You know what they say, you can never find a Chair of Local Planning when you need him. TDC's chap, the generally affable, currently-Tory Ken Gregory, seems to have gone awol from the Thanet blogosphere, as several of my commentators have pointed out. I suppose he might be on his hols. Or maybe the growing uproar over local squillionaire Ken Wills' plans to plonk a Chinese business park on top of our water supply has sent him into his bunker? Perhaps Ken knows where Ken is? Ken, are you out there? Ken? .... Ken?
Oh well. To stir things up a bit I've popped another of my 7 day polls in the sidebar on the right. The beauty of these polls is that they're totally anonymous, so even Planning Ken can vote against it here if he feels like it. China Ken will, one presumes, vote in favour!
28 comments:
Richard,I am here, I cannot possibly comment on any application that is before the council in any other than general terms. So I will not. I have been away for a couple of days, but continue to watch ,with a wry smile , all that goes on in some areas of the local 'press?'and also the blogs. but given the choice of a pint of real ale or spending half an hour playing with the blog, you can guess its no contest.
Oh, you're there then Ken! Have you voted in my poll? Oh, er, best you don't say since I see two of the three votes so far went to the 'yes' camp, and I voted 'no'.
I've tried combining blogging and beer in the past but it all ends up a bit messy, so it's a good idea not to mix the two in my opinion.
I voted no Richard, I like the recent Thanet natter on the side bar was it difficult to do? Our Ken bless him does sometimes put his foot in it only the other day he commented how rude us shop assistants in Ramsgate are, yes really on this shop assistants blog click here to read
On the matter of the China Gateway here’s a question for Ken that’s not a planning issue: How many people do you estimate will die of poisoning if a foreign lorry driver doesn’t realise that the drains in the lorry car park on this industrial estate lead not to the public sewer but to our drinking water supply untreated, and flushes a tanker of poison out?
Presumably, does he want a sewage farm run by the Chinese on top of our drinking water reservoir? Is one he can’t answer as this is a planning issue, write it into the plot of any well known soap and the script writer would be laughed off the set. Here in Thanet we are actually paying people to spend weeks working on the hundreds of pages of this planning application, so that the can answer the question that boils down to; should we dig the toilet near the well?
Michael, you are being a little duplicitous! I said that 'staff were casual rude etc' yes a generalisation but a comment on what i found. I did not refer to your emporium as I could not spare the time or money to visit your shop. (it does remind me of Aunty Wainwright's in the Last of the summer wine)
With regard to the China Gateway.........You will not catch me like that Michael. The planning committee is like a jury in that all the evidence presented to it will be considered, and a decision taken afterwards.
Yes, I saw that comment about rude shop staff in Ramsgate, Michael. Perhaps he's the same person who has been complaining on this blog about surly staff at an eastern food emporium in the town.
Bad service is something that really gets my goat, whether it be in a shop, bar, or a council on the end of a phone. Unfortunately it happens everywhere, Westwood Cross included. Given the state of some of the customers around her, though, I suppose you can't blame some shop staff for being a bit arsey.
As for CGP building their crappers on top of our lovely Thanet water, I personally think Ken and co should be put up against a wall and shot should they let that one through (sorry Ken!). Of course, were they to do the drainage properly CGP would have to put in 3kms of pipe, which could cost the shiny side of a million smackers, and perhaps detract from the project's financial viability. I guess we'll soon see whose side TDC are on - big bucks or the island's water drinkers.
As for my new Thanet Natter feature, it's a piece of cake. Just go to Blogger layout, choose 'add a page element', then select 'blog list' and off you go. Just enter your favourite Fannit blogs e.g.
www.eastcliffrichard.blogspot.com
and it'll update them whenever a new post is published.
Having been on a jury once, Cllr. Gregory, I know that a decision can only be made after considering all the evidence. The foreman does not, however, have the power to use a 'chairman's/foreman's casting vote' to bring in the guilty/not guilty verdict. Only the judge can decide if a majority view is acceptable.
Then I suppose that makes me the judge. I hope its 'John Deed'.
I will not involve myself in further discussion, as I am begining to get the vibes that people may try to 'set me up' to further complicate the issue.
I am happy to engage in generalisations, but not to get bogged down in individual issues.
Some may call this cowardice, I call it sensible
Ps I have also done jury service, and enjoyed it immensely
Duplicitous maybe Ken, however I don’t think it’s necessarily the job of our councillors to put people off of shopping in our towns in favour of WC I suppose some of us in the retail trade in Ramsgate do wonder if you lot at TDC are setting out to bankrupt us. Recent attempts include the removal of the main sands car park, granting planning permission to turn the Harbour Street shopping arcade into a bar and a free parking experiment only in Margate.
The effect on my own business when the promised pedestrianisation of the town was cut short was appalling and now the street has become fragmented by dubious planning decisions for residential on the ground floors of what were once shops.
Richard what worries me is that the planning application will be granted, with or without mains sewage an industrial estate on top of a reservoir is like living with a time bomb, sooner or later something nasty will get in the water and if it goes undetected into us.
