Manston dragging its heels over night flights

No haste = no need

OK, let's just make sure we've got this straight...

The night flights that Manston is hankering after have been portrayed as essential, crucial, make-or-break. Without them, so we are told, the airport won't be able to deliver on its fairytale Master Plan.

I find this VERY hard to square with (a) any facts in the real world, and (b) the airport's conduct over the last year. If night flights really did matter so much, why would they spend a YEAR dragging their heels?

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Chairman sorry after complaints

Clipping: thisiskent

THE chairman of Kent County Council has apologised after complaints about the way he ran a Thanet Local Board meeting. Residents and councillors were angered by Bill Hayton's chairmanship of the meeting at Chatham House school on 27th September. They claimed Mr Hayton rudely curtailed and interrupted questions from the public on the issue of increased night flights from Manston airport.

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Meeting? What meeting?

I was looking forward to the minutes of the TLB (That Lamentable Balls-up). I was really looking forward to the video. I was going to teach myself basic video editing, so that I could splice together Cllr Hayton's interjections and set them to an amusing soundtrack. However...

One of the audience at the Thanet Local Board's entry in The Worst-run Meeting of the Year awards agreed to being video-recorded on the understanding that a copy of the recording be made available. The recording proved elusive: first there was a brief diversion: "we need permission from the parents of the kids from the Kent Youth Council". Then came the suggestion of a phone call, for a quiet word presumably. And now, in a dazzling masterstroke... it vanishes.

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Resident storms stage at meeting

Malcolm Kirkaldie

Clipping: thisiskent

KENT County Council's leader was confronted on stage by an angry resident during a public meeting in Ramsgate last Monday evening. Retired serviceman Malcolm Kirkaldie stormed the political platform demanding to be heard after county chairman Bill Hayton had insisted on questions and not comment. Mr Kirkaldie shouted, "It is not a democracy" before going head-to-head with KCC leader Paul Carter on stage.

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How not to chair a meeting Part 2

Oh my, it just gets better. Ramsgate seems to have a generous sprinkling of sensible people, and as luck would have it, quite a few of them made it to the recent Thanet Local Board meeting. Here we have a measured and reasonable critique of the Chairing of the meeting, the preparedness of the panel, and the quality of their answers.

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How not to chair a meeting

As meetings go, it was messy. The high point was probably the brief presentations by the kids from the Kent Youth Council - keen on democracy, and happy to roll their sleeves up and get stuck in. Excellent stuff. They easily outshone the Thanet Local Board. Until recently, I hadn't known the TLB existed, and I had never seen Cllr Hayton. Happy days.

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