Kent Police have today issued warning letters to all "known" anti-live animal export campaigners in Thanet and other parts of Kent .
The letter from Chief Constable Alan Pughsley suggests that
the campaigners are likely to cause "serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of the community". It also says that the Chief Constable is "believes the organizers will intimidate or compel other to unlawful acts" . Pughsley then advises campaigners that he will be using section 14 of the Public Order Act to impose restrictions on the regular demonstrations at the port of Ramsgate and that they will only be allowed to demonstrate at the "car park exit on the Ramsgate port side of Military Road"
Green Party Councillor and Parliamentary Candidate for Thanet South, Ian Driver, who is supporter of of the anti-live animal exports campaign said "I have been attending demonstrations against live exports at Ramsgate Port for over 3 years. In that time i have witnessed no serious disorder, no damage to property or intimidation. The only thing i have seen is horrendous cruelty to innocent animals and dangerous driving by the exporters".
"This is clearly a move to restrict the right of lawful protest in order to reduce policing costs. Its a massive over-reaction. In 3 years there have been only a handful of arrests and most of those arrested and taken to court have been found no guilty. We will certainly be taking advice and thinking about launching challenge against Pughsley's misguided and disproportionate decision"
In its 2011 election manifesto Thanet Labour Party promised
that “House building will be focused on brownfield sites” and that “building on
greenfield sites will be resisted”. One of the key greenfield sites singled out
by Labour for protection against house building encroachment was the 50 acre EuroKent site, comprising a small
industrial estate and extensive high
quality agricultural land, on both sides
of the New Haine Road, just behind the
Westwood Cross shopping centre. The land belongs to East Kent Opportunities
(EKO) a limited liability partnership
set up in 2008 and jointly owned by
Thanet District Council and Kent County Council.EKO joined forces with private
developers Rose Farm Estates, who own adjoining land and in 2010 plans were put forward to build 550
houses on this land. The then Labour leader Clive Hart, told the press that the
plans were “incredibly foolhardy and a waste of taxpayers money”. So concerned
was Thanet Labour Party that they staged a mini protest at the EKO site. Steven
Ladyman then Thanet South’s Labour MP
and past and current labour councillors including party leaders Clive Hart and Iris Johnston were
pictured demonstrating at the site. Fast forward to 2012. Labour are
now running Thanet Council and Clive Hart is Leader. As Leader Hart was
appointed to represent TDC on the
management board of EKO. But instead of opposing EKOs plans to build houses on
the EuroKent site as Labour’s election
manifesto had promised, Hart amazingly begins to support the plans. When the
plans were unanimously rejected by Thanet Council’s planning committee in
November 2013 Hart, at an EKO management board meeting, astonishingly votes in favour of a costly
planning appeal creating the farcical situation whereby the Leader of Thanet Council votes to support an
appeal against the Council he is in charge of!
I have tried to find out how much
this ridiculous situation has cost the taxpayer but EKO refuse to answer my
Freedom of Information requests. I have now appealed to the Information
Commissioner. But whatever the cost might be, it’s the taxpayer who will be
footing the bill.
Shortly after I exposed Hart’s role
in the EKO planning debacle and following some skatepark and airport related shenanigans
Hart resigned as Council Leader. He was replaced by Iris Johnston. David Green was quickly appointed as Hart’s
successor to the EKO management board. The EKO planning appeal was heard in
August 2014. Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric
Pickles, considered the matter and in a
letter to Thanet Council in late October
declared that EKOs planning appeal should be granted. Within days work
commenced on site.
Pickles’ decision was based on the
fact that, unlike most other councils in Kent, TDC did not have an up to date
and properly approved local development
plan including a strategic housing assessment and evidence of available house building
land to cover the next 5 years. On this basis it was not possible for Thanet
Council to resist building houses on the greenfield site and EKOs application
could not be blocked.
Notwithstanding Pickles’ decision
there is no legal reason to build houses on EKO land. Thanet as a 50:50 owner of the site
could have dug its heels in and demanded that the EKO board consider
alternative uses for the site. Councillor Leader Iris Johnston, who on many
occasions has proudly told people about her unbending commitment to Labour’s manifesto promises, could have
been true to her words and told the EKO board that TDCs ruling Labour group
would not allow the house building to go ahead. But surprisingly for someone so
self-professedly principled as Johnston,
she didn’t!
