Will Thanet Labour stop at nothing to secure victory for their general election candidate Polly Billington in the new parliamentary seat of East Thanet? It would appear not.
To its shame this supposedly progressive party is abusing its power at the council to deliberately manipulate vile anti- Gypsy, Roma & Traveller (GRT) racism in a way which they hope will push Billington over the winning line in the forthcoming general election.
My allegation is borne out by recent events beginning with a meeting of TDCs Overview and Scrutiny Panel (OSP) in January 2024. At this meeting councillors were asked to support a report, approved by Labour’s housing boss Cllr Helen Whitehead, which recommended there to be a public consultation about using council owned land at Shottendane Road Garlinge for a permanent GRT site.
The report stated that the Shottendane Road site would not be large enough to meet the demand for permanent and temporary GRT sites in Thanet and that several other sites across the district will be needed. Yet mysteriously the report failed to identify any other potential GRT sites apart from that at Shottendane Road.
Like me, councillors at the OSP meeting were surprised by the lack of information about any additional land which could be used for the much needed GRT sites. So much so that the minutes of the meeting record that:-
“Members agreed that the Council hold-off consultation until the Council had looked at all its holdings to identify more suitable sites and that would then be followed by a full and transparent public consultation”.
Sadly, TDC’s constitution classifies decisions of the OSP as being “ advisory” and not binding, so when the same report was discussed the following week by TDCs all powerful Labour controlled Cabinet, it was decided to ignore the OSP’s proposal and proceed with the original recommendation to consult on the Shottendane Road site only.
Interestingly, the OSP’s proposal for a wider site options review was put forward by the experienced and well-respected Labour Councillor David Green and it secured unanimous cross-party support from all OSP members.
This begs the question why Labour’s Chair of the Cabinet, Rick
Everitt and his five handpicked Labour Cabinet appointees; councillors Whitehead, Albon, Duckworth, Keen and Yates, all chose to humiliatingly slap down what was an eminently sensible, proposal put forward by a Labour Party colleague which had the support of councillors from all parties?
Such an action is vanishingly rare and indicates that Cabinet boss Everitt, and his five handpicked Labour stooges had a plan of their own which would have been scuppered had Cllr Green’s proposal been accepted instead. What this plan might be is where things begin to get decidedly murky, so please bear with me.
Let’s go back in history to February 2023 when Polly Billington was selected to be Labour’s East Thanet parliamentary candidate. Shortly after her selection the Court of Appeal heavily criticized TDC for serving “draconian” and unlawful eviction notices on members of the GRT community who were living at the Port of Ramsgate.
So serious was the council’s misconduct in serving the unlawful eviction notices and so appalling was its previous history of persecuting and hounding the GRT community, rather than providing it with much needed support, that higher powers were beginning to rightly suspect that TDC was institutionally racist.
Such concerns, if not quickly and decisively addressed could, I was told by a source, easily have led to an independent investigation of TDC being launched by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
Hot on the heels of the highly damaging 2022 bullying investigation another controversial probe, especially on a sensitive issue such as racism, would almost certainly have resulted in Government appointees taking over the running of TDC and lots of well rewarded officers and politicians losing their posts and reputations.
Getting the council’s house in order following such dire warnings became the responsibility of Labour councillors who, just days after the Court of Appeal decision was published, took control of the council after winning 29 seats in the May 2023 elections.
Throughout 2023 and continuing to this day opinion poll after opinion poll have put Labour massively in front of the Tories should there be a general election. Some have even predicted a Tony Blair style landslide for Labour.
Whilst Labour’s fortunes improved, the electoral commission decided to merge Ramsgate, Broadstairs and Margate into a new parliamentary constituency called East Thanet. Most election experts agreed that the social composition of this new constituency made it a natural Labour seat.
Labour’s consistently good opinion polling and the creation of new Labour leaning constituency almost certainly led Billington and her team to believe that East Thanet would no longer be a close contest, but a certain win for her and Labour.
However, to guarantee a win Billington and her inner-circle, which is said to include council leader Rick Everitt, are doing everything they can to make certain that her campaign runs smoothly, without any mishaps or controversy which might lose voter support.
One such controversy would be for the Labour controlled council to embark upon a Thanet wide identification of, and consultation about, possible GRT sites, in the run up to a general election.
Such a process would almost certainly bring forward sites in Billington’s constituency which in her and her team’s eyes would cause a public outcry which might pose a serious threat to what Billington and her team believed to be an “in the bag” election victory.
