Not only do some of the comments display an alarming ignorance of the process that will be followed during the Night Flying Consultation period but some folks seem to think that it is a done deal with me having already made the final decision. Nothing of course could be further from the truth, the final decision on whether to allow the application or allow an amended version will be made at a full Council meeting early next year based on the results of the consultation taking into account ALL the comments.
Some of the comments about me would quite rightly result in me being taken to The Standards Board if I had made them about the individuals making them. I have no problem with people having a different point of view from me about any subject but lets try and keep it civil and adult and not descend into insults.
My thanks to Smeggers for his reasonable attitude despite our differing attitudes, also to Malcom Kirkaldie for his apology.
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Onto less controversial things, we have recently bought a trailer tent and have already had several short breaks away and have been very lucky with the weather so far, we haven’t been quite so lucky with a couple of the sites we have chosen. We are members of The Caravan and Camping Club also this website and before going we always look at any reviews from previous visitors and if possible visit the campsites website. Most of these promise you an idyllic setting with peace and quiet, the reality is sometimes a bit different.
We went to one site that had got reasonable reviews and looked great on the web. We weren’t expecting a 5 star site but something reasonable. How wrong can you be!
Kids still running riot at ½ past 12 in the morning, 4 teenagers in the tent next to us who insisted on talking loudly all through the night, every other tent seemed to have two dogs with them and if one started barking the whole campsite was set off barking, site was on a slope, not normally a problem but when it rained on Thursday morning due to the hard ground we had a river running through our awning, the site advertised a fishing lake but it turned out to be nothing more than a pond. There were 85 pitches but only one shower and two toilet cubicles per sex.
Despite all this and apart from the rain early on Thursday morning we had a nice break and were visited by my Stepdaughter and family who took us out to a smashing pub for dinner.Even the fact that on the way back my nearside brake calliper decided to seize on and we completed our journey on the back of an AA lorry didn’t dent our enjoyment or enthusiasm and we are planning our next trip only this time it will be to an adult only site that don’t allow dogs !
7 comments:
You want to rob me of an hour and a half's kip every night and you expect me to be 'civil and adult'? You're having a laugh aren't you?
You have been publicly quoted as saying the extra night hours 'will bring Manston in line with every other airport'. Is that not tantamount to saying you approve of the extra night flights?
As for ignorance, it seems to be you that's ignorant of what a night flying quota system means. It means night flights at any time of the night, as long as they don't exceed the monthly limit.
I'm sorry Mike, but you really are a chump and I have absolutely no faith in your ability to uphold my rights as one of your electorate to health and wellbeing. Was it not you that failed to implement alternative flight paths that avoid Ramsgate in the last s106? What have you done to object to training flights that are supposed to be banned in the current s106? What have you done to object to the noise monitors being removed?
You will now doubtlessly trot out your usual argument about jobs. What jobs? The airport still employs the same number of people it did 10 years ago.
As for the other rusty tool in your box, namely that everyone you speak to supports the airport, what arrant nonsense. I speak to plenty of people in Ramsgate that don't even know you want to extend night flying. When I explain it to them they are horrified. Yes, some people (and I make a point of bringing it up in every casual conversation I have - in bars, in cafes, in shops) support the airport if you ask them the kind of idiotic questions you ask viz: 'If you could fly to Benidorm and it created jobs would you support Manston?'
However, when you ask them whether the tourists and visitors we have would want to eat in our cafes, stay in our hotels and spend money in our shops with 747s flying a few hundred feet above them all day and night you get a different answer. When you ask them if they want their kids to be woken up at 2 in the morning by a lumbering jet, just so a foreign company can make a few quid, again you get a different answer.
But I'm sure you'll trot out some bollix in response to that too. I honestly feel that the way you go on about the airport it's as if someone from the big town has shown you a nice shiny aeroplane, made you feel as if you might be someone important, and consequently any sense of duty towards your constituents has escaped out of both ears.
For heavens sake wake up and smell the jet fuel Mike, before that's the the only thing that anyone can smell around here.
I haven't said anything about you on my blog (yet), but that's because I don't know what your views are on having an official naturist beach in Thanet... ; )
Anon17.28 I used to live in Ramsgate I never woke up when planes flew over our house. where do you want those who are employed directly and indirectly because of the airport to go and work?
Mike
How many people are going to be employed at the Royal Sands hotel complex when it opens?
Which 'name' hoteliers have been approached with an idea to taking it over?
What is their opinion of guests being awoken at 3am by a landing jumbo?
THere is, as always, rampant hysteria about this subject. Mike Harrisons comment, that this change (if implemented) would bring Manston into line with other airports in the country is factually accurate. It is recognised across the country that the s106 agreement here, in those areas, is one of the toughest in the country. And, to be fair, at the time the 106 was drawn up, there were fewer regional airports and ecperience to draw on.
There is a consultation period, divided into sections, for public and other comments. There has already been reassurance that comments will be accepted after the official deadline for as long as other consultations continue.
This is an open and comprehensive process that allows all to comment freely on the proposal. In terms of process you could ask for no more. Either side pursuing their argument with assumption of prejudice does their case no good at all. Argue the case, formally, informally, with all the facts you can muster, and dont fall into personal abuse. In the end,it has much more effect.
Unfortunately I fear that Steve Higgin's personal insults & very short fuse have done our cause more harm than good and that they won't take into consideration genuine grievences now.
Mike, you really should learn to spell if you're going to pose as a disgruntled anti-airporter.
Nice to see a cross-party consensus there with Cllr Wells. Wouldn't you actually feel more comfortable as a Tory, Mike, as you seem to support just about everything they do?
As for Cllr Wells' saying the s106 here is one of the toughest in the country - good. Let's keep it that way. It's something to be proud of, not demolish so that a foreign investor can make money from our misery.
I note that nobody has yet trotted out the bogus jobs argument. Is that because it won't in fact create any? If you are going to try and flog it on jobs, please can we have a properly audited figure and not the usual woeful guesstimate the airport chucks out.
Better still perhaps the council could think about commissioning a cost benefit analysis before shoving even more lies down our throats.
You know - audited number of jobs and wealth creation measured against the cost of despoiling the environment, cost of treating health problems, loss of trade at local hotels and restaurants, extra costs for disrupted education due to lack of sleep, working days lost due to disrupted sleep and health problems, that sort of thing.
17:28
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