Thanks for the tips for the eliterate I will give it a go.
p.s. That blog list thing was very easy thanks Richard; I’ve put you top of the list Ken as we have been giving you a bit of a hard time today.
Mmmm, the idea of Ken in a judge's outfit is just TOO much. The bulging body behind all that ermine and silk... almost as exciting as thinking of him inside one of his fellow councillor's leathers.
Oh, I need a cold shower.
Are you going to Pride, Ken?
Of the three votes at the time of writing ECR (2nd comment down) 2 for and one against, one was mine. I have no hidden interest. I now see 13 against and 4 for at 15:28 hours. If I vote 9 times will it register? If so your poll is corrupt. Another observation, ask most people to sign a petition against something and sheep mentaility will takeover and they'll sign it without even thinking about it.
Well of the three votes at the time of my 9.23am comment, which was very soon after the poll went up, one was mine (a 'no') and two people had voted 'yes'. So for the first few minutes of the poll, the swing was in favour of CGP. I can only assume that more people who object to the China Gateway have come on subsequently and voted.
I can't speak for the incorruptibility or otherwise of Blogger polls, they are a template addition to the blog with very little control over them, except a box you can tick to prevent multiple votes (which I have ticked). I presume it stops people from voting from the same computer more than once, but there again they could go to the lengths of using different computers to vote if they feel that strongly.
Best to look at it as a bit of fun and a very loose indication of public opinion, after all I've never claimed to be MORI.
As for petitions and sheep mentality, well I haven't asked them to sign anything. All I've asked them to do is think very carefully about whether they want millions of square feet of arable land on top of our water supply concreted over by an organisation that is not even prepared to follow the Environment Agency's recommendations with regard to the disposal of potentially toxic waste water, and then vote whether TDC should grant them planning permission or not.
OI, sheep mentality, cruelty to sheep. I used to farm sheep, they are mostly intelligent, and sometimes really clever
I have never thought of my self in thos terms anon 3.24.
In fact the whole idea frightens me a little, but, no I will not be at the Pride event, cos, i am away.
(But not in leathers)
Y Ken C A
Blimey Rick that's very restrained for you! Keep up the good work!
Hi Ken,
I don't come here very often but it's a great priviledge to log on when there's a real live Councillor on line. I come across them so infrequently that I wonder if they really exist. Can you explain why I have to wade through a sea of rubbish in my road every week after the bin-men have been? I thought they were supposed to put it in the back of the truck. Is the Council completely infested with incompetents? Did nobody think to include a clause in the contract for rubbish collection requiring the bin-men to leave the steet in the state they found it? And how is it that the elected Councillors who are supposed to epresent my interests don't see what I see? Do the bin-men have a special list of the roads where Councillors live? Or is it just that Councillors are so used to wading knee-deep in cr*p that they don't notice it? I can't see you attracting many millionaires to live in Ramsgate if you can't keep the streets clean; or is that the idea?
And what happened to the wheelie bins we were supposed to get?
Anon 5.42.
Phone your district councillor and they will get your rubbish mountains sorted. (or maybe Tracey Emen has moved into your street) In which case call me and I will visit her personally
Restrained I said, Rick. As in 'restrained comments', not 'having to be restrained'. Like I said before, one poem (or one line comment) per post!
Sorry, Ken, I gave up contacting my (Tory) councillors a long time ago about issues like rubbish. I just phone the council or e-mail to get action. Mind you, it took me four phone calls to get my wheelie bin emptied when our little patch got forgotten one morning. Each time I got a different answer 1) route's been changed (no it hadn't),2) they're on their way (no they weren't)3) it's not a missed bin until after 1p.m. (by which time they're all home having left their lorries at Shottendane). Eventually got some sense out someone after phone call number 4 and bin was emptied. Don't want the black-lidded one left for another two weeks, thank you.
Tdc has lost the plot, tourism should be the way forward for Thanet and would create employment and is under promoted. All the developments will only reduce the potential to promote tourism in the future, as our valuable small space of land becomes either housing, industrial, green houses, shopping centre. It is time tdc made more sensible use of the land resources in Thanet, and identified more suitable and alternative sites for long term planning stategy.
Anon 9 21 ring me and I will try to sort It. sorry if your councillors cannot do it. But I promise you I will do my best. Try agreg115@aol.com
That Rick (with a silent P?) is quite funny. 146 IQ and a poodle shaped walking stick.
We could do with one of those on Ramsgate seafront, for the kids to follow and call names.
Ought to cut down on graffiti (with the possible exception of the back of his macintosh).
Dear Ken, delighted to see you return to the blog, however, I do have a generalisation question for you.
What would your thoughts be on the situation of a councillor being wined and dined by prospective planning applicants, just prior to being made Chair of a Local planning Committee?
Ooh, is there a whiff of scandal in Tory Towers, Margate. Are sleaze and abject incompetence going to become an issue, just as they are with the Tories' showcase administration in London, under Bonkers Boris? Two of his top team - including his deputy - have been forced to resign over the past few days.
And of course we still have several top Tories who have been caught with their hands in the public till - Conway, Winterton, various MEPs...
Labour may be in the sh*t, but the Tories are hardly in clover!
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