Ooo-er! Despite it being the silly season, with many of the chief duffers away on their luxury yachts in the Med or at local developers' luxury villas in Portugal, things seem to be reaching boiling point in the world of Thanet politics!Not only has Labour Cllr Nottingham's latest blog story on the subject disappeared, but word has reached my shell-likes of further misdemeanours in the council chamber surrounding absentee Dane Valley Tory, Panama Steve Broadhurst. If you recall, Bignews Margate blew Steve's cover recently by revealing he'd been signed in to a council meeting in July in his absence, thus allowing him to pass go and collect his £5K a year in expenses (or your and my money, to be more precise). We still don't know who the forger was, but the chances are we will soon.
I'm now reliably informed that whoever was sitting next to the man with the canoe and the jaunty hat's empty chair that night lent over and actually voted on his behalf on the electronic voting system, presumably during the freemason style secret session to discuss the future of the Pleasurama development. Fortunately this was spotted by one of the sharper eyed opposition, and the vote was annulled. But really, it beggars belief! How do these people think they'll get away with it? Or more importantly, just how long have they been getting away with it? How many other whiffy motions have the corrupt and incompetent Thanet Tories passed by fiddling the vote? And will Panama Steve ever return from his banana republic to this, er, banana republic? I think we should be told!
Meanwhile the disappearance of Cllr Nottingham's take on the episode remains a mystery. Perhaps he's been referred to the Standards Committee. Although my money's on Tony Flaig suing him for running a rather unflattering photo of him next to the word 'fraudster'!
Click here for Cllr Notters' missing blog post
Click here to read it on Google's archive
Click here for Bignews Tony's original story
33 comments:
Richard, whilst your labour mole makes a good story, I can assure you that the Electronic Voting system was not used, and hasn't been for at least 4 years.
Yes... I understood that to be the case, but thought Cllr Moores had been tasked with fixing it. I mean rigging it. The system, not the vote. Oh gawd, I'm in even deeper doo-doo now!
Ken
Are you telling us TDC wasted more tax payers money then?
Why did the Auditors or EKAP not pick this up?
D3
Every schuleboy know 'he who smelt it dealt it'. So Ken your name is now in the frame for this awful stink!
ECR If this was in the old days (pre ECR residence) and your question, of who is the Thanet tory forger, had arisen back then.
My money in those days would have been on Cyril Hoser.
Better known nowadays as your accountant (or is that another Labour rumour)
Cyril Hoser forger of dollars not to be confused with Wee Sean even if they played the same game ?
Ken electronic votes or not someone who is not available ie.out of the country on a longterm has been seen to vote. Whilst I am sure there is a bonafido reason he managed too vote.if it wasnt for the fact he seems to have moved away and is unable to represent me or any of the people in his ward I would not be concerned I have in the past said members who are away for holidays funerals etc should have a form of vote but to move to Pannama and claim ex's seems beyond the pale
The electronic system hasn't been used for years because certain (Tory) councillors couldn't work out how to use it and tried to get a vote declared null and void because they'd voted wrong.
Correct, Ken, or not?
Was there an admin error and Councillor Broadhurst wasn't signed in after all?
Can you tell us when he did actually last attend a meeting and is it true he may be stepping down by choice or perhaps not by choice thereby triggering a by-election?
Maybe it's not corruption. Maybe it's incompetence!
Maybe Panama Steve's mate who pressed the button hadn't attended in person for four years, and thought the electronic system still worked!
All very reminiscent of Fleet Street back in the 80s, where printers would clock on their mates so they could collect their £40K a year and still carry on with the day job (cabbing in a lot of cases I'm told). Thatcher's mate Rupert got rid of that. I wonder what she'd make of these Thanet Tories!
Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse haven't been attending Thanet Council meetings by any chance?
What electronic voting system.. you jest?!
No.. I'm doing the web broadcasting and more.
In the present fiscal climate there are no plans to spend money on anything which isn't regarded as an essential and while electronic voting sounds nice to me, I'm sure a show of hands works just as well and is much cheaper!
So NO button was pressed and the whole affair, much to the embarrasment of a blogging certain Labour councillor, looks very much as if someone else's illegible signature strayed to the line above or below and was genuinely mistaken for that of the member for Panama when the attendance at the meeting was recorded.
That said, having read, this week, a completely false press release produced on the same member's weblog and in my name, would you sensibly believe anything you read there?
There's not even a token effort to be accurate or truthful!
So basically this is a non-story according to the Doctor. Where have I heard that before?
As for 'someone else's illegible signature strayed to the line above or below and was genuinely mistaken for that of the member for Panama when the attendance at the meeting was recorded' this sounds very Sir Humphrey.
Full marks for referring to him as 'the member for Panama' though. Does this mean there will be a by-election soon?
Well done 'Doctor' M, I felt sure you were innocent all along! Of course there's a sensible explanation for all of this nonsense. And how very right of you to watch the spending in these difficult times.
I can't wait to get to know you better at one of your 'surgeries'.
