People Power Ramsgate Style

Last night about  250 people braved stormy weather to attend a public meeting about the O’Regan Group plans to locate a waste wood processing and concrete block manufacturing facility at the Port of Ramsgate. Mr Doug Brown and Mr Brian White, both former senior employees of Thanet District Council presented the plans on behalf of the O’Regan Group. It was clear that everyone attending the meeting was opposed to the O’Regan plans. Questions were asked and points raised about the dust, noise and traffic that will be generated by the plant.Concerns were expressed about the impact of the plans on Ramsgate’s reviving  tourist industry.Some people were worried about the amount water to be used to process the wood and manufacture the concrete block and how the polluted water would be managed. Others were very worried about the impact on the plans on the site of special scientific  interest and the European special area of conservation adjacent to the Port and  a number of people expressed their fear about the airborne dust and aggregates on the health of people living in Ramsgate.Sadly the presenters were unable to provide convincing answers to any of these important questions, much to the annoyance and frustration of  those attending the meeting. Quite clearly O’Regan and its plans are not wanted in Ramsgate. But I suspect this is not the last we will hear from them. As one of the O’Regan presenters let slip; they have chosen Ramsgate as a base for their potentially polluting activities because its cheaper than Medway and Sheerness ports!

So I think over the course of the next few months we can expect to see a planning application and an application for environment agency permit to allow  O’Regan’s to operate their  ill-conceived plans at the port. We need to be ready to organise and work together to oppose these plans and I’m sure we can easily transform  the 250 or so people who turned up last night into a formidable force of thousands. It was clear to me last night that people care passionately about
Ramsgate and they don’t want to sell it cheaply to dirty, noisy, smelly industrial development on our beautiful seafront.

The people spoke loud and clear  last night. If O’Regan’s come back they can expect to learn what People Power is all  about, especially People Power Ramsgate style . This is what John Lennon had to say to about it and here is a video  of Ramsgate people telling it like it is last night 

O'Regan Meeting Part 1