Clive Hart's RESPONSE TO PROCESS FOR EKO EUROKENT PUBLIC 'CONSULTATION'

In follow up to last week's post on EKO:

Note: The Eurokent site is land between Westwood Cross & the Newington estate on either side of the new main road.

From Cllr Clive Hart - Labour Leader of the Opposition at TDC.

"In recent years we in the Labour Group at Thanet District Council have had reason to voice concern about just who exactly is deciding the direction of the district council. Our feelings, clearly outlined in our 2011 manifesto, are that all too often officers appear to be deciding the direction of TDC rather than councillors who have been democratically elected by local residents.

The East Kent Opportunities Eurokent proposals are yet another point in question. Land clearly designated for employment use by councillors through robust council procedures is simultaneously being promoted by EKO (a joint TDC and KCC venture) for substantial housing development.

We Labour councillors cannot understand how council officers were ever directed to make proposals which go so blatantly against TDC's own established policies. At last weeks public 'consultations' EKO officers promoted plans that go totally against TDC Planning Policy and did so whilst at the same time clearly stating that EKO was 'answerable to councillors'.

None of our 26 member strong Labour Group of councillors have endorsed the EKO housing proposals and I cannot imagine that any of the 3 members of the Independent Group have been involved either. At best, some of the 27 members of the Conservative administration may have had some kind of involvement but in any event they are now clearly a minority of members at TDC.

In short, at a time of austerity and cut-backs, council officers have been allowed to carry out a substantial and extremely costly amount of work on a project that may well not meet the requirements of the full council. Possibly worse still, proper employment opportunities for the site may well have been missed whilst officers have been clearly misdirected in their efforts".

Cllr Clive Hart - 01843 298770 or 07980 652 896.

Published by Thanet Labour Group Press Office, 44 Northdown Road, Margate, Kent, CT9 2RW.

What do they want? More of our money and permission to build houses on agricultural land? EKO you have us confused

Margate! You have until 8pm today to pop into the Media Centre in King Street, Margate Old Town to tell EKO what you think!

I have to admit to being slightly confused sometimes.

Why would we, the public, repeatedly give money to a risky business venture in order to create jobs and sustain employment by the creation of a business park on grade I agricultural land and to be told, only a few months ago, what a great success it was. And then, the next minute, be told that most of the site is vacant, not doing too well and now they want permission to build houses on it.

East Kent Opportunities (EKO) is a joint venture between KCC and TDC. The idea was to transform agricultural land near Westwood Cross into a business park, The Euro Kent Business Park, to create valuable jobs for the area. The site is located in the empty fields you might have looked at while stuck in a traffic jam navigating the roads around Westwood Cross. There seems to be a crisis of identity for EKO which has continuously come back to beg for more hand outs from the public purse.

As you can read on the Cabinet report from the 17th of June 2010:

"The purpose of this joint project with SEEDA is to create jobs in Thanet by providing the type of employment space currently under-represented in the District. The District, including the Council’s own employment units, did not previously include modern service sector accommodation or sufficient ‘starter’ employment units. The 3 current tenants comprise a new branch of a nationwide business, a business previously located in premises outside the District and a local business which has expanded rapidly. This pattern is repeated for the other units currently being pursued by prospective tenants, so it is clear that this development is fulfilling a need in the District.

4.3.1 The development of Eurokent Business Park fits with Theme 1 (Thanet’s Economy) of the Corporate Plan together with Sub-theme 1.3 (Available Employment Opportunities). The purpose of the development is to create high quality office and industrial units to generate additional / support existing employment in the District."

TDC then issued a press release in March this year proclaiming a Eurokent a great success:

"A new business park in Ramsgate, that was developed to create job opportunities in Thanet, is already 60% leased or under offer, less than a year after the first companies moved in. The Eurokent Business Park along New Haine Road is a joint project with the South East of England Development Agency (SEEDA) to help create jobs in Thanet by providing new employment space, not previously available in the district. The land for the project was donated by Thanet District Council, with SEEDA contributing £4.4m for the construction of the buildings and fit-outs of the industrial units. The project also attracted a further £1.3m European Regional Development Funding through SEEDA."

Yet, reading EKO's own website, they say:

"The Eurokent site is allocated under Thanet District Council’s Local Plan for business and industrial purposes but is mostly vacant. Some of those businesses still located on the site fall within a B1 use class (offices or light industries), including the SEEDA Innovation Centre, Marlowe Academy and SAGA Call Centre."

