripes! With 700 acres of the stuff on his doorstep, he could open up a cannabis superstore!! Here are the results in full:
Question: What future for Manston?
700 acre cannabis farm: 22% (32 votes)
Leisure: 22% (32 votes)
Renewable energy: 16% (23 votes)
Agriculture: 15% (22 votes)
Housing: 12% (17 votes)
Industry: 10% (14 votes)
Personally I would have voted for renewable energy, which came in third. But then, what do I know? Well, what I do know is that it will almost certainly become a mammoth housing estate, which came in second to last.
Meanwhile airport champion Sir Roger Guff has been meeting with airport owner Annie Get Your Gloags today in a bid to save the place. Initial reports are that Sir Rodge has said there is no offer on the table. Believe me, Rodge, there's not only no offer, there's no table, no chairs, not even a room to put them in.
Still, one cloud hanging over the future of the airport as a non-airport, which may in the end prove to be the ace up Roger's hole, is the very well-founded rumour amongst the fly boys that there are unexploded pipe bombs on the site, left over from the war. But then again, if they've been landing planes on them for decades, I can't see it's much of an argument really. Anyone for a housing boom?!?! (Geddit??!!!!!??!?!?!)
132 comments:
Bourne leisure(Butlins,Haven Holidays)have expressed an interest in the whole site.Hoorah The Jolly Boys Outings!
The Duffers can retrain as Red-Coats (or Blue-Coats but being Thanet, probably 'getyercoats')
See Blowinagale tried to woo Ann Gloag at Westminster today. No doubt he bored her senseless with talk about the 'National Interest' again. Is this patriotic wind-sockery really all he's got left in his hand?
Seems he didn't realise how bad the £figures were at the Airfield. Surely he knows about CAA pax data? Oh no, silly me...
The Airfield has for too long been buoyed up by hyperbole, nostalgia and fear. Ann Gloag will have no such hang-ups when the padlocks go on.
Hi Titan69 where did you hear that great bit of news.
Titan69 You could be onto something as Bourne and Blue Chip are feeling acquisitive. See this from Travel Weekly website....
News
Allan Lambert to leave Bourne Leisure
By Hollie-Rae Merrick
Mar 04, 2014 16:08PM GMT
Self-catering specialist Blue Chip Holidays has appointed Bourne Leisure’s Allan Lambert as managing director.
Lambert, who is currently head of retail sales at Bourne Leisure, takes over from Alan Taylor on March 28. Taylor will remain on the board.
Liam Gavin, chairman of Blue Chip Holidays, said Lambert had been appointed to spearhead a nationwide growth strategy.
“Our goal is to take Blue Chip Holidays from being a regional leader to a national leader, offering a growing selection of high-end self catering holiday homes and lodges in key locations across the UK.
“This year alone we aim to grow from 890 four and five-star properties to in excess of 1,200, and over the next two years we are targeting a national portfolio of more than 1,500 properties.
“Allan is perfectly placed to enable the business to achieve these growth plans having held senior sales, marketing and commercial roles across Bourne Leisure working for the Butlins, Haven and Warner Leisure Hotels brands.
"Allan also brings with him excellent industry contacts as a Director of the Institute of Travel and Tourism, a Charity Ambassador for the Family Holiday Association, and having previously been Chairman of Tipto – the Truly Independent Professional Travel Organisation.”
Commenting on his appointment, Lambert said: “I’m very excited to be joining Blue Chip Holidays at such a significant time for the business with its ambitious plans and appetite for growth.
"I look forward to working with the senior leadership team to help achieve their strategic goals and aspirations to grow the business in holiday regions, product portfolio and routes to market.”
2+2=5 4.54pm.
The outlay would be humongous. Buy site, develop site.
Gale's just another Manston fanatic now desperate to be seen to be doing something as it's collapsed. Manston isn't in the national interest it's just a crappy airfield.
Why does he have a knighthood aagain?
As with housing rumours, the holiday camp rumours are nothing more than that, especially as few caravan sites would want to clean up the site first.
Oh I forgot Infratil and gloag would do that right? Or TDC?
Thanet has been destroyed by its councillors and MP's.
Smokin' Dreamland: TDC now own the whole site and have done for 6 months:
http://thanetpress.blogspot.com.es/2014/04/thanet-council-progresses-with-plans.html
Yet seem to have done nothing they now announce. And who are the project team they say they've hired? The Dreamland Trust who were running it? They gained £12M funding? Another shambles.
