Green Party takes district council seat for Thanet Villages

Elected: Abi Smith

Thanet Green Party member Abi Smith is the new district councillor for the Thanet Villages following a by-election yesterday (November 11).

The seat became vacant following the resignation of Green councillor Trevor Roper after his move to France.

Green candidate Abi took 60% of the poll with 638 votes.

Conservative candidate Guy Wilson polled 358 votes and Lib Dem Jeremy De Rose took 67 votes.

Thanet Green Party leader Mike Garner said: “This is a great win for us and comes as a result of the time Abi and the team spent getting around the villages meeting and listening to as many people as possible.

“There’s a real Green momentum growing in Thanet as people see we’re serious about tackling the issues people are most worried about and, with Abi joining us, we’ll continue to highlight concerns where they exist and work with others to resolve them.”

33 Comments

  1. Well done Abi! Such a good campaign, richly deserved. I hope the Greens continue to do well and swell tge ranks of TDC Councillors who actually work for the residents, rather than just toe the party line.

  2. Well done Abi and Thanet Greens. The tide is turning against sleaze and factionalism. Hope to see more Green councillors sorting out TDC and RTC.

    • The Green Party opposes housing on greenfield sites where suitable brownfield sites are available and where there are sites in towns which are derelict and can be refurbished or rebuilt to provide affordable housing. We also oppose badly thought-out housing where there is no contribution to infrastructure, where there is a risk of flooding, where no thought has been given to on-going sustainability and where the build is otherwise unnecessarily damaging to the environment. We want proper, affordable housing, built to a high standard with access to services and support infrastructure, with exceptionally high standards of resilience in the face of future climate change and fuel infrastructure fragility. So our stance is, “No” to just throwing up new housing estates without any consideration of the on-going effects, and “yes please” to considerate, passiv-haus developments, easily affordable to those who need them and which do not encroach on green-field sites where there are better, under-utilised alternatives. As a party, we want to work with planners to ensure that developers are encouraged to make housing work for everyone, whilst upgrading and protecting our existing housing stock so that it can fulfil its potential.

      • So in short given the developers in Thanet and the List above.. The two don’t go cus they aren’t going to build them that way but just the cheapest so it is incumbent to block.

        • It is impossible to block the housing which Thanet District Council is obliged to build. This is a housing allocation handed down from Central Government. There is nothing we can do, except block it where it is inappropriate (as Mike Garner, Green Party Chair has done) and work as hard as we can to ensure that the rest is the best it can be. We want to improve things, and will work hard to do so, but it is very difficult in the current set-up. Still, the more of us there are, the easier it will be!

        • It is impossible to for the Green Party Councillors, or any other Councillors, to block the housing which Thanet District Council is obliged to build. This is a housing allocation handed down from Central Government. All they can do is make sure the housing is the best it can be, and I think that’s what the Green Party will try to do.

  3. Well done Abi. Great to see another alternative to both Tory or Labour. There are plenty of brownfield sites in Thanet that could be built on rather than our precious green fields.

  4. Build on that concrete strip at Manston, you can’t be environmental friendly, Build homes on green pastures and try to open a multiple times failed airfield, so Build on the concrete strip.

  5. Excellent news. Congratulations to Abi. I’m incredulous that 1/3 still voted for Tory after the dreadful sleaze, corruption, entitlement we’ve seen & the disdain towards the poor & vulnerable. Here’s hoping for some compassion & humanity in politics

  6. I can’t see why anyone would vote Tory unless they had several £M in off shore bank accounts.
    They offer absolutely nothing for ordinary working families. Their ideology is to move public money into private bank accounts as fast as possible. Under recent Tory governments, the rich have got far far richer, and the poor far, far poorer.
    Whilst a Tory mp “earns” £600,000 a year, the poorest in society have been docked £10.

  7. The Greens are a middle class elitist party. They care about the environment granted but alongside that they provide a platform for middle class radicals with Marxist leanings that present themselves as sophisticated people with a conscience. For all their pretentions they look down on working people. The membership is all ABC1 .They like to take things away form people and tell them what they can’t have. Look at the way the Greens in Brighton have treated the bin men. Above all like most socialists there hypocrites and seldom do what they preach. At least you know what to expect from the Tories and at least they don’t lecture and above all they don’t want to shut people up or ridicule others .

    • ‘At least you know what to expect from the Tories and at least they don’t lecture and above all they don’t want to shut people up or ridicule others.’
      I recognise this sentence up to the firsy ‘and’ but after that it seems to deviate into a fantasy world, unrelated to the government of today and the last 11 years.
      Have you been asleep all that time Ian?

    • No, socialists aren’t hypocrites- I don-t know why you think that ‘s so.

      As for the Tories- they’re a greedy selfish bunch of people who don’t know what life is like for the majority of the population.

        • Yes, you might learn how a right wing free market expounding pundit can paint a biased view. Pretending that socialism = communism has long been a way for rich people to get richer at the expense of the poor.

    • “The Greens are a middle-class elitist party.” That’s the sort of thing Craig Mackinlay and his non-green friends say. Just the sort of thing you’d expect him to say, too, considering his enthusiasm for aviation

    • Marva Rees. I know you always publish your full name as I have become familiar with your style of postings. I may not agree with you but I certainly respect you for not hiding behind a first name or a pseudonym.

  8. Laurence Davies your arguments fail when you resort to name calling. You have an opinion that you are entitled to, even though it’s wrong. Others have different views. It is a mark of intelligence to be able to take in and debate different views. With thought and practice you may get there. Good luck.
    Dr Philip Shotton
    Definitely socialist, rarely clown.

    • Congratulations on coming out of hiding and publishing your full name Dr Shotton. I have achieved what I wanted to do. My comment of ‘clown’ has flushed you out. How novel a Green/socialist. By the way your patronising comments with regard to intelligence and thought and practice are highly amusing. By the way don’t be shy in future publish your full name.

        • Well I have to say if I’m an idiot in your opinion and others here I am proud to wear the badge. I regret that many people today hide behind just their first names or a pseudonymn. Is your second name authentic? Or maybe it’s Green. If it’s Lime fair enough! Hopefully Dr Shotton will now be emboldened to publish his full name in future.

  9. The real name police are out, I had better put my name badge on.

    This is the Isle of Thanet News, not a trial. Publishing anonymously doesn’t make you a bad person Laurence. Have you considered Trixie or Zeus? Ann? Andy? Andreas?

    I am sorry you regret anonymity through choice but please be aware there is no correlation between the quality of a comment and whether it is the persons actual name or not. Perhaps I am not real. How did I get here?

    So many questions. So many names to choose from.

    • Oh Ann, welcome back. We’ve missed you and your crazy comments. If you read all of the COP26 information I think you’ll find that reducing aircraft movements is exactly what green people are advocating. As for rights, what gives you the right to blight other peoples lives and livelihoods?

  10. Ramsgate Lovely. If you knew what I know you would know that most of COP was hot air, all the nations who attended cop none said anything about not reopening airports.

    • Ann you’re really very silly, if you think one Green Councillor can stop or ban anything. But look on the positive, for all the hot air you produce, you can’t stop or ban anything either. We’re all equally powerless. Some, reading your posts, might conclude that that is a good thing.

Comments are closed.