Council votes to Ashford Park Mall amid 'heated' debate
Ahead of the vote, which passed with a majority of 30, traders at Park Mall accused the council of making their minds up and not consulting the public over the decision. Save Park Mall campaigner and trader David Hebditch said: "If you'd done even the briefest of public engagements on this subject you would have discovered this overwhelming viewpoint but sadly you didn't."Audible discontent later came from attendees after Reform councillor Bill Barrett was told he could not raise a motion to reverse the decision in part. A member of the public shouted: "This is why this country's in decline. You disgust us."
Following an adjournment, Ashford mayor Lyn Suddards told attendees: "I just want to apologise to people who were troubled by the clapping, by the noise, by the upset."I'm afraid I did let the jovial clapping at the start go by but it did become aggressive and some people felt intimidated by the end of that, by the end of the debate and I am sorry about that."Green Party councillor Steve Campkin described how he was "still shaking" after the disturbance.
On Friday, an ABC spokesman said that social media speculation police were called "doesn't appear to be true".Kent Police confirmed they did not attend.
An ABC spokesperson added: "The Park Mall site is not financially sustainable, with annual losses of £700,000 and significant maintenance costs projected of £980,000 by 2026/27 and £9.3 million from 2028 onwards."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Reform's bacon and egg offensive to woo business
Reform UK's deputy leader Richard Tice is conducting a 'bacon and eggs' charm offensive to woo British businesses ahead of the next election. Tice told The Mail on Sunday that he and other senior party figures, including leader Nigel Farage, had been meeting 'dozens and dozens and dozens' of bosses for breakfast meetings. He said they included chief executives, finance chiefs, chairmen and top lobbyists at FTSE 100 and FTSE 250-listed firms, as well as those at private and foreign-owned companies. It echoes the 'smoked salmon and scrambled eggs' charm offensive by Labour ahead of the last General Election. Tice, pictured with Farage, said the 'penny dropped' for many firms about Reform's potential to form the next government after its landslide success in May's local elections and taking a 14-point lead in the latest national opinion poll. And he dismissed concerns raised by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) about whether Reform's sums added up, dismissing the respected economic think-tank as 'the institute for feeble studies'. Tice said: 'Lots of companies recognise we are a serious contender to be the next government, whenever the election is. They are taking it seriously, so want to meet me and understand where we're coming from on a variety of big issues. 'Whether you want to call it the bacon and eggs offensive or whatever, a series of breakfasts and other meetings are going on, and it is going well, and we're doing quite a lot of it.' A well-placed City source who alerted The Mail on Sunday to the meetings suggested there was some scepticism among business leaders about Reform's plans. Firms contacted by this newspaper were tight-lipped over whether they had met Tice. One FTSE 100 director, who asked not to be named, said he had 'not seen him' as part of the drive, but had once bumped into the politician and 'couldn't find anything we could agree on'. However, Tice said the reaction had been positive, particularly relating to plans to scrap the net zero carbon climate goal. 'We understand the language of business,' he said. 'I was chief executive of a billion-pound multinational listed company. Nigel's a businessman. We understand what it takes to save the British economy. 'We are talking about our dead seriousness about scrapping net zero and that is greeted with almost universal joy on a private basis. Privately, they all admit it's bonkers, it's costing them a fortune, it's making them uncompetitive.' Tice said Reform had told oil and gas companies to prepare applications for drilling licences in the North Sea 'so they can be checked and pre-approved before an election and rubber-stamped within a matter of days' if Reform were to win. He added: 'We're not mucking about. We're very clear that things like net zero, ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) – it's all for the birds. It all goes and we will be pretty aggressive on that and anyone who tries to get in our way.' The IFS's analysis of Reform's tax-cutting plans found that raising an individual's annual tax threshold from £12,570 to £20,000 and other measures could cost up to £80 billion a year, and that the party's strategy involved large, unspecified cuts to public services. And Simon French, chief economist at investment bank Panmure Liberum, has warned that Britain could face an 'immediate and violent' sterling crisis if Farage wins power. But Tice dismissed these, calling the IFS estimate a 'back-of-the-fag-packet guess' saying: 'We expect the enemy to do that.' Asked whether business leaders were convinced by Reform's plans, Tice said: 'They get it.' He added that he and Farage were 'probably two of the most successful financial, economic, businesslike MPs they've ever met'.