5.48
I do agree with you. Leisure Holiday park financials aren't really my thing. More money in it for Ann Gloag with a mix of predominantly housing, some retail and infrastructure such as schools, nurseries, GP surgeries and the like.
Starting to feel sorry for Ol' Gale.
Like a bloke who keeps promising the landlady of a grotty pub that he'll bring some of his new 'mates' along to have a look and buy a few drinks in the hope that they'll become regulars or even buy it.
Except when they get there they suddenly pat their pockets, make their excuses and leave.
Unbeknownst to him, the landlady doesn't give a toss. She doesn't want to pull pints anyway. Not there. That pub had its day during WW11. Cue the music...puhlease release me, let me go.....
Sounds like a town though 5:55. Why would you build a town next to the towns?
And Gloag couldn't do it anyway without planning permission...
Surely she'll want to be off and sell her £1 back to Infratil before she's invoiced for the pollution?
Sir Badger Tail as reported on the Gazette online just now.....
“I hold to – and have reiterated – the view that it is in the national interest that Manston should remain open as an operational airfield and while I again do not wish to raise false hopes I shall continue to see if there is a way to keep open and to realise the true potential of the airport.” all together now, did you all get that?
'National Interest'............zzzzzzzz
'Raise false hopes'...........zzzzzzzz
Oi, you over there in the cheap seats - wake up!
'True potential"................zzzzzzzz
Now I know that Ann Gloag probably gets a staff discount when she goes up to London for the day but was it worth bringing this visionary entrepreneur all the way to the Westminster Fun-House to hear that load of old guff again?
6.42
She'll already have by-passed the local stages. Brownfield site, stated Government house-building quotas etc. She's been given the nod, be sure of that. Not democratic I know but this is, as you know, the world we have.
Well said 6:47 Gale's important Gloag meeting seems to have been only to issue this sort of waffle and nothing has changed at all unless he can find more tax money to pay for keeping Manston open (presumably with the mythical Parkway too). We need to be rid of him after 30 years of failure. Although Hart has had monthly meetings with Buchanan and that's achieved nothing too. While Bayford and business guru Foolish Foley think Manston is still a great business...
Sorry 6.42
Yes, hard to know about the pollution side of things. It was swept under the Tarmac for years, even denied by airport supporters. It'll be interesting to see now if those opposed to the airport go a bit schtum on it. Local politics, especially in these badlands, seems to be infinitely flexible!
There is not an ounce of substance to your opinion and rumour 6:52
Every single local politician (gale, bayford, hart, ruddy face man, latchford etc etc) all proven to be wrong.
Surely they should all resign?
6.58 Thank you.
None of what I say about the local 'players' is in any way personal. They just don't seem to have grasped how different business is these days to only a decade ago.
They do all need to be replaced. Proper hustings so that the people can judge the skill-sets that councillors actually possess. They will all continue to have rings run around them. It's pitiful to watch, pitiful to read.
6:59 Tarmac: there's lots of information on the Manston pollution from the Environment Agency etc, it's just that the council have kept quiet about it - and certainly not done anything about it.
Who were the Airport Committee Chairs and why hasn't Hart raised it in his monthly meetings with Buchanan?
Nationally, air pollution is estimated to kill about 30,000 people a year so it must be worse around an airport?
6.59
Really? You should get out more. Or read the business pages.
Agree with 7:03 and 7:04 we need to be rid of these fools they are simply incompetent and proven to have failed.
A deselection list and vote boycott list would be useful, and a council tax strike always spurs them on before it's pitchforks and the baying mob.
Mind you the UKIP geriatric lot won't last another Winter.
There you go again 7:06 hot air and nothing to back it up then blaming someone for questioning your rumour.
And quoting a press article where the CEO has just been fired hardly lends your hot air substance...
7.09
I'm all for a Gloag dictatorship. We could hedge our bets ahead of the Scottish referendum. She'd be our very own Braveheart Boudicca. Wouldn't hold yer breath for free bus passes though.
7.12 Thank you for taking an interest.
ECR
Want some seed capital for a structured-reality programme about a Duffers Retirement Home?
We must find a use for them when they've gone. I'd considered using them as sea-defences but they'd probably end up facing the wrong way and miss the tide coming in until they were up to their necks in it.
This could be the Bafta.
Has anyone started a sweepstake yet on up, up and away padlock-day?
