Could this deal be the key to unlocking Ebbsfleet?

Blimey, I loved Sandy Bruce-Lockhart and Stephen Jordan (my chair and vice chair) with an inordinate passion; and I had a truly superb staff, who were loyal and hard working, but the forces of non-delivery I found myself up against were so vast that I had to divert my personal attention to something deliverable before I went stark staring bonkers. 

So, in disappointment and defeat, I decamped to Park Royal, where there was less to do, but at least people wanted things to happen.

I do sincerely hope that a deal has now been struck to allow the stalled Ebbsfleet regeneration project in Kent to proceed and I do seriously wish the project well. 

But this is a story that has been trundling on, not just for a decade (as Grant Shapps was quoted as saying this week) but since well before 1996, when the first planning application was lodged; arguably it is a story started in 1987 with the Kent Thameside Association. 

And after this gestation, in the early noughties, despite all the stars being in alignment, and the huge success of Bluewater in the adjacent Western Quarry, Ebbsfleet was not delivered during the boom time. 

Nothing at all really was delivered in time (as clearly would have been optimum) for the CTRL station at Ebbsfleet International opening in late 2007, unless you count the pouring of a lot of Tarmac. 

And I don't know how much the relaxing of the s106 as announced this week could make the crucial difference, but I am duty bound to point out to you, gentle reader, that we are now into the fifth year of one of the worst recessions we have ever known.
 
So forgive me going onto Twitter this morning in response to my good friend and dynamic ball of energy Angela Hurd (an integral part of my KT team) to say "darling, believe it when you see it".
 
The BBC reports that "over £100m has been invested by the developers but plans were delayed over the need for further investment and transport improvements".
 
Hmmmm... no mention is made in the press of the amount of public sector investment into the transport improvements such as the CTRL itself (the site is 17 minutes out of St Pancras fercrissakes, leave alone the links to the continent) or Fastrack, the rapid transport system delivered so ably by Stephen Jordan and David George of the Kent Thameside team.
 
No mention is made of "the investment" (clearly much wasted) by the government into the Thames Gateway as a whole and Kent Thameside in particular (KT was in receipt of some £77m in my own era).

I know these big schemes are bloody hard to deliver but no attempt was ever made by the landowner in my day (or before, or after) to put any effort or energy or investment into "creating a place" at Ebbsfleet; no attempt was made to create "an address" in time for the grand CTRL station opening (would only have cost a few bob) and the station opened in 2007, with not a lot of fanfare really, onto a sea of empty car parking (although I understand that it now plays host to a thriving Car Boot on a Sunday, which I suppose is something). 

And, as far as I can see, the Olympics came, and went, and no attempt was made to capitalise on that opportunity for Ebbsfleet either. 

Now I am not at all clear what more the public sector could do, really, to stimulate development in a large patch of land so near to our capital city. Moreover, the landowner had been in receipt of the land (from Blue Circle) on pretty advantageous terms in the first instance. 

The landowner and putative developer in this case is, of course, our friend Land Securities, with whom I had had such a positive and proactive relationship at Paddington. 

And it is difficult to not have cordial relations with this, the most civilised of corporate entities, the most manifestly polite and courtly developer to be found in the UK. 
The relationship of Land Sec with the Kent mafia, the three local authorities involved, and the myriad of government ministers who've come and gone, was always excellent: gentlemanly, gallant and courteous to a tee. 

And this approach from Land Sec very much suited the culture of Kent: a great deal of lunch was taken, and much charm dispensed. 

But as my old mum would say "fine words butter no parsnips" and some of us (perhaps rather less gentlemanly and rather more impatient) types would keep urging some real action, rather than just more words; not that it did us much good of course! 

I found myself becoming shrill and frazzled, on behalf of Kent Thameside, in the face of the ever-smiling and gracious corporate. 

And I was somehow painted into a corner as being a pesky nuisance, unreasonable and intemperate in my meddlesome demands for homes and jobs.   

There was a moment in about 2009, well after my own ill-fated sojourn, when Mike Hussey assumed responsibility for Ebbsfleet on behalf of Land Sec. 

My heart soared as I genuinely thought that this bloke with a track record of hard deliverables, together with the support of the great Digby Flower, could break through and begin to realise the superb potential that this site offers. 

Well... we all know that Mike was soon to be off to form Almacanter, and I can only guess at the part that the fate of the Ebbsfleet site might have played in that decision. 

Last December I shared a platform at Cranfield with the ever civilised Frances Salway and he was very clear, and I quote, that "Land Securities is not about growth, it is about return on investment" and that was the most explicit acknowledgement I had ever heard that Land Sec might simply be miscast in their role as master developer of Ebbsfleet and Eastern Quarry. 

I concluded that they are, as Nick Park's Wallace might have it, the Wrong Trousers.
But, for the people of north Kent, present and future, I do seriously hope I am severely wrong and that this announcement heralds a new dawn.

I seriously do hope that the new trousers announced this week are fitting, stylish and hard wearing.