Thanet Villages Election Candidate, More Questions About Property Developer Links

Ash Ashbee (credit Isle of Thanet News)

In an earlier post I  revealed that  Thanet Villages election candidate, Ash Ashbee, was until very recently  working  for  property developer Guildcrest  as the company’s Business Development Manager.

I pointed out that in December 2024 Guildcrest had submitted a planning application to build 31 houses on prime farmland located  in the  Thanet villages ward and that the application was facing very strong opposition from local residents

Having close links to a company that profits from destroying and concreting  over  large swathes  of prime agricultural land  placed Ms. Ashbee at odds with the voters of Thanet Villages, many of whom are  opposed to Guildcrest’s plans and to the loss of valuable farmland to non-farming purposes.

But instead of doing the  decent and honest thing by publicly declaring her conflict of interest  Ms. Ashbee  chose  instead to cover up and mislead voters  by saying nothing, in the hope she wouldn’t be found out.

But I found her out, and to my great surprise I aslo discovered that Ms. Ashbee’s relationship with Guildcrest is a lot  more than just the short twelve month job which her social media would have us believe.

The truth is that Ms. Ashbee has enjoyed a close, mutually beneficial, relationship with  Guildcrest for  several years. Here’s the story.

It begins in June 2021 when Ms. Ashbee, then a Thanet councillor, became the Leader of TDC. Soon afterwards she was  appointed to serve on the executive board of a shadowy organisation called East Kent Opportunities (EKO) which is officially described as

“a joint venture vehicle established by Kent County Council and Thanet District Council with a specific focus on the development of a number of sites in the Thanet area namely, Manston Business Park and Eurokent”.

During her time on the EKO Board documents show that the organisation sold several plots of land to Guildcrest. In a report dated March 2023 it is said that

“EKO are legally engaged with an established active local developer, Guildcrest Commercial Ltd on a number of the plot sales”.

It would appear that some of the plots of land sold by EKO to Guildcrest included part of the Manston Business Park and former prime quality  farmland near to Haine Road which became housing.

As a member of EKOs   executive board  its almost certain that  Ms. Ashbee would have known about  the  land sales to Guildcrest. As an executive board member,  its   highly likely that  she would also have been involved in meetings and discussions about the land sale with senior Guildcrest managers.

In her  capacity as  TDC leader, with special responsibility for strategic development,   its  also likely that she would also have  met Guildcrest’s senior  managers.  

In the local elections of May 2023 Ms. Ashbee lost her council seat and Labour took control of  TDC.

Less than a year later she claims to have begun  working for Guildcrest as the company’s Business Development Manager.

This was a very senior position and included  responsibilities for identifying new opportunities for growing  Guildcrest and increasing the company’s profitability.

It  would have been a well-paid job which probably  included a very lucrative bonus scheme to generously  reward her successes

Not that I am suggesting any illegality  but, in my opinion, one of the reason Ms. Ashbee was offered this job, probably relates  to  Guildcrest’s  purchase of land from EKO - a favour for a favour as they say.

Also, as the former Leader of TDC, Ms. Ashbee had developed an extensive network of personal connections with senior managers  and politicians at the council.

For a property developer operating in Thanet access to such connections would be extememly valuable and advantageous, and from a business point of view worth its wieght in gold.

In August 2024 a council report noted that  “Officers were contacted by Guildcrest, owner of the development at Haine Road Ramsgate”, which  offered the council, “the opportunity to deliver more affordable homes on the site”.

It was eventually agreed that the council would buy 30 houses at the Haine Road site for £8,300,000 and that these houses would  become available for social rent from the council.

In January 2025 another council report set out details of the purchase of a further 12 houses  from Guildcrest at a cost  of £2.28million. In total TDC has  spent £10.5 million buying 42 houses from Guildcrest.

Bearing in mind that Ms. Ashbee was,  when these reports were published,   working as  Guildcrest’s  Business Development Manager,  and taking account of her extensive network of influential officer and political contacts at TDC, I believe that it was probably Ms. Ashbee who made contact with the council on behalf of Guildcrest  about the  “opportunity to deliver more affordable homes”.

It’s also likely that she was directly involved in negotiating  the multi-million pound deals with the council as well.

It would be interesting to know  how much money Ms. Ashbee might  have been  paid in bonuses, by Guildcrest,  for pulling off this deal.

So in a nutshell - a former leader of TDC, Ash Ashbee was involved in the sale of  council owned farmland to  a local property developer who is then,  because of her political and senior management connections at the council, given a senior job with that same property developer, and who then strikes a multi-million deal with the council she used to lead to buy houses built on the  land she sold to the developer in the first place, and who now wants to be re-elected to the council, presumably to do it all over again.

They call this the revolving door. It’s not illegal but is widely

Ian Driver Fighting For Clean Politics

frowned on as being morally and ethically dodgy and, not that I am suggesting it in this case,  the revolving door, can sometimes lead to serious criminal level corruption.

Parliament is trying to close the revolving door.  MPs, Government Ministers, and senoir Civil Servants now face, restrictions from  moving from the public to the private sector, and these restrictions are set to become even stricter.

If central  Government is concerned about the impact ot revolving door then so should be local government. I say its time to close the revolving door to councillors  and prospective councillors and senior council officers.

If you like your politics clean and honest vote for me,  Ian Driver,  standing for Thanet Independents and putting people before party interests