October 21: Turner row ends and Boris' flight of fancy
Comments |
UP-DATED: Is Boris rowing
back on airport plan?
Apparently Boris Johnson seems
less sure about his Thames Estuary Airport plan than he might have
been expected to be. He told a meeting of Greater London Assembly
members on a transport committee yesterday (20) that "I
do not have an aspiration to construct this aiport. What is right
is to look in a progressive way at aviation capacity around London.
It is very, very important...people would expect us to bring to the
table all sorts of solutions."
A webast of the GLA's meeting yesterday is here. Follow
the link to the transport committee.
The comments were made about 52 minutes in to the
session.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
I
must admit to harbouring some reservations about whether Kent
County Council would ever see any of the money it had spent on the
first version of the Turner Centre.
But yesterday brought some good news for the
council. It has ended up with £6million in an
out-of-court settlement reached with the original architects
Snohetta and other parties that means that the prospect of a
potentially lengthy court case, scheduled to take place next month,
has been abandoned.
Read out story about
KCC's recovery of £6m here>>>
There has been no admission of liability on
either side and the county council’s recovery of £6million includes
interests and costs.
It seems the lawyers have issued strict
instructions to all involved to maintain a silence on the decision
and KCC has only been able to issue a brief statement on the
matter, confined to a factually brief record of the event.
It is, of course, worth making the point that
the £6million represents a recovery by the council of money it
spent rather than amounting to a situation where it is £6million
better off.
Still, it’s definitely a positive outcome and
I sense a feeling of relief at County Hall that they have managed
to bring this to a close.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I’ve written a few times on county councillors
allowances, notably after the June election when somewhat
controversially, the 84-elected members were awarded a pay increase
worth eight per cent over four years.
The increases saw KCC leader Paul Carter
eligible for an allowance of £44,300 on top of the £13,290 paid to
all 84 members as their basic yearly allowance.
At the time, the increases drew widespread
criticism. But how does KCC fare in comparison with other
authorities?
It seems that many London authorities are
rather more generous than KCC is, according to an analysis carried
out by the
Evening Standard.
It reveals that the three directly-elected
mayors each receive more than £70,000 for their work while Merrick
Cockell, the Tory leader of
Kensington and Chelsea council received £66,478.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There’s a growing cross-party consensus
emerging against Boris Island, the London Mayor’s
plan for a £40billion floating alternative to Heathrow off the
north Kent coast.
The consensus does, however, rather leave the
Conservative’s aviation policy rather exposed. The party’s
transport spokesman Theresa Villiers has distanced the
Conservatives nationally from Boris Island at the same time as
opposing expansion of Heathrow.
Much has been made of the party’s desire to
have high-speed links to regional airports but so far not much
detail has emerged about those plans.
Still, by far the greatest obstacle to the
building of Boris Island is the fact that the Mayor has precisely
no jurisdiction over planning matters outside the capital.
The last time I checked, this part of the
Thames Estuary was firmly outside its boundaries.
Wednesday, October 21 2009
The KM Group does not moderate comments.
Please click here for our house rules.