And will there be affordable housing?

"Yes, affordable housing forms an important part of the proposal and it is anticipated that 155 (approximately 30%) of the housing will be affordable. These will be a mix of high quality family homes and apartments."

How was the project funded?
£4.4m was given by SEEDA (South East of England Development Agency) for the construction of the buildings.TDC gave the land and £1.3m came from the European Regional Development Fund. A substantial amount came from from bank loans.

In essence, the Council set up up a property development  and speculation company. EKO has periodically come back to TDC to ask for more money to cover the bank interest on the loans. Repayment of these bank loans has been draining TDC finances. EKO now wants to build 550 new houses on this land.

You might not have heard about it, but they are running public consultations for you to share what you think about the idea of building a load of new homes on agricultural land in a low employment area.
Here are the details on the consultations in your area:

http://www.eurokent.org/pages/consultation.html

MargateThursday 23 June 2pm – 8pm
Margate Media Centre
11-13 King Street, 
CT9 1DA

That's today folks! Open until 8pm tonight. Pop in and tell them what you think.

RamsgateFriday 24 June 9am – 5pm
Street Market
Ramsgate Town Centre
CT11 9AG

Westwood CrossSaturday 25 June 10am – 2pm
Main entrance
Westwood Cross Shopping Centre
Margate Road
CT10 2BF

But if you can't make it along to meet the EKO people in person, fear not! You can send them your views directly. Either fill out the form on their website here.

Or send them directly to:

Eurokent Consultation
Kent Innovation Centre

Thanet Reach Business Park

Millennium Way
Broadstairs
Kent
CT10 2QQ
tel 01843 609 332
info@eurokent.org

So it is no longer about creating jobs, but creating houses on what was Grade I agricultural land?
More housing means more people in Thanet (there are 880 empty dwellings in Cliftonville and Margate centre).
So, to protect EKO's investment, we actually raise the unemployment levels in Thanet.
If you don't see that as a problem, think about the traffic at Westwood Cross on a Saturday or Sunday and imagine what it will be like if these 550 houses are built, in addition to the 1000 that already have planning permission on the other side of the road.

Edited to add: Posts with more info

http://thanetstrife.blogspot.com/2010/01/lies-about-eurokent-continue.html

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/eurokent-business-park-public.html

 

The Funding of East Kent Opportunities

From a Thanet resident:

Kent County Council and Thanet District Council set up a business venture to speculate on land and create jobs.

They buy a plot of land next to one of Thanet's biggest economic embarrassments:Kent International Airport.

So KCC and TDC set up a company called East Kent Opportunities (EKO LLP) to buy land to create a business park and warehousing, financed by lots of public money. The idea is that other businesses will buy into the project and pay for the capital investment, and pay off the loans and infrastructure.

Hardly any businesses move there. It doesn't work. EKO is insolvent.

Banks won't lend to the failing "company".

TDC and KCC continue to throw money after the bad investment, building a new access road. [You may have seen it by the Ramsgate roundabouts, on the way toDover.] We need new roads to divert traffic away from Margate Seafront. Instead, we get a big road to a field and a handful of industrial sheds in open fields.

Money is being lent to this failing company - probably to avoid embarrassment. £95,000, then £500,000 ... over £6 million since 2008.

To cut its losses, EKO intends to apply to get planning permission to build 600 new houses. Although this may help recoup some money, it would be a total scandal.

The land was Grade 1 agricultural land. Permission was granted to build on the fields - on the grounds that it would create employment.

Residential planning permission would never have been given. So to change now, to Residential, would be planning by stealth - at best. TDC's own officers will be advising on their employer's application - a conflict of interest. Even at committee, the situation is very political.

I think that if the business is not viable in a competitive capitalist environment, it should be allowed to fail - as many businesses have through the "credit crunch".

If public money is available to prop up failing businesses, then it should be put for tender, in a transparent process ie other “failing businesses” should be able to bid for the public money.

The Manston Business Parkwas a bad idea and it came at the wrong time. It is big - but not too big to fail. We are all feeling the pain of financing invasions, occupations, and bailing out bankers. Do we really have to give money to un-viable local companies?

The fields should be returned to agriculture, and public money spent on better things.