Vote for sir dodger whale he can save Woolworth's from closure. He say's he has a buyer and the company can be a real asset to Thanet!!!!!!
7.38
HaHa. Yes, all hail the Gale, the giver of life, the bringer of hope. Next week in Thanet North, David Moyes on building on success, the guy who cornered the market in Betamax, Sir Clive Sinclair on the future of transport and our Rog on cast-iron money making schemes in transport infrastructure.
We don't know how lucky we are.
Padlock Day for Manston must be Friday 25th: the end of the 45 days and the end of the week.
There are no flights at all now with Newmarket Holidays going?
Can Sir Rog find a buyer - and airlines - before then?
Will Paul Carter announce the Parkway built after then anyway?
Will Buchanan describe closure as a success and the future of Manston?
Will Gloag get her quid back?
7.38
Joking aside, it's not his fault though. It's no individual's fault. This is the free-market (aided in this case by sweeteners etc over the years) talking. Sometimes the market delivers what we as individuals want, sometimes it doesn't but those are the rules. Manston supporters should be grateful that the market allowed them over a decade of failure to this point. It's had a good run, but please, no more insulting and self-deluding talk about potential.
She'll gross up to £30m. Net is for her accountants to work out. Good luck to her.
You're very kind 8:14 but you're ignoring the removal of the monitors and the council support and our tax even now. Heads must roll which is the free market in breaking the law, and democracy for excessive failure.
The Port is much the same and Pleasurama similar corruption.
Your argument is Scotch Mist and no-fault and let's all forget about it and pay for it anyway.
Agreed the pro-manstoners are deluding themselves and should consider why.
8.20
Not disagreeing with what you've just said at all. I wasn't talking about negligible attempts at diligence in terms of monitoring etc, trust me! My point is that the Airfield has never turned a profit in the past, hasn't in recent times and was never going to in the future for all the well rehearsed reasons we've commented on for years. Sometimes the market gives a brutal but honest assessment of things. It has in Manston's case. Hope that's cleared any misunderstanding up!
"No no please listen its not a failure we can make Manston airport work and be a success it will be great for Thanet"
Were the ramblings of an old man in a Birchington care home this week.
Why the change of photo Richard? Has twenty quid a month compromised your beliefs???
Gale Gale your efforts have come to no avail
You were always going to fail now its time to bail
all hail Ann Gloag the woman that's going to sail
off with the developers cash she will be the only one to prevail
what's happening with pleasurama
Nope 10:08pm. However you're correct in one way, the sponsor was slightly alarmed at the presence of a mass of weed next to her logo. I should have thought of that, really.
My 'beliefs' do not stretch to an undying commitment to a photograph of some plants, so I changed it.
And 20 quid a month? That's the sort of cheap rates you'd get on The Gazunder these days! I couldn't go more than a few yards in my Bentley Continental Flying Toss for that!
Get the throbber out ECR, thrash it about etc
This is purely medicinal so there's nothing to cause alarm here:-http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/U.S._Government_Medical_Marijuana_crop._University_of_Mississippi._Oxford.jpg
I think few of us would be alarmed by a large bush. Especially if you're thrashing your throbber etc etc
I don't know about pipe bombs ECR. I have a pipe to smoke the old black cherry pipe baccy.
You may be thinking about Ian Fleming's brother Peter and his tunnel access for Manston destruction purposes. The old auxiliary units of the Home Guard.
The Luftwaffe dropped a timely bomb I think and done for the tunnel. Whether they thus buried rather a lot of airport destruction explosives ? I suppose the idea was that if the Nazis invaded the auxiliary units would wait for the Luftwaffe to have made itself at home at a captured Manston then blown the whole kit and kabaoodle sky high.
If some spoilsport hadn't entered the fray bearing facts this was the next stage of the fracking wind up. Copper azide and boom bang a bang.
You don't hear a lot from the save Manston lot in the last 2 days. I wonder if the penny has dropped?
They will be re-deploying to another Save Dreamland campaign as that too runs into problems.
Seemingly Labour have already deployed to Saving the QEQM, not that it is actually under threat.
Elswhere, what is to debate on this site, pro or anti Manston, when it is hogged by the silly prattle of the mindless one.
There will be a lot of red faces on here ..as the airport will not close.. I keep telling you ..and I'm not deluded.. I just know :-)
The campaign is ongoing, a big meeting coming up at the Winter Gardens, but the campaign is detracting from what is really going on.
