Labour run Thanet Council will be raiding its taxpayer funded coffers to the tune of £10,000, or more, on legal advice which it hopes will prevent the release, of confidential documents about Brett Aggregates (BA) plans to expand its operations at Ramsgate Port.
These plans are likely to be a rehash of those submitted in 2016, which BA quickly withdrew following an angry public outcry. The only difference between them is that the latest version of the plans will be on a much larger scale than its predecessor, as will the potential for causing extremely serious environmental pollution and damaging public health.
BAs plans have been scaled up to a size not contemplated in 2016 because south east England is now at the beginning of a major housing and infrastructure building boom, which is predicted to last a decade or more, and which brings with it an insatiable appetite for aggregates and aggregate products such as concrete and concrete based products.
Much of this demand will be met by marine dredged aggregate from the English Channel. BA has huge and rapidly growing investment in this industry. It is already extracting aggregates from several English Channel sites and exploring the viability of many others. It would be true to say that BA currently holds permits and licenses to dredge several million tonnes of English Channel aggregate over the next decade or so, with more licenses and permits in the pipeline for approval.
Not only is BA a major force in the English Channel aggregate dredging industry, but it also operates large aggregate landing and processing wharves on the English Channel coast at Newhaven which was opened in 2020 and Portsmouth which was opened in 2023.
Both of these facilities wash and crush the dredged aggregate into size graded sand and gravel for sale to the construction industry and also use it to make ready mix concrete and other concrete based products such as blocks, paving etc. essential for building homes and infrastructure.
To keep up with the rapidly growing demand for English Channel aggregate and its concrete products, BA is now planning to convert its wharf at Ramsgate Port from what is now a sleepy backwater which has been quietly chugging away producing small quantities of ready mixed concrete for the local East Kent construction industry for over a decade, into a giant industrial processing plant which when operational will be churning out tens of thousands of tonnes of aggregate and aggregate based products each and every week.
There can be no doubt that the transformation of BAs operation at Ramsgate Port into a large aggregate processing facility will have a huge impact upon the environment and the health of residents.
The unloading of aggregates from large dredgers onto conveyor belt systems and the crushing of the aggregate will increase noise and dust levels. The dredgers themselves which could easily number ten per week will be polluting the air with diesel fuel particulate matter and other pollutants, as will the hundreds of HGV vehicles which will visit the proposed site each week.
Much of the new dockside plant and equipment is also likely to be powered by diesel fuel too. A byproduct of aggregate washing will be large volumes of polluted water which cannot be poured into the sea and must be removed by tankers on a daily basis which will lead to even more health damaging air pollution.
This is why TDCs Labour Leader, “Raging” Rick Everitt and his nodding donkey Labour councillors want to keep BAs dangerous plans secret at all cost. Instead of being open and honest with the public about BAs plans and the serious environmental and health risks they entail, they want to sneak them in through the back door with no public consultation.
And don’t forget that Thanet council tax payers have already, and unknowingly, duped into subsidising BAs polluting plans by at least £4million, which includes the recent construction of the new, much larger, berth 4/5 which is likely to have cost council tax payers well over £3million, plus the publicly funded £500,000 dredging project to increase water depth at Ramsgate Port, both of which will allow BA to accommodate some of the largest marine aggregate dredging vessels in the world.
The development of a massive aggregate processing plant at Ramsgate Port is likely to be one of the most dangerous environmental and health damaging projects to have ever been proposed in Thanet. For Labour councillors to try to keep it quiet and approve it by secret means is utterly despicable.
I will be fighting the Council and its culture of secrecy at an information tribunal later in the year where I hope to persuade the judge to order the release all the documents it holds relating to BAs plans.
In the meantime I will publishing more articles about Ramsgate Port, BA and other matters.
Callout if you have any information about Brett Aggregates which you think might be helpful, or information about any other issue, please don’t hesitate to contact me. All conversations are 100% confidential and I never ever reveal my sources.
Phone 07866566788 email ianddriver@yahoo.co.uk
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