Rodney sighted on Peninsula

Labour rejects the airport. The Tories are the only party backing it.

The lesser spotted Cllr Chambers has been sighted; indeed after three years of dithering on the airport we finally see him don a pinstripe (shirt) for the non-doorstep campaign on the Grain Peninsula. All smiles it would seem from the boys in blue.

No comment from him, or them, on the cross-party letter from Justine Greening MP. All conveniently forgotten; but then the media weren't invited apparently. The self-appointed guru is managing the brief.

And talking about invites; it seems that the Rural Liaison get-together / update / meeting / event scheduled for next Tuesday 6th March is closed to the public. Instead it would seem the only people invited are the great and the good from the Parish Councils only***. Many of the 'great and good' are of course Conservative Parish Councillors whose interest could, perhaps, maybe be split.

All very different of course in 2002/2003 when the then Conservative opposition organised open village meetings and tried to engage the public. In addition, no lamp post posters and no delivery for the posters as far as I can read. Punters are expected to pro-actively collect the posters from a number of newsagents.

Labour has just distributed several thousand leaflets on the Peninsula; with a £50,000 budget you really can afford to deliver leaflets to residents.

The good and bad news for residents is the low-octane 'pie-in-the-sky' campaign poster has now, well eer, flown on to a full consultation by the government despite the assurances of our Conservative MPs.

We finally have a half-decent campaign poster; all a bit late but still welcome

Copryright: Christopher Irvine; all rights held by the photographer

Incidentally; still have not received my 2p sized campaign badge; I had thought that some bright spark in the postroom could have included it in my regular weekly mailing. I suspect they may have read my mischievous tweet last week; my grapes are waiting.

*** The Council have since clarified that this is actually a meeting of the Rural Liaison Committee which is the Council's liaison forum with the Parish Councils. This meeting, although called a Committee, is really a Forum and is therefore not subject to the access to information rules and is not open to the public. Still; a meeting like this, no advertising, no lobbying, no communication... I let the public decide.