Terminal Decline

Holy airports! With just 24 hours to go until the big 'Save Manston' meeting over on the seedier north side of the island, news that he's a 'confirmed guest' appears to have come as, well, news to Councillor Biggles, the island's self-styled resident expert on all things aviation.

In response to a story in The Gazunder alleging that he'd be attending along with usual suspects Sir Roger Gale MP and Laura Sandys MP, Simes sent this rather sharp tweet back to the hacks: 'I have not confirmed anything other than I am working on Saturday!!'

In all likelihood he'll be up in his teeny-tiny plane, hand on joystick, tugging a banner over Old Trafford. Which seems to be his regular gig these days.

Hey-ho. Support for the 'Save Manston' campaign has hardly set the tarmac on fire. I've seen only one 'Keep Calm and Save Manston' poster displayed on the island (in Westgate, natch!), and the mini-mob in the photo seems to be composed of a few old gippers and some embarrassed children who've been dragged along by their grandparents. Do they really think they're going to fill the Winter Gardens? I expect some of you will tell me tomorrow!

Meanwhile it's been revealed via one of those Freedom of Information thingies that Kent County Council couldn't be arsed to even look at the legals when the current owner, Scottish squillionaire Ann Gloag, bought the place for a quid off Infratil last year. Neither, indeed, did KCC's Tory leader Paul Carter, aka Sir Paul Ruddyfaced-Man. And they're not even bovvered about casting their glass eye over any of Sir Rog's current 'negotiations'. Here's what KCC's FOI response says:

I can confirm that neither Mr Paul Carter, nor any officer of Kent County Council (KCC) holds any information relating to the Heads of Terms or the sale by Infratil of Manston Airport. Also, neither Mr Carter nor any officers of KCC were they shown any Heads of Terms either by the buyer or the seller or any third party. Furthermore, KCC holds no information on how many and which businesses who asked for the closure of the airport were prevented from taking it over and in response to your third question relating to negotiations reported in the media, KCC holds no information that you requested. KCC has not been and is not a party to any of these negotiations.

Which is quite surprising really, given the kerfuffle KCC and Sir PR-M have made about Manston. What with their talk about a new railway station, planes 'flying straight out to sea', 'longest runway in Britain', and the like. Not to mention all the lovely taxpayers' lolly they've lavished on it over the years.

The words 'washing', 'their' and 'hands of it' spring to mind. You do have to wonder whether they were just using the place as a stalking horse to chase off Boris Island, thus keeping their lovely, northwest Kent cottages nice and peaceful at night.

Needless to say, Paul Carter, like Biggles, is not a 'confirmed guest' for tomorrow's meeting. Happy landings!!

Unhappy Landings

In Memoriam 
RAF London Kent Manston
Margate Tracey Emin
Chas 'n' Dave Maggie Thatcher
Schipol Skyport Poundland
International Airport

So farewell
Then, RAF London
Kent Manston
Margate Tracey Emin
Chas 'n' Dave
Maggie Thatcher
Schipol Skyport
Poundland
International Airport.

You had the
Longest runway
In Britain
According to
Roger Gale MP.

And planes flew
'Straight out to sea'
According to
Paul Carter
Leader of
Kent County Council.

None of which
Was true.

You were supposed
To create
'10,000 jobs'.
That wasn't true either.

Now you have gone
To that great
Airport in the sky.

E. C. Richard (29)

Click here to read more about airport consortium pulling out on KM website.

KCC's Box Of Bollocks

Yet more proof, if it were needed, that the Ruddy-Faced Man at Kent County Council doesn't give a proverbial about poor old Ramsgate.

If you recall, last month the Office for National Statistics came out with a report demonstrating that Ramsgate was now officially more deprived than Margate, thus proving what I've suspected for years, namely that all the public dosh is being spent on chi-chifying the Arsonists' Playground, to the detriment of us here on the sunny south side.

One of my lovely readers was so incensed that he wrote to KCC boss Paul Carter (aka Ruddy-Faced Man), demanding an explanation. Here's R-FM's response:

Dear ---------------,

Thank you for your email, regarding levels of deprivation in Ramsgate and Margate.

