Michael
has represented Harbledown ward since 1987.
He is chairman of the Whitstable Harbour Board – which
was recently awarded Leading Lights status
by the Department of Transport in recognition
of the outstanding progress it has made as
a municipally owned port over the last five
years.
He has fought hard to improve local facilities
and to ensure that the council provides both
high quality and value-for-money services.
He has been campaigning for a number of years
against the proposal to build a Park & Ride
in Harbledown. The original plans to locate
it at Hall Place have now been scrapped. He
believes that the most recent proposal to construct
it at Faulkners Lane, just below Vernon Holme
School, would be a disaster as it would:
1) contravene many of the council’s own
planning policies - for the site is in an area
of High Landscape Value and it adjoins the
Harbledown Conservation Area
2) destroy for ever Grade 1 agricultural land
3) increase traffic flow along Rough Common
Road by 20-25% as well as leading to rat running
through Chartham Hatch and Upper Harbledown
4) compromise the security of Vernon Holme
School.
He has identified better and more practical
sites including Dunkirk and enlarging the Wincheap
Park & Ride when the new slip roads off
the A2 are built.
Michael has lived in Canterbury for more than
25 years, and is married with four daughters.
His wife is a teacher. He is a Chartered Engineer
by profession and is a director of a small
firm of management consultants specialising
in reliability engineering.
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Harbledown
