Gale's View - 28/03/2018

 

 

March 28th 2018

 

Thanet District Council is under new management.

 

As the head of a minority administration the elected Conservative Leader, Bob Bayford, does not have an easy task ahead of him. As he has conceded in his own public statements he has inherited very little in the way of funds and a whole basketful of issues that have been bequeathed to him by Cllr. Wells and his former Cabinet and that require urgent attention.

 

Foremost, as a priority, is the need to generate an acceptable local plan in short order. As the Secretary of State has pointed out too many administrations over too long a period have failed to deliver the blueprint for Thanet's short, medium and long term future.  Bob Bayford has made it clear that this administration will deal with the issue and in that context the offer of help from the Department for Housing and local Government is not intrusive but most welcome.

 

Whitehall is not, as some have sought to suggest, " taking over Thanet" but rather is seeking to offer advice, expertise and practical help to get a difficult job done in a reasonable period of time and I regard that as good news. What will be on offer will, I understand on good authority, be support to create a plan that meets Thanet's projected housing and business needs and that at the same time protects the potential for the return of commercial aviation to Manston.

 

That means that those seeking to acquire Manston for development as a freight hub and passenger airport will be able to do so with the confidence that, as in the past, the airfield will be designated for aviation and related purposes and not sacrificed, as some would wish, to accommodate a housing and not needed industrial estate.

 

Some 4500 pages of documents relating to the Development Consent order are now on their way to the printers. Following proof- reading twelve copies will be run off, and bound and delivered to the Planning Inspectorate in the week following Easter. The collation of this information has been a costly and Herculean task that gives the lie, I believe, to those who have sought to suggest that those behind this endeavour do not have the funds to see the project through or wish to buy the airfield only to themselves create a housing estate. In the national and in the local interest I trust and believe that they will succeed and that Manston Airport will once again be open and generating business and employment in the shortest practicable time. Manston was in my view unnecessarily closed and has been inactive for too long.

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