Daily Mail
10 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
BP's scramble to rally big investors behind new chief
Amanda Blanc embarked on an intense charm offensive among top BP shareholders last week to convince them that the choice of low-profile building materials executive Albert Manifold as chairman made sense. There had been an expectation in the City that a thorough recruitment process – conducted by the no-nonsense Aviva chief executive – who is BP's senior independent director and who led the search – might yield a more prominent chairman with wider knowledge of the energy industry. BP was stung by early criticism of Manifold by City brokers Panmure Gordon, who accused the oil giant's board of a 'panic appointment'. The energy giant also found it necessary to repudiate derogatory comments made by an unnamed 'bitter and twisted' losing candidate for the post. Working from Aviva's Canadian headquarters in the last few days, Blanc spoke to all of BP's leading UK and American investors and has seemingly managed to turn the tide of opinion. Most now are reportedly positive about the BP board's final choice. But there was some disappointment at the oil giant's headquarters about the lack of a rise in the share price following the announcement, as well as at some of the negative briefing in the Square Mile. Blanc is said to have convinced leading investors that the naysayers who challenged the choice of Manifold 'lacked credibility'. In selling the selection to the City, BP and its advisers have pointed to Manifold's stellar, under-the-radar performance at CRH, where he drove the value of the group's shares up 342 per cent during a ten-year tenure. The share price performance of CRH, which moved its listing to New York two years ago, is described by BP insiders as 'magnificent'. Blanc is also understood to have pointed to Manifold's considerable experience in making deals, and his knowledge of a building materials industry that has come under close scrutiny from regulators. Despite claims about the new chairman's modest Irish-based lifestyle, it has been noted that he became one of the best rewarded executives in the British Isles, amassing some £54 million of stock options between 2020 and 2024. But while Manifold has a reputation for successfully managing bids and deals, chairing the oil giant is regarded very differently. Being BP chairman requires great diplomatic skills given that its operations include sensitive territories such as Iraq. He will also have to contend with the battle being waged by chief executive Murray Auchincloss to refocus the company on oil production after a disastrous effort under his predecessor Bernard Looney to transmogrify the company into a green energy pioneer. Nevertheless, BP insists that the job of chairman is to lead the board and hold the management to account. 'It is not to be the deep technical expert,' one person involved in the search noted. Being an industry expert is also no guarantee of success. Manifold's predecessor, Helge Lund, a Norwegian veteran of the oil sector, quit due to mounting investor pressure and criticism of his performance in the role. An adviser to BP's rival Shell expressed surprise that the selection panel overlooked its newest non-executive director, Simon Henry, who was appointed to the board earlier this month. Henry is a former finance director of Shell and has been influential on the board of mining giant Rio Tinto. BP's response is to argue that in bringing both Henry and Manifold aboard, the group 'had the best of both worlds'. Manifold's first task will be to keep notorious activist investor Elliott Investment Management onside. It welcomed his appointment and wanted to see him 'urgently' address the company's 'shortcomings'. But other leading American holders of BP shares have recognised that turning the tanker around will take time, and believe that the newish team deserve at least eight quarters, or two years, of grace to show that things are on the mend. The big question is whether Manifold will be able to withstand the pressure on BP to cut back spending on new oil and gas facilities while providing better returns to shareholders. He has experience in this area, having previously faced down activists at CRH. There has been some concern about the length of the process to appoint the chairman. Blanc insisted on a thorough process using head-hunters, a long-list and short-list, and bringing the board along with her. But the drawn-out procedure allowed speculation to build of a takeover approach by Shell. Fortunately for BP's top team, Shell denied any early-stage talks and took itself out of the picture for at least six months. Outside observers were not the only ones surprised by the choice of Manifold, with many BP insiders having no knowledge of his background. In a bid to bolster his credentials, he has in the past few days made a point of touring the oil giant's offices in St James's Square in central London and holding a series of one-to-one meetings with executives and colleagues. But only time will tell if the former building materials boss can cement his legacy at BP.
The Sun
10 minutes ago
- The Sun
Amazon will have as many robots as humans working in UK warehouses within just three years
AMAZON will have as many robots working in UK warehouses as humans within three years, an expert warns. It could mean huge job losses at the delivery giant, which already has a million bots operating worldwide. 3 3 The firm is on the cusp of having more machines than people in the US, according to the Wall Street Journal. Dr Amir Aly, from the Centre for Robotics and Neural Systems at the University of Plymouth, claims Amazon's planned £40billion UK investment by 2028 means a mass robot rollout. He said: 'The scale of investment indicates there will be a 1:1 ratio of humans to robots in the UK in the next one to three years. "It's the money and technology advances that talk in the end.' He argued the size of the cash injection and the Government's enthusiasm hints at an agreement to provide a 'friendly regulatory environment'. Dr Sethu Vijayakumar, Professor of Robotics at the University of Edinburgh, agreed jobs would be lost in the 'temporary friction' robotics revolution. He added: 'There will never be as many jobs once warehouses are automated.' Amazon denies this, pointing to increased hiring over the past decade to about 70,000 people in the UK — up from 7,800. Xavier Van Chau, from Amazon's robotics team, said rather than replacing workers, the company has trained 700,000 robot operators. He insisted that the business aims to relieve workers of menial tasks, 'adding value, not replacing humans'. 3
