What's in a letter? Well, quite a lot if it's in your postcode!Ramsgate's teeny-tiny council has been giving out its postcode at the newly revamped Custom House as CT11 8LS, which puts it in the same locale as our defunct Maritime Museum and Pier Yard. Buildings either side, such as the Jizz Rooms and Frank's Queen's Head boast postcodes ending 8LP.
So what, you ask. Well according to the Environment Agency, 8LS is on a flood plain, whereas 8LP isn't. Which makes the building either uninsurable or at least another couple of Bentleys for those Lloyd's of London types.
Clearly some council duffer just made the postcode up, as a quick check with Royal Mail elicited the following response:
We have not as yet received any information from the council regarding this address. Please contact the local council’s name and numbering department to confirm that the property is registered. They are the Statutory Body responsible for officially naming and numbering all properties. Once we receive the official address details from the council we will add to Postal Address File.
At least someone's now spotted the error, as I see the Ramsgate Town Council website has this week replaced its S with a P, and the Custom House has appeared on the Royal Mail postcode checker. Hopefully the building's insurers have been notified too, and told to return the motors to Jack Barclay.
Meanwhile don't forget that one advantage of living close to a flood plain (English Channel in old money) is a few sovs off your Southern Water bill if your surface water drains directly into the sea. Just call customer services on 0800 027 0800 and they'll tell you if you qualify. Even millionaires need to watch the pennies these days!
4 comments:
This appears to be down to the very unhelpful town clerk whose approach to sensible inquiries seems to be to shrug his shoulders and tell you to go away. I hope he will reimburse the businesses at the Custom House who have paid higher insurance premiums, paid for stationery to be printed etc
Perhaps if the Land registry was to allow free flood risk assessments instead of making the public pay, we could high light these problems at early stage.
TDC's flood assessment for Ramsgate's waterfront in the LDF is flawed, is now proved...I will not wait for an apology though?
Malcolm
Whenever I go to the beach, I always pop into the sea to do my loo, as it's a lot closer than the nearest public lav.
Floaters can be a nuisance, but if you locate yourself close to a small child and then hurriedly swim away, you can usually get away with it.
Can I claim a discount on my water bill, on the strength of this?
Hmm. I gather Tory Dr/Cllr Alasdair Bruce, aka 'The Rock Doc', has been taking kids on beach tours telling them it's fossilised whale poo, Lucy.
Like they say, where there's muck there's brass!
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