So Labour’s refusal to stick to its
manifesto promise and Pickle’s decision on the EKO appeal have now opened the floodgates for developers to submit planning
applications to build houses on other green field sites in Thanet. The so-called Manston Green development,
comprising of 850 houses on agricultural
land less than one mile away from the
EKO site, will shortly be put before TDCs planning committee and is almost
certain to be approved. Applications to build
housing on or around the former
Manston Airport site are likely to appear quite quickly and £10 million Government finance is already in place
to rip up hundreds of acres of prime agricultural land to build the new Thanet
Parkway station in 2015-17 which will serve the thousands of “executive style” homes which are likely to be built on Thanet’s
agricultural hinterland in the next 5 years.
Interestingly, Thanet Labour
Party’s 2011 Election Manifesto said of Parkway
that they would not support the station “at the expense of the environmental damage” it was likely to cause. I wonder if this promise to the
people is likely to go the way of Labour’s promise to protect our green fields
and open spaces and to oppose the EKO development?
It’s been said to me by a number of
concerned Labour Councillors, and more than one council officer, that the
failure of the Council to prepare a robust local plan; to identify a lot more brownfield land for housing development and
to protect more proactively rural open and green field land, might
be a deliberate ploy by TDCs political leadership and senior managers. This is
because for a council with limited resources, like Thanet, house building can
be very lucrative. 5-6000 new houses could generate at least £5million a year
in additional council tax. Additionally, the Government’s so-called New Homes Bonus
pays the equivalent of one years council tax per new house built for up to 6 years meaning that on the basis of
5-6,000 properties TDC stands to gain a staggering £30million in additional
funding. So this might well be the real reason why, unlike most other councils
in Kent, Labour controlled Thanet
has delayed the development and
implementation of a local plan and created a situation whereby developers have
free rein to destroy, disfigure and
despoil our open spaces and green fields.
But conspiracy theories aside, the development of 550 houses at the EKO site,
850 houses at Manston Green, the 1,000 houses already under construction at the
Persimmons development at the back of Marks and Spencers and goodness knows how
many houses on or around the former airport site, will create a garden city by stealth
within a square mile of Westwood Cross.
Westwood Cross is already a traffic
congestion nightmare with some of the worst airborne pollution in Kent. How will it
cope with the massive increase in
traffic and pollution resulting from building 5-6,000 new houses close by? Furthermore, we need to think about the
implications of building so many houses on our water supply. Thanet is already
an area designated by the Environment Agency as suffering “water stress”.
Southern Water has already said that it is being forced to dump raw sewage on
our beaches because its sewers are being overwhelmed by a growing population,
increased incidents of climate-change related heavy rain and
massively increased water run off from hard surfaces created by building
over open land. Then we have the question of the additional health, social care
and education services required to support the people living in the new homes.
The Green Party does not have its head in the sand. There’s no doubting that Thanet
does need more housing, especially decent social rented housing for the growing
number of people who can’t afford to buy or who are struggling to pay
spiralling private sector rents. But just how much is needed? The Council
estimates approximately 12,000 new homes by 2021. Is this a realistic figure? Where
will it be built? How will it impact upon our environment and public services? These are all questions which are being
avoided by the current Labour leadership of the council, the Tories and UKIP
alike.
Only the Thanet Green Party is
willing and able to discuss these issues and develop practical solutions such
as building the vast majority of new housing on previously developed brownfield
sites within our urban boundaries. Taking a tougher line on forcing the
refurbishment, sale or rent of the 1,000
plus long-term empty residential properties in Thanet. Insisting on the incorporation
of water re-use, micro generation and insulation technologies in all new developments. Opposing
the concreting over of gardens and opens spaces. Encouraging cycling and
walking and supporting better public transport
to cut down on vehicle use. If Thanet Greens are elected to the Council
in 2015 we will begin a major public
consultation and debate on these issues and how we can develop a sustainable future for
Thanet for our children and grandchildren.
More and more people are beginning
to realise that the Green Party is the only political organisation in Thanet
engaging in serious debate about Thanet’s future and the only political
organisation putting forward sensible solutions to the environmental, social
and economic challenges that we face. That’s why our membership is growing fast
and why some of our members and supporters are disaffected ex-members of the
Labour, Lib-Dem and even the Tory
parties.
The letter from Chief Constable Alan Pughsley suggests that