10:59 you really must provide something more substantial than "I know you know" if we are to believe you that Manston won't close especially as it already has(!). You saying it hasn't doesn't change that fact. So you most certainly do seem deluded or at best just spouting the usual proManston guff.
9:30 we were debating the Broadstairs Community Centre and its costs so far earlier?
8:25 agree that Manston hasn't made a profit but you're seriously underestimating the issue of monitors in that.
It can hardly be "negligible attempts at diligence in monitoring" if the Infratil and TDC actually remove the monitors - and pretend they are still there - and seek public funds while doing so?
That's a crime isn't it? It's certainly of a lot of deliberately unrecorded pollution.
The lack of required fines alone would skew your assessment of the free market in Manston's collapse.
What is the Public Works Board involved in BTC's COmmunity Centre?
There's an interesting debate on Driver's site on Dreamland and who owns it/is running it/the costs of it since TDC took over in September 2013.
Clearly TDC will delay and waste and mess things up: it opening in 12 months looks unlikely now.
Here's some guff on how they haven't done anything for 6 months and are now writing a procurement memo to begin etc etc etc:
"Thanet District Council is forging ahead with plans to create a ‘world class leisure attraction’ at the Dreamland site in Margate.
And the next stage is to secure an operator to run the park.
The council, which owns the entire site and plans to build an amusement park on it, has put together a funding package to start work on the project, though it has yet to find an operating company with the necessary technical expertise to run the park.
To solve that issue, the council cabinet will discuss plans for an open procurement process to identify a suitable candidate, when it meets on May 1.
Plans for the first phase of the attraction include a restored Scenic Railway, historic rides and food and drink outlets. Further phases would then follow.
The council has a management team on-board to manage the project who have pulled together cost plans and are working through the costs and risks on a day to day basis.
Director for community services, Madeline Homer, said: “Dreamland has the potential to be a major economic driver for the district.
“We’re working incredibly hard behind the scenes to drive this development forward and will be doing all we can to keep the community up to date with our progress.
“Identifying a suitable operator to run the park is a major step in the journey, with the plan to open the first phase of the park in April 2015.
“Is this ambitious? Absolutely. Are there risks involved? Of course, but we’re committed to keeping the momentum going and involving those with the appropriate skills and expertise to see this project through.”
Freehold of the Dreamland site came into the council’s ownership at the beginning of September 2013 through a compulsory purchase order."
Hmmm. It looks like Dreamland is turning into another Pleasurama. Oh the irony!
11:35, don't know why you do not look up things yourself, but the Public Works Loan Board, to give it its full title, was set up to provide funding for public projects. It comes under HM Treasury.
Its involvement in the Broadstairs Community Centre was simply to provide a loan to the council towards the costs of that building.
The building did not go ahead as planned because, at the last minute, TDC refused to grant the necessary lease on the site, but they are now directing the Trust to look at alternative locations.
10.59
Ok what's really going on with Manston and will the campaign to stop Manston using public money to pollute the isle of Thanet and deter visitors from coming over ride your campaign?
Richard, could anything else be expected with Labour in charge at TDC.
11:56 so the Broadstairs Centre £1.2M was all funded by tax. Cllr Epps says the building is still in development but you're saying it isn't? When was it/the loan cancelled? What are the costs so far? The Gazette says £30k pa in interest for the Public Works Board loan and £100k spent so far?
11:53 Or another Port or Hoverport or Manston. Millions of pounds of tax wasted and sites left derelict for years.
11:57 is right in that why have resignations at TDC not happened yet? Hart and Everitt are as bad as Bayford and Wise and either involved in the corruption or happy to cover it up and let us pay for it.
Do we get council tax refunds for waste and corruption?
Imagine another year of The Duffers... What will they do? More resignations are required.
Jail for corruption:
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/gravesend/news/swanscombe-prison-officer-charged-16026/
I see Gale is now talking of Kent County Council being asked to stump up "hard cash" to keep Manston open. I wonder if all of those who want to see the airport stay open are happy to go THIS far? If the lauded private sector have washed their hands of it, why should the maligned public purse be expected to bail out the operation?
Having been opposed to night-flights over many years, it has frustrated me to hear the pro-airport brigade constantly making up lies about us: that we are all retired, that there are only six of us, that we don't care about creating employment in Thanet etc. etc.
