Aha! The cat's out of the bag

Way back in February, NNF sent the Airport Working Committee a response to Rob Hetherington's awful strategy document. And we heard nothing, until 17th June, when we were told (by Charles Hungwe, Senior Democratic Services Officer):

"At the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel on 28 May 2013, Members set up 5 task & finish groups/working parties for 2013/14. Unfortunately the Airport Working Party was not one of the five."

Quick as a flash, the reply went back to Charles Hungwe and Madeline Homer:

"The obvious question is: which part or parts of TDC now deal with the airport and related issues?"

And we heard nothing. So there was the usual annoying series of increasingly exasperated and ever-escalating requests for a reply and an answer.

Ta-dah! Having escalated the question to Leader and Chief Exec level, a reply arrived on 13th August from Madeline Homer:

"In general the airport remains part of the Economic Development and Regeneration portfolio under the Director of Community Services, including the monitoring of the s.106 agreement."

So there you have it. A mere two months after being asked, Ms Homer tells us that airport matters fall under the remit the Director of Community Services.

The Director of Community Services is Madeline Homer. I suggest it would be sensible to include her in all your correspondence regarding the airport - Madeline.Homer@thanet.gov.uk

TDC's Airport Working Party ditched

Even their harshest critics would accept that they were better than nothing, but now the AWP has been disbanded and air-brushed from history.

Why now?

I would have thought that this would be a particularly useful time to have a single, dedicated point of contact between the airport and the Council. Consider:

• the, ahem, burgeoning passenger traffic through the airport,
• British Airways pilots circling over Thanet as they get to grips with the some of the largest passenger aircraft in the world,
• Manston branching out into hosting large open-air events like the recent air show,
• the airport is STILL for sale - even if they're not involved in (or informed of) negotiations, surely TDC would want to be ready to welcome the new owners, because of...
• the need to renegotiate the S106 agreement.

How could this have happened?

Well, fingers are being pointed at Cllr John Worrow and Cllr Mike Harrison. Both went to the Overview & Scrutiny committee meeting on 28th May, when the various working parties for the coming year were set up. As Charles Hungwe (the officer in charge of the committee) wrote to me:

At the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Panel on 28 May 2013, Members set up 5 task & finish groups/working parties for 2013/14. Unfortunately the Airport Working Party was not one of the five. The five that were set up are as follows:

Community Safety Partnership Working Party; Corporate Improvement Working Party; Electoral Registration Process Review Task & Finish Group; Pleasurama Site Development Review Task & Finish Group; TDC Artefacts Management Review Task & Finish Group.

The AWP wasn't overlooked, far from it. It was considered and rejected, as it says in the minutes:

Some Members of the Panel said that they were still receiving complaints from residents in their wards about noise levels for aircraft landing outside permitted times. They said that the working party should be re-constituted to continue monitoring the activities at the Manston International Airport. Members expressed the view that the Airport Working Party could review the role of the airport in the proposed Thanet Economic Growth and Regeneration Strategy. Other Members however said that the Kent International Airport Consultative Committee (KIACC) had the formal role of monitoring compliance with policies on flight times.

Councillor Gibson proposed, Councillor Huxley seconded that the Airport Working Party be re-constituted.

When put to vote the motion was LOST.

Hang on a minute

The ruling Labour group has a majority (on paper, at least) on the committee, so how could they lose a vote proposed and seconded by Labour councillors?

Cllr John Worrow (multi-Independent) had stamped out of the meeting, disgusted at the company he was expected to keep, so he wasn't there to vote. And Cllr Mike Harrison (Lab) - who has been on the AWP for years, possibly from its inception - apparently did NOT vote to support the reconstitution of the AWP.

This has infuriated the Labour bigwigs, who are now desperately casting around for some means of re-running the vote and resurrecting the AWP. Given that they made manifesto pledges and ran on a platform of making the airport "resident-friendly", or at least "resident-considerate", many people would say this is the least they can do.

So where does all this leave us? As Charles Hungwe wrote to me, copying Madeline Homer:

You may wish to contact your Ward Councillor and/or Madeline Homer, Director of Community Services, if there are any issues of concern relating to the airport activities that you feel are urgent and require the attention of Council.

So I did. I replied to Charles and Madeline: 

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but have received no reply.

Over to you

Dear Reader, perhaps you might be luckier. Drop Madeline a line - see if you can find out how TDC is proposing to manage its increasingly complex relationship with the airport during this time of uncertainty and transition.

You may also want to write to Cllr Jo Gideon to ask how she thinks TDC will manage without the committee she so ably chaired.