I said at the time
that portraying yourself as a “revenge seeking candidate” was being disrespectful towards voters and is not a healthy, or
desirable, motivation for standing for public
office. I still believe this to be true.
But today,
instead of focusing on David Green’s motivations,
I want to examine his previous record as a local councillor so that people can make up their minds about his
suitability for office. To do this I have
drawn up a list of David Green’s key political
achievements when he was a member of Labour’s ruling administration at Thanet
Council and a member of Thanet Councils Labour controlled Cabinet between
2011-15 .
Please bear in mind
that this is my own analysis of, and opinion about, David Green’s political
record between 2011-15. I would expect anyone interested in this matter to seek
information elsewhere, including from David Green himself and the Labour Party,
in order to have a balanced picture. That
said here is my list of what David did.
1.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which approved the secret fee deferral agreement with TansEuropa
Ferries which cost council tax payers £3.4million. David Green did not
publically criticise this arrangement when it became known.
2.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which banned live animal exports from the
Port of Ramsgate, even though the
council had legal advice saying that this would be unlawful – costing council
tax payers £5million in compensation to date. David Green has, to the best of my knowledge, made no
public statement distancing himself from this reckless and expensive decision backed
by himself and his Labour colleagues.
3.
Member of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet
which invested between £7-8million of council taxpayers money into the Margate
Dreamland Amusement Park project and who appointed the park operator which has failed to pay debts of more than £3million
and is now in administration. David
Green has, to the best of my knowledge, made no public statement criticising the
massive mismanagement of the Dreamland project which may eventually cost tax
payers dearly.
4.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which decided to sell off Thanet’s publically owned heritage to the private sector such as the Ramsgate Pleasurama site,
Broadstairs and Ramsgate’s pavilions, Margate’s Theatre Royal
5.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which failed, over a 4 year period, to
develop a Thanet Local Plan thus allowing speculative developers to secure
planning permission/ build housing on
our rural green field sites at Manston Green, New Haine Road etc instead of building on previously developed brown
field sites.
6.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which supported the development of an
expensive (£26 million), unnecessary and environmentally damaging Parkway
station.
7.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which cynically exploited the Save
Manston Airport campaign by pursuing a Compulsory Purchase Order many people
knew was extremely unlikely to be unachievable in order to gain electoral advantage.
I do not recall David Green making any public criticism of this manoeuvre.
8.
Member of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet
which trashed via a dawn bull-dozer raid the Little Oasis Skate Park Margate which
had been paid for and constructed by
young people and their parents. Not a word of public criticism from David Green do I recall.
9.
Member
of the Labour Administration/ Cabinet which failed to recover into council
ownership the Ramsgate Pleasurama site
from developers who despoiled and blighted the seafront for 20 years.
10. Member of the Labour Administration/
Cabinet which disobeyed Government guidance to allow the public to film its
meetings. Choosing instead to call the police to remove those who wished,
through filming, to have councillors held to account. I do not recall David
Green supporting proposals to allow the
public to film of meetings until the
council was forced to so by law change.
This is not, in
my opinion, a very inspiring record of achievement for a wannabe “revenge
seeking councillor”. Having looked at the list of candidates I would personally
vote for the LibDems but even then, like David Green, they are also staunchly
Pro-EU and I voted Brexit. But one thing for sure I would not be voting UKIP,
Tory or Labour’s David Green
Have any of the candidates issued any manifestos yet?
ReplyDeleteWhat a guy!
ReplyDeleteI believe in the past he has backed the party line & not listened to the people or voted for what is truly best for the town.
ReplyDeleteYou could produce a similar list of shame for just about every other long-standing councillor in Thant. They are all tainted by cruddy useless decision and an abject failure to examine issues in any detail.
ReplyDeleteCan say in a positive note that he did answer emails and get involved in a local issue and attended a residents meeting with Iris at his side - didn't expect that railroading of the meeting but managed to keep it in line - shame we didn't get anywhere with sorting the key issues out ;/
ReplyDeleteIan, Your comments are aimed at the Labour Party and not at David as an individual. Perhaps you need to look in a mirror before condemning others who have achieved significant status and respect in this town.
ReplyDeleteDavid's standing as a councilor - and a senior one at that being previously Mayor and in Cabinet - under the Labour banner so can respond to the above? Is filming still not allowed at TDC or RTC?
ReplyDelete20:46 respect and status for what?
ReplyDeleteElected politicians should be judged on their record, so it's perfectly legitimate for Ian to list Dave Green's failings. I have no doubt that Mr. Green would try to defend himself by pointing out that, whilst he was a member of the administration which did all of these things, he didn't necessarily agree with all of them. However, I'm afraid he has to take collective responsibility for the disastrous administrations he served in and the massive damage they have done to the area.
ReplyDeleteHas Dave spoken up on the Thor mercury pollution or indeed any of the TDC councillors?
ReplyDeleteQuite right. None of the councillors has spoken up, Interesting to note that the Environment Agency is all over Stone Hill Park's planning application recommending restrictions and controls to protest the aquifer. Funny how they didn't do anything to protect the aquifer from Wiggins, Thor or Sericol. Bolting the stable door after the horse has gone (I think that's what it's called).
ReplyDeleteWells is keeping his head down on the manston monitors scandal as is Bayford on Pleasurama
ReplyDeleteSHP is effectively a New Town isn't it? How will Thanet's crumbling sewers and polluted aquifer cope given the floods from a minor storm last weekend?
ReplyDeleteDave Green in the Gazette today writes that Labour didn't cause any debt at TDC and the Port etc was well-run. How could we have thought otherwise and reduced Labour to just a few seats?
ReplyDeleteIan Driver and the Greens write in the Gazette too to support the SHP plans...which will be hugely environmentally damaging...
ReplyDeleteNot so! If you read our letter carefully you would see that we are demanding a broad range of environmental mitigation for the site including high levels of insulation, micro-generation, water re-use technologies, the facilitation of improved public transport to and from the site and safe cycling and walking. We have also asked for more trees to be planted and the rpovisions of community allotments. No one else has been asking for this.
Delete