Therefore, it comes as something of a surprise to open the Kent Extra and see a photograph of the pro-airport lot holding a protest to save Manston. By my count, there are 18 of them. The majority are old enough to have retired and the others don't exactly look employable. There's one who thinks he's Tom Cruise, one who looks like Ian Hislop and one who was obviously a fan of the Captain and Tenille.
The ringleader is named as Ruth Bailey (57) and the paper reports that she lives in Granville Road, Broadstairs, where she doesn't have to endure the noise and pollution from the aircraft. Being a local newspaper, they don't ask her the obvious question: why are you so wedded to the idea of an airport, when it has so obviously failed?
Anon 1.34 I would be happy for KCC to take over the airport with these two conditions.
1. KCC move about 5,000 jobs from their West Kent offices at tMaidstone and Kings Hill to the EKO business park and to the airport itself. Many of the jobs would then be filled by East Kent residents. By this the KCC leadership would show that they are not just paying lip service to developing jobs in East Kent.
2. To generate the funds needed to support the airport, KCC must stop the £2 millions a year subsidy to the Turner Contemporary. The TC must then charge the the 700,000 a year visitors £6 pounds each and with the £4 millions generated pay KCC a million a year in rent.
Thus KCC have a choice of jobs at the airport or jobs at the TC.
12:13, the community centre could still be going ahead, but TDC want it in a different place to where it was proposed. Yes, presumably it will be funded by tax like all public projects (how did you think things like town halls run?), but the element borrowed would have to be repaid (out of tax).
The Gazette seem to be the experts on what it has cost so far although their reporter only repeated allegations made by the protest group at the annual public meeting. Hardly 100% reliable but you could put in a FOI request for a copy of the council's budget. Somehow I doubt that you will as you prefer to whinge on blog sites.
Read between the lines;
Gale -'I don't want to raise false hope'
True meaning;
'There is no hope'
2.38pm, if you charged £6 a pop to enter the Turner, you wouldn't have 700,000 visitors.
I see driver has spotted another gaffe from our illustrious leaders. They have buried the independent review.
I think they are spending their time putting a response together. As it's taken them a month, the report must be scathing.
Dreamland to open in 2015.
Someone is definitely in Dreamland at TDC.
Why doesn't gale turn his attention to Saving Dreamland.
At least its in his constituency.
So is Manston.
Gale is the master of dead horse flogging. Actually Manston IS in Guff's constituency, but only just. As soon as the crates leave the runway they are in Laura Sandys constituency. Talking of whom, she seems to have gone remarkably quiet over the airport in the past couple of weeks.
3:17, wrong, they come in over Thanet South, land in Thanet North and take off in the direction of Herne Bay. Like most airports, plane noise can be heard in several constituencies, but then we live in the age of air travel. Suppose we could revert to camel trains but the beasts fart and grunt. Thinking about it, so do lots of folk in Ramsgate so it could go unnoticed.
How many times has Sir Roger Wind mentioned manston in parliament verses Dreamland? Which one has had the most devastating impact on his constituency? Why does he concentrate so much effort on Manston over everything else (bar fighting gay marriage and defending expenses)
Perhaps aeroplanes are more exciting than bumper cars.
Anon 2.56 Maybe You are right. I have suspected for some time that half the visitors go in to use the toilets and there has been a lot of massaging of totals going on. Else 700,000 visits a year for 3 years spending in Margate would have produced a lot more regeneration than we have seen.
So far capital costs of £17 millions and £7.5 running costs seem to be a lot of cash for what we have got.
Yes I agree, I have seen dozens of visitors rushing down from Margate station, cross legged or clutching their crutches, as they leg it to the Turner toilets. I hope it is worth the train fair.
"The bottom line is that she wants to sell the airfield and if a buyer comes along in the timeframe - which is getting shorter by the minute - and can make a fair offer, she will sell".
Vote for this man at the next election at your peril. Next thing he'll be believing there is a God.
3:36, talking of urinating, I think someone is taking the piss out of you.
3:42, are you Richard Dawkins or one of his disciples?
3:31 wrong. I live in Ramsgate and they do occasionally take off over the town when the wind is blowing in the right/wrong direction. Btw the number of Manstoners tweeting Richard Branson directly and asking him to save the airport seems to be growing exponentially. Pathetic.
Hey that's a great name for when it becomes a cannabis farm - "Manstoners" :)
3.31 your mum grunts and farts
Further to Private Eye (Local correspondent Eastcliff R) expose'
There is a balance of public interest delay ECR.
