June Update from the Save Princes Parade Campaign

Things have been rather quiet on the Princes Parade front during the county and general elections but now that the purdah period is over we are expecting that Shepway will submit the planning application very soon so look out for emails from us with guidance on how to make your objections.

Shepway District Council's Princes Parade Working Group is meeting this afternoon. Unusually the meeting is advertised on the calendar of meetings and the minutes will be published but the meeting is not open to the public. We have challenged this as the council have not given the required notice that the public are to be excluded but they have argued that as the Working Group is neither a sub committee of cabinet nor a decision making body then the public have no right to attend.

If the group isn't decision making then we don't really understand its purpose - it can't be just so the councillors can be briefed since not cabinet members are members of the working group and we are sure that members of the group will be giving officers some sort of guidance so we believe this meeting should be held in public.

Some of you will have received the latest edition of Shepway's publication "Shepway Today". In his column David Monk assures that he will fulfill his promise to build a new swimming pool and housing on Princes Parade but further on in the magazine is a 3 page celebration of open spaces which states that "our open spaces are one of the many reasons people like living in, working in and visiting Shepway" and then goes on to list the reasons why "open spaces are fantastically good for us...". More than a little hypocritical.

Please continue to spread the word. We will be handing out leaflets on the seafront on Saturday afternoon. If you can help please meet us at the ice cream kiosk at Seabrook at 2pm.