From Cllr Clive Hart - Labour Leader of Thanet District Council.
There are suggestions being made by our political opponents that the Thanet Labour policy to protect our local environment has in some way caused the proposed sale of Manston Airport.
Well, to quote Thanet Tory Cllr Simon Moores - "businesses don't like uncertainty". I agree, and Infratil's decision is more likely to be down to the effect of procrastination, indecision and navel gazing by the previous Conservative administration in relation to the airport, where he was part of a dithering Tory Cabinet. The Conservative's finally accepted the revised night-flying proposals from Manston Airport in October 2011 and despite suggesting at a public meeting that the consultation could start before the end of that year, when we took control of the council, we discovered it was not planned to start for months to come, and after that, take several more months to complete at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds of public money.
Indeed, had I not taken swift action to initiate a more focused consultation earlier this year, we would almost certainly now be at the start of a long, drawn out and costly Tory planned consultation process as this latest news hits us. And where would we have been then?
Fortunately, our more focused consultation process had just ended before this latest news from New Zealand arrived, so thankfully all the consultation responses have been received and can now be processed accordingly.
Thanet Labour's concern for our local environment is something I am very proud of and an issue the public is increasingly in tune with. I do not believe it had any impact on Infratil's decision. They have chosen to sell off the airport, to use their own terminology, as a 'no regrets' decision, and they list Manston as an underperforming asset alongside another they intend to offload.
This weeks news for Manston is worrying, but thankfully the council at least is on target to complete our local consultation process.
Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office, 44 Northdown Road, Margate, Kent, CT9 2RW.
The man's unintentionally hilarious! What a joke! Calamity Clive can't face up to his own and his party's inadequacy....
ReplyDeleteInfratil quite simply failed to make the airport pay. They are divesting themselves of under performers by cutting their losses and out. The commercial failure can be placed quite simply at the door of their management who have failed to recognise that Thanet is a deprived area and airport customers need to come from afar. The lack of a Manston International on the high speed rail line, an underground rail link to Thanet's main shopping area Westwood Cross and the poor transport links generally mean this airport is doomed to be a sleepy backwater in air transport scenario. The decision of FlyBe to cease their operations at the airport shows that the airport isn't commercially viable. To make it so, you need to get the connecting services right then offer slots at a knock-down price to Michael O'leary or similar. The night flights plan was simply a desperate action by a failing operation to make ends meet not an expansion option. The Council is wise to hold onto its cards until the situation becomes more clear. Manston seems to have been Thanet's DeLorean. As far as the Council's earlier approach all I can say is "Ever been had!"
ReplyDeleteYes CLive. of course Clive....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mr Moore's?
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