'Kiss of death' for town

The campaign to stop planes from Manston flying over Herne Bay at night is taking off. A working party is to be formed to see if the flight path can be switched to avoid the bay. City councillor Vince McMahan supports a call for a public meeting when the consultation is restarted. Campaigner Phil Rose of Beacon Hill told last Tuesday's meeting of the Bay city councillors:

"We know Herne Bay needs jobs. The proposal for night flights comes with the promise of hundreds of jobs. But we mustn't fall for it."

Mr Rose said noisier, older cargo planes that Manston wants to fly over Herne Bay are not allowed to fly into Gatwick at night because they are too noisy. He added:

"Cargo planes flying through the night over Herne Bay will do nothing to make our town an attractive place for visitors or residents and will bring us only noise and nuisance."

Herne Bay resident Sheila Chesney said she was very concerned night flights were being seen as a foregone conclusion by Canterbury and Thanet councils. She said they would be the "kiss of death" for the town.

Clipping: thisiskent

Elected and supportive

Carrying on...

Just had a call from Cllr Vince McMahan (Conservative, West Bay). He's fully behind my earlier email and is therefore quite clearly intelligent, perceptive and right-thinking. He'll be showing the email to Roger Gale this morning to keep him in the loop.

He tells me that the March 24th meeting is public, so there's no reason why Paul Twyman (or I, or anyone) shouldn't turn up. The voices in my head say:

• participating in the democratic process does actually make a difference
• good to see this being escalated, though I'm not sure sure where Roger Gale stands on this
• didn't know the meeting was public
• even if it is public, Paul Twyman (as head of the relevant statutory body) should be invited as a matter of course, rather than just shuffling in from the rain with the rest of us bleating oiks. You know the sort of thing: his own chair, name card, coffee cup - the full works.