Friday 12 June 2009

Airport noise and air monitors? Too much fuss.

Good to see the No night flights petition here: http://nonightflights.blogspot.com/

Yet despite bizarre “0% but really £25,000 pay increases” and fraudulent public statements on public money, the Gang of Four’s Richard Samuel and Brian White still seem incapable of providing noise and air monitoring for Thanet. Or Herne Bay. Or Canterbury. Nothing for Deal. Or Sandwich.

Too much fuss and bother putting them where people are, and monitoring the effects of air and noise polluition.

With NHS funds due to be cutback let’s hope the Gang of Four are not going around pulling the plugs on the heart monitors or life support machines.

Certainly with the new EU noise maps required around airports it would be sensible to put the noise and air monitors in the wrong place or not provide them at all.

Or as at Manston remove them.

No monitors. No data. No problem.

While the Environment Agency so far refuses to provide each month’s records of toxic waste sampling from Thor mercury – even the seawater testing results for May have gone astray.

Kick the problem into the long grass and hope the public forget it about it seems to be the civil service way.

Yet aviation fuel and mercury are such simple compounds: kerosene and mercury – they’re very easy to test for in water or soil.

A little like radiation, they light up the tests straight way.

We seem to have some political nobbling along the lines of the dual dodgy donations for ChinaGate.

Maybe the political party in power doesn’t want to release the results or put them in place because there goes the last regeneration policy.

While the opposition keeps quiet too - maybe it’s embarrassing for ”their” MP.

Maybe the civil servants are running rings round the councillors.

Maybe the councillors have “gone native” and think they’re the civil servant's representatives rather than the public’s representatives - or the Party machine’s representatives.

Perhaps the biggest electoral reform in UK is a “call-back petition” where MP’s and councillors do not have 4 years do as they please but can be recalled by a public vote of 10% of the population. As in USA.

A few feeble late flight donations for village hall chairs and the largest-ever CGP donation to local Party funds, and the sheep-councillors rubber-stamp the public’s land and safeguards away.

For 85 jobs in a region of 250,000 people. Because it was an RAF airbase once.

Yet Kings Hill ex-airfield has been developed with thousands of growth jobs and houses.

Ask your councillors and MP’s to sign the “No Night Flights” petition – and where are the noise and air monitors and Thor mercury test results?

If the tests have not been done then why not - and where are latest test results?

Or do we not bother with proper Health and Safety monitoring at international airports and mercury factories and Blue Flag beaches in Thanet?

Manston is a white elephant kept open solely for Ostend cargo flights with public funding from TDC, KCC and SEEDA – with no accounting of the health and safety impacts of 250,000 people for 85 jobs and a few political careers.

Rather like business mergers, public sector “glory projects” are usually too slow and ineffective in regeneration: look good on the political and civil service CV though.

Though less jobs than we thought.

Different jobs from what we were told.

No other plans in place except cookie-cutter planning like Westwood Cross: a bog-standard out-of-town shopping centre for Milton Keynes. But near the town centres.

An international cargo airport with a few passenger flights – but near the Ostend international cargo airport.

And one hour’s drive from some of the world’s 3 largest airports, the world’s largest container port and the South East’s only Channel Tunnel.

Lots of jolly outings around China and Britain though.

Jim Braithwaite of SEEDA works 3 days a week and his taxi bill alone is £50,000 per year.

Richard Samuel is paid £130,000.

John Bunnett is paid £100,000.

Brian White is paid £100,000.

Mark Seed is paid £100,000.

Expenses and other allowances extra.

For emptying the bins and polluting the water.

Thor mercury was supposed to close in 1988 after the Health and Safety Executive reported widespread mercury contamination and ill-health.

The factory was closed in South Africa for killing several workers and poisoning the water in Cato Ridge – here’s a few Google links:

http://www.greatnewsnetwork.org/index.php/news/article/thor_to_pay_r24m_for_mercury_waste_clean_up/

http://www.greenleft.org.au/1993/121/5129

http://www.afrol.com/News2001/sa017_mercury_waste.htm


Ask Geoff Wild the County Legal Eagle about corporate manslaughter and endangering the public: geoff.wild@kent.gov.uk – he’s on your payroll to look after County legal matters for you.

Like the dangers around airports and mercury factories. A lot of lawyers at County Hall funded by the Kent taxpayer.

Thor mercury was supposed to close in 1988.

Why was it still operating until a year or two ago?

Who is issuing permits to allow work to continue?

Why is Thor mercury contracted by the Environment Agency to supervise the cleanup for them?

As MP I will close Manston and seek the arrest and extradition of the Infratil Directors – as with Thor mercury before them.

Also statements from the civil servants as the Gang of Four are sacked: no payoffs, no public pensions, no gravy train public sector jobs.

Let’s hope the SEEDA-China chaps don’t hear about the dodgy ChinaGate donations: in China they’d be executed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zheng_Xiaoyu

Thanet. Open for dodgy business.

Even an Election Ferry.

Failed. Failed. Failed.

Time for Change.

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