Was there not a story about a Conservative councillor being allowed to store a vehicle down at the port without being charged recently? And what ever happened to the police investigating Ezekiel and Latchford's freebie to China paid for by Ken Wills who wanted planning permission for China Gateway at the time? Let alone all the standards board rulings that have gone against them - F-cking T-ssergate and Petitiongate. This lot are taking the p-ss surely? It's like Deadwood without the sherriff.
You can of course believe what you want to believe. I'm only interested in sharing what I understand as the facts from officers following an investigation into the matter.
Mistakes can be made but the pervasive sense of paranoia that surrounds anything surrounding the council, here and elsewhere does worry me.
I don't so surgeries. I tried but after sitting in the library each Wednesday morning with nobody turning up, I find it's much easier to deal with residents concerns directly. I'm very easy to find as you will know and normally action any requests I receive within the same hour.
Officers, heeeheeeehaaaaahaaaa dahaaaaa. They wouldn't know the truth if it jumped up and hit them in the face.
Interesting that the only people who have a problem with some councillors not holding surgeries are those that use the internet! Get real, live in the 21st C telephone, email, mobile and snail mails all work, plus a home visit. surgeries are like canvassing, a waste of time. Only of use to the candidates. (gives them statistics for elections). A really useful question should be 'Are my councillors registered under the Data Protection Act?'
How do I contact cllr Broadhurst?
Hi, no nothing do with standards, although it wouldn't surprise me to see another Conservative try and manufacture a case. £100,000 wasted already. Strange how Simon likes to talk about "tongue in cheek humour" but struggles to find it amusing when others use it.
Can anybody seriously say Simon would comment as my piece has Simon saying:
"I am known for my openness, consistency, modesty and utter lack of double standards."
because we all know he is far too modest to ever tell anybody he is modest!
Simon knows full well what is going on but is being disingenuous and misrepresentating the situation. All will be revealed in the not too distant future.
Hopefully Simon will do the right thing.
Does councillor Nottingham have a real job or is he just another Labour clone working at the taxpayers expense?
A lot of mystery there Lord Thandelson but not very much content!
Dr M is still the new boy on the block and as such should be given a chance before everybody starts to criticise him.
Under different circumstances we would see that he will be a good ward councillor and an asset to Thanet,but our judgement is coloured by the two terms the tories have been in charge,we have seen our Isle almost totally ruined by bad judgement and lack of foresight by them.
Oh,and to balance that last time Labour were in control they made a cod's of it too.DVT.
Mark, why have you removed the post from your blog? Or is a direct answer from you a bit too much to ask?
My Labour colleague, councillor Nottingham is a modest man and clearly has much to be modest about!
Oh, for goodness, Dr. Moores and everyone else, grow up and start behaving like adults then those of us outside the Thanet political bubble might start to respect you. All this back-biting, clever little comments and asides that are oh, so childish are just boring the hell out of most of us and we'd rather see some action by the council tackling the issues that confront us all.Use your energies, intelligence and experience to some purpose and stop trying to score points off each other.
Here here!
Totally agree with the last post, what is clear is that a lot of time and our money is wasted by a cynical council who run Thanet as a fiefdom, or thiefdom more accurately.
The Broadhurst affair shows that a fraud is being committed by him , it is common knowledge to all the Tories and yet they do not censure him and are effectively colluding in it by their behaviour.
How can they expect to be taken seriously by any rate payer when this is allowed to continue ? .
Dr Moore's Is always telling us that how broke Thanet is , so maybe it is a good time to save some money by having a vote of no confidence for Mr Broadhurst to ensure no more payments to him.
This would be in line with the new Tory squeaky clean image, oh and how much were the legal fees for the Woollen Mill debacle and China gate expenses inquiry?
Christ in a bubble-car! If the real Mr Dickens were alive today, to read that grammatical nightmare, penned in his name, he'd turn in his grave!
What China Gate expenses enquiry? I must have missed that one.
Ah China gate and those lazy hazy days of Tesco Bags and Mr X!!
The Police did not adequately investigate China Gate or Mears come to that - but then again they seem to fudge things TDC?
Rick have you any thoughts why?
Anyone know if the public is entitled to view and make copies of the signing in documents for member's of the council?
D9
"looks very much as if someone else's illegible signature strayed to the line above or below and was genuinely mistaken for that of the member for Panama when the attendance at the meeting was recorded."
So says Cllr Moores. I must say, either he is a fool or he is being disingenuous. Does he not realise that if I had been falsely signing someone in for years this is exactly the way I would do it? So that if I was caught it would look 'illegible' and seem like a 'genuine mistake'?
Do these people take us for idiots?
Anonymous 9.57p.m. Yes, is the answer and they don't realise their little games have been exposed through the wonders of the internet.
steve broadhurst, a man who has been a target for a while now, we have to ask why, 49,000 party transactions to his security firm & 5000 a year for attending four meetings, so in total around 60,000 of thanet residents money, its a shame as it could of been spent on something good for thanet ? and would he step forward and explain himself ?nooo, hes changed his phone number and when returns he keeps a low profile whilst receiving free healthcare then sneaks back off to panama, im amazed nobody has investigated him and his security firm with ted ruffell mayor of margate running in whilst walking about with a panama hat !!!! look up ted ruffell panama hat, there laughing at us !!!!!!!!!!!
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