The Sun following Private Eye expose' lead
I don't recall emailing you the Devonport 2012 serious nuclear report (backup generator failure) relevant sections ECR so I will attend to that in the public interest. Just in case one of your former Private Eye apprentices is now reaching journo maturity.
"Hislop put the kettle on". He'll remember.
4:09, your mum farted and you resulted. Surprised she did not call you Turd, but then perhaps she did and you changed it to Tim.
5.27
On behalf of all decent bloggers and posters - take a good look at yourself.
5.27
how childish. Grow up
5:39, are you a decent blogger? How would we know so how about some proof?
And it was all going along so nicely.
I have deleted 4:14pm, as it was just Garbutt spamming my jottings with his ramblings again. Not just a random ramble, but the complete contents of his latest outpouring.
Oy! Garbutt! Leave it out!
I have left Rick's offering as he has been reasonably continent of late.
So according to BBC News, the arch-Thatcherite expects Kent tax-payers to bale out a failed business. Paul Carter needs to tell Gale to put his own money up before a penny of public funds is used for the soon to be abandoned old dump of an airfield.
Gale - you're a complete and utter joke.
Surely it was 4:09 who started all this nonsense about farting mums. 5:27 merely responded in kind.
5.27 if you call a whole town farters and grunters you are asking for abuse
Why is Gale cakking himself so much at the thought of the airfield closing? Even ready to ditch his political principles. What is the real story here?
Actually, old bean, it was 3:31 who talked of lots of Ramsgate folk emulating the camel, not I, but are we to assume you are the tasteless turkey who introduced peoples' poor old mums into the frame. Not nice at all and you should be ashamed of yourself.
5.44
This is what started it 3.31 said
"Suppose we could revert to camel trains but the beasts fart and grunt. Thinking about it, so do lots of folk in Ramsgate so it could go unnoticed"
5.42
Thank you for your interest.
That's enough camel farts - Ed.
Well that should kill the debate stone dead, Richard, for I bet everyone has got so absorbed by the beastly flatulence discussion that they have forgotten the main thread. By the way, I was only half way through Tim's manifesto when you deleted it, though I was tiring by then.
I said that the tax payer would be footing the bill to appease pro-Manston lot shame on you all I hope one day that you will need a public servant that's been laid off dew to cuts to save your stupid airport
'Losing money'
Sir Roger said: "Mrs Gloag made the point that she can't go on running an airport that's continually losing money.
"The bottom line is that she wants to sell the airfield and if a buyer comes along in the timeframe - which is getting shorter by the minute - and can make a fair offer, she will sell."
He added: "I'm certainly going to talk to Paul Carter [leader of Kent County Council] to see if there's anything the county can do to contribute towards this.
"If they can put hard cash where the support is, that would be a very good thing... [but] there's a limit these days to the amount of money available."
I believe it's illegal under EU regulations for the public purse to be used to to prop up failed businesses.He'll know that, it's all bluster, as per.
6.07 Epps
Instead of slagging off all and sundry, why don't you tell us a bit about your achievementsi as a councillor? This is a genuine question because there must be more to you than is evidenced here. Really, go on....
Actually Sir Guff is a pretty rotten businessman, as a revelation I'm planning for next week will demonstrate!
Meanwhile let's keep the personal attacks out of it, chaps.
No, actually, you can have a go at me if you like. Bring it on!
Did we ever find out the costs of the Broadstairs Community Centre? And where it's supposed to be built now?
It seems almost complete folly by the Broadstairs/TDC double-hatters.
Which of them voted for it and still support it?
Lord Guff and many others have spent the last fifteen years telling us that Manston offers the best possible hope for economic recovery in Thanet. Collectively, these people have backed the airport against all other possible developments. Some years ago a prison was proposed for the site. The great and the good banded together to block that proposal, even though it would have created many stable jobs in one of the few growing industries in this country. Lord Guff can't let go of the airport because he can't stomach having to admit that he was wrong and that his stubborn refusal to listen to alternatives has cost his constituents dearly.
There's a rather good cancer ward though.
Does anybody know how much money KCC can put into Manston before they break EU regulations?
KCC can out as much as they like in. Politically, they might be thinking its a good idea. Financially, it's akin to burning £10 notes every few mins.
Seeing as KCC burn a hell of a lot more than that every few mins today for dubious benefits, I would not put it past them.
