Iris Johnston replies regarding Arlington

I had a reply from Labour Councillor Iris Johnston to my tweet to her regarding the Arlington shops and car park. Iris emailed on her personal BT Internet account. I've published her reply, but I'm left wondering why the Leader of the Council is sending emails in a breach of Thanet Council's email usage guidance, given their stance on this matter.:

   

 Iris replied to me via email and requested I publish her reply.

 

 From: Iris johnston
Date: 20 April 2015 at 16:42
Subject: Fwd: Louise Oldfield (@margatearchi)
To: Louise Oldfield

Please could you publish my response Louise.Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

From: Iris johnston 

Date: 20 April 2015 07:19:00 BST To: "Louise Oldfield (via Twitter)" Subject: Re: Louise Oldfield (@margatearchi) mentioned you on Twitter!

< Thank you a Louise

I have been asking Freswater to reopen the car park from the first days it closed and specially every summer when I have to go down to resolve parking issues. They have now opened a section and I am working on getting the rest.

When they planned to close the shops (when awaiting the Tesco store ) I arranged for the then tenants to have an extended tenure and fought with them for compensation.

Freshwater have a contract with Tesco that is now involved in a legal discussion. They  also have others interested in the site.

Long term Residents will know that for the last thirty years I have been there for them and since I became a Councillor fought for them on a wide range of issues including challenging Freshwater  from the masts on the roof to ensuring the occupiers keep their car parking rights.

Sent from my iPad

Arlington car park is open to the public!

  

I was over at Arlington yesterday afternoon and saw that car parking spaces have been marked out in red on the public car park. I was visiting Arlington House because as the local Green Party candidates we've been working hard to secure a good future for the site.

A small number of car parking spaces at Arlington House’s 500-space car park (still shut to the public in breach of their contract with the council) have been opened up. The council has previously said it’s closed due to health and safety concerns. The spaces have been granted via Councillor Iris Johnston and landlords Freshwater to Children's Club World, a play centre on Marine Drive. (The play centre were in the press a few weeks ago complaining about the loss of their car parking at the Beacon Bingo site to Dreamland. They now offer free parking to their customers from these bays at Arlington…)

 I’m pleased that local parents have somewhere to park when they take their kids to play at this local business. And it's great news the carpark is safe after all. When I spoke to TDC’s parking department today however they said: “Thanet Council parking office have not granted permission to anyone to use the Arlington site car park. I do know that Cllr Johnston was involved in some sort of arrangement that was made between Club World and the lease holders of the Arlington Site it might be best to speak to her..."

 If the Arlington car park is ok for customers of the play centre to park there, then surely it should now be open to the rest of the public and for Dreamland’s opening. Let's see the gates opened wider.