Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Kent International Airport

Observer hears that while ' Our Shirl ' was busy giving the Theatre Royal a big lump of money she was also giving the sum of £10,000 to something called the Kent-Virginia Direct Flights Project.
Now I am in support of the Airport and I hope its a success,,,BUT there are limits and questions that need answering,,,,
This sum of £10,000 was presumably given to this group to help promote inward tourism into Thanet but unless I misunderstood what I read in the local 'newspapers' the plan is that these folks will fly into KIA and "spend a couple of days in Canterbury before moving on"
not much benefit to Thanet there then,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
another wasted £10,000 on 'Tourism' ,,,oh well its only taxpayers money,,,,

And when are the airport owners going to employ some local people??
currently everyone working there apart from senior managers are emploiyed on a part time basis by an Agency in Scotland,,,,,presumably there wasnt one locally,,,,
Of course not much labour is needed because the airport Firefighters are now required to " justify their existance" and they are utilised to load and unload planes as required,,,,,,,,,,,,,

When are the airport owners and TDC going to sit down and agree a new section 106 agreement....

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not sure if this is the first £10k cheque that Shirley is handing over, or the second £10k that that KCC have just suggested that Thanet contributes.
TDC have just confirmed to be that they have not yet received a business plan for the project, have had no imput into project outputs, and have no idea of what benefits might accrue to Thanet.
I would have thought that travellers might prefer TDC to deal with worrying reports that Manston's radar was destroyed by lightening in May, and has not been restored. I assume that planes are being guided in by sight, which could explain some of the unusual flight pattern recently. It also begs the question of what happens during bad weather visability.
Meawhile, the TDC Tories continue to procrastinate over the Manston Consulative Committee, which should be overseeeing a complaints system.

Anonymous said...

It is staggering to find out that the airport has been operating seemingly with no radar!
It is of little surprise of course with no control being exerted by the Council.
Perhaps in bad weather they will burn the wasted £10K as a signal for plane attempting to land.

Anonymous said...

Those waste of spaces running the Council already have given large wads of our taxes to another "organization" which is supposed to promaote Thanet. Why the need for others to dip their snouts in the trough?