This is why I believe that the putting forward of a single option for a GRT site at Shottendane Road and nowhere else was deliberately pushed through by Everitt and his Labour Cabinet colleagues, because it served to silence the bigoted racists who always appear when plans to develop a GRT site are mentioned and in so doing cleared the road to a controversy free election campaign which would help to secure Billington’s election victory.
Focusing on Shottendane Road presents no risk to Billington. The site is located in what most people believe to be the new, rock solid Tory constituency, of Herne Bay and Sandwich which the Labour Party have written off as a no hope of winning seat.
It will also give the misleading impression that the council is beginning to deal with allegations of its institutional racism against the GRT community, by putting forward a possible site even though it is acknowledged to be too small and insufficient to meet the estimated need.
But here’s the rub, by pushing through a plan which Everitt
and his Cabinet colleagues, probably believe to have been an exemplar of cleverness, cunning, and smartness, they have in fact caused considerable damage and may also have acted illegally and abused their powers as elected councillors in an unfair and racist way. Here’s why.
The resolution of the longstanding, council-wide, GRT site provision problem has been delayed until, at the very least, the holding of the general election, possibly even longer.The adoption of Councillor Green’s proposal could have led to a much quicker review.
It could be argued that this decision was therefore direct discrimination against the GRT community by Everitt and his Cabinet colleagues which is contrary to the Equality Act 2010.
The prime agricultural land which the Council and its leader Cllr Everitt had publicly vowed to protect, is now at risk of being built on when a Thanet-wide review of potential GRT sites, as Councillor Green proposed, would almost certainly have brought forward several suitable brownfield sites.
As serious and as damaging as these allegations are, if they are right, which I believe them to be, then TDCs most senior Labour councillors have used their elected positions to manipulate or influence council decisions in order to provide Labour parliamentary candidate Billington with an unfair and distinct advantage in the forthcoming general election.
Not only would such actions be likely to amount to misconduct in public office, but also a possible breach of election law as well. All of which are criminal offences which if proven could lead to a long, well deserved, period of incarceration.
But what about Billington? She is a longstanding, ambitious, wannabe Labour MP who has tried and failed before to secure a parliamentary seat. Having now been selected as a candidate in a seat which appears to be a Labour certainty, she will not want to leave things to chance.
This means that she is highly likely to be personally and deeply involved in the detailed planning of her campaign which in my opinion makes it likely that candidate Billington may have had some knowledge of, and perhaps even supported, the plans executed by Everitt and his Cabinet if these plans were indeed devised and implemented with the purpose of avoiding controversy during her election campaign.
But as they say ambition always has victims, In this case it’s the GRT community, one of the most discriminated against groups in the UK.
Their longstanding need for good humanitarian and sufficient sites in Thanet, rather than continued unlawful and aggressive persecution by the council has been delayed yet again in order, I believe, to satisfy the burning personal ambition of a single, reasonably well off, and highly privileged person. Morally or ethically this cannot be right.
As my record shows I am a supporter of human rights and an opponent of discrimination in all its evil forms. If there is any justice the council must now nullify the Cabinet ‘s decision on Shottendane Road and conduct, without delay, and open a transparent review of all sites, particularly brown field sites, which could meet the need for GRT sites right across Thanet.
Furthermore it's my opinion that Council Leader Everitt and his Cabinet colleagues, on the basis of the information I have provided, are likely to have acted in a racist way and biased way are therefore not fit for public office.
If East Thanet Labour Parliamentary candidate Polly Billingtion had any knowledge of Everitt and his Cabinet colleagues actions in relation to Shottendane Road and their purpose, which I honestly believe to be possible, then she too is, in my opinion not fit for public office.
Finally, I note that the leader of the Thanet Independent Group of councillors, John Worrow, appears to have been the subject of Standards complaints from councillors Rick Everitt and Helen Whitehead about the comments he has made concerning the land the land at the Shottendane Road.
This apparent bullying of Councillor Worrow by Everitt and Whitehead and their weaponisoing of Standard system to silence their critics, serves to strengthen my belief that that they have been up to no good.
I will finish be saying, that if a fair and transparent review of land for GRT sites is carried out by the council, without the involvement of Everitt and his Cabinet, but by a cross party group of councillors, residents and member of the of the GRT community then I am certain that agricultural land will not be affected allowing farmer Tapp to keep on farming and the GRT community to have suffcient modern sites with the best facilities, to meet their needs.
Call out if any Labour Party members or disgrutled council officers who have a knowledge of the Cabinet's Shottendane Road decison please contact me on 07866588766 or email ianddriver@yahoo.co.uk The strictest confidence is guaranteed.