The only thing stopping it in my mind would be a heavyweight from Westminster - sorry, THE heavyweight from Westminster Pickles. He would undoubtedly spell out how moronic they are being in still tough economic times with public money and tell them to cease.
After their disastrous investment in Icelandic Banks, the public will not stomach another balls-up investment from the KCC Duffers. Let them try.
Perhaps Sir Bodger Bail could spell out his new political theory to us?
Just read the Expand East Kent / Regional Growth Fund documentation which is the begging-bowl mechanism that Gale et al would have to use to secure KCC handouts.
In short, they won't stand a chance of getting a penny by the time the qualifying criteria have been addressed. Too numerous to list here but Sir Ruddy Face will have to admit very soon, that KCC funding is yet another red-herring. If I worked at the airport, I'd be furious.
Well it seems as if roger gale has made it public and is going to ask KCC to fund keeping Manston open. These people cant see the facts it will never work in it's location It will never get any bigger. Never employ 1000s. It will always lose money. Its so plain to see why don't people understand.
I hope your right 8.30 thanks
Here's just one section|
What we cannot fund?
• Non Viable Investment Proposals and Businesses - Due to State Aid regulations ExEK can not be used to support non-viable investment proposals from non-viable businesses.
And another:
Viability - The organisation undertaking the investment proposal must be viable, have good growth potential and be self-sustaining by the completion of the investment.
(I.e. Within 3 years)
And this: Which businesses and organisations would they like to see go under because their local MP isn't 'obsessing' about their businesses -
State Aid Limits - Any offer of finance assistance would lead to regional aid limits being exceeded. The total amount of public support measures for the aided activity shall be taken into account, regardless of whether that support is financed from local, regional, national or EU.
A vanity project writ-large at yours and my expense.
Thanks for the info 8.56 is sir bodger fail just making himself look stupid?
9.14
Ironically, I expect this is very well calculated!!!
I cant see how what do you think he's up to?
He'll never look quite as stupid as Tim, no matter how hard he tries!
9.36
That was the funniest post I've read in ages. Are you part of a script-writing team??
6:58, did not realise I was slagging off all and sundry as you quaintly put it, but in answer to your query "SFA." Happy now?
10.31
In Retirus Veritas!
Well done Mr Epps. An honest man!
I see Biggles wants manston kept open for emergency landings.
Clutching, straws..........
Any news on Bourne leisure wanting the Manston site or is it just a rumour with no foundation?
Back to your Easter egg 3:23 unless you can come up with something other than fool questions. Why don't you investigate the Bourne Leisure suggestion and then tell the rest of us.
PS Don't dribble chocolate on your bib.
WOW 3.30
You make yourself sound so stupid its all that margate air do you just sit on here all day insulting people that blog? What do they call those people oh yeah that's it w**kers
Or are you the billion air today in your mansion????????
Just to inject a hint of reality. Ann Gloag bought Manston for £1 because nobody...I repeat, nobody, was prepared to bid more for it. In the 8 months since she bought it she will have had to fork out several million pounds. If she shuts it down she will have to fork out several more million.
Ann Gloag isn't stupid. You don't get to be as rich as she is by being stupid. She didn't buy it for £1 intending to lose millions of pounds. She will have had a plan for getting he3r money back and making more besides. My bet is that she plans to parcel the land up and develop it over a period of several years.
So, the only way that Masnton could be saved is if a white knight came riding in carrying enough money to buy Ann out. By my reckoning they would have to recompense her for the money she has spent so far and would have to offer enough to make her walk away from the potential future profits. I'd hazard a gues that we are talking about something in excess of £20 mill.
So, what the pro-airport loonies have to explain is why anybody would fork out £20 mill to save their beloved airport when they weren't prepared to bid £2 for it a year ago.
6.29 Exactly. Spot-on.
And the councillors need to explain why they've been funding it through ignoring the fines - and what their plans are given Hart is still claiming the airport is important/vital/the future/anything but bust.
Heads must roll for such failure.
SAVE MANSTON GROUP MEETING
Saturday 26 April 2.00pm at the Winter Gardens Margate
Open to members of the public who support the campaign.
It's also open to members who are against the campaign, but of course they prefer writing anonymously on blogs rather than speaking up in public!
Wow, that's a big venue. Sure you can fill it?
6.55, you would go a fair way to achieving that if you actually turned up with your bulk.
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