I read the report that you refer to from the Office of (It's 'for' - Ed.) National Statistics with interest. The report is an analysis of the 2010 Index of Multiple Deprivation, therefore, the data on which it is based is now several years old. Nevertheless, I am very much aware of the levels of disadvantage that persist in Ramsgate and in many of our other coastal towns and tackling this is a crucial priority.

So what are we doing about it?

Firstly, we are working hard to attract new jobs and new investment into Thanet. We have secured £35 million in interest-free loan support to businesses looking to grow and expand in East Kent – with over £17 million already allocated and starting to create jobs.

Secondly, we are improving the transport network to make Thanet better connected. We have invested over £180 million in the East Kent Access road network, providing a better link to Ramsgate and Discovery Park. This year, we secured an additional £5 million to improve line speeds between Ashford and Ramsgate to cut journey times – with work starting next year.

Thirdly, we’re investing in local communities, with our No Use Empty programme already restoring over 2,000 empty properties to use. Many of which will be in Margate and Thanet.

Of course, we need to do more, and continued emphasis on coastal regeneration is vital in Ramsgate, Margate and the rest of Thanet.  But there is great potential in East Kent, despite its challenges and we are unlocking real growth opportunities – and new suggestions are always welcome.

I hope you find this response helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Carter
Leader of Kent County Council

To paraphrase the late, great Sir Winnie: Never in the public sector have so many mealy-mouthed platitudes meant so little. It's as if R-FM has just taken the Thanet section out of his ruddy big red book and sprinkled a few Ramsgates in there for seasoning.

Meanwhile, KCC have today said they're applying to build a ruddy big new hotel on a Thanet seafront! Hurrah! At long last, something is being done about that hideous Pleasurama eyesore! Er, no, wait a minute, it's going to be on the old Rendezvous site round the back of the Turnip in - you guessed it - Margate!

We're Illegally Parked On The Road To Nowhere

It was such a lovely weekend here in the Millionaires' Playground that I decided to whip out my old throbber and give it a bit of a thrashing!

Now that the powers-that-be have opened up the barrier between the harbour and the port, us millionaires are spoilt for choice - take the high road out of town, along London Road, or the low road along Military Road, then out along the port access road and through our lovely, multi-million pound tunnel. I prefer the latter as, fittingly for the Cannes of Kent, it feels just like taking a spin along the jolly old Corniche!

Oddly, though, there were still a number of illegally parked foreign lorries waiting for ferries, which ferries, as we now know, will probably never come. The port itself was deserted. Not a sausage...

To their credit, Kent Highways have done some excellent work installing wooden bollards along the cliff, thus preventing lorries parking illegally on that side. But that, the £32m on the tunnel, £87m on the new dual carriageways around Cliffsend, and the £500,000 spent by TDC on dredging the port for the Ostend Spirit all seem a little, er, pointless now.

I guess it's a case of 'will the last lorry leaving Port Ramsgate please turn out the lights.' Oh, silly me. Kent County Council have already thought of that one too!

It's It's A Pothole Blitz!

I see that ruddy-faced man from Kent County Council has announced a 'pothole repair blitz'. Tory leader Paul Carter declared 'an army of road maintenance crews' will be mobilised to tackle the county's crumbling roads.

Two points here. The first is that whenever Paul Carter talks about 'Kent', he is invariably referring to an area within a ten mile radius of Maidstone. I don't know about you, but it's barely possible to drive more than a few yards in Thanet without the jalopy jiggling around like an old nana's knockers at a Graham Norton taping.

Secondly, I rather thought the word 'blitz' referred to what the Germans did to Blighty in WWII. There are still gaping great holes on the island where the Teutons carried out urban regeneration by carpet bombing. Exactly the opposite of a repair job, in fact. 70 years on and they still haven't been, er, filled in. Still, that's Cllr Carter for you. Always putting his foot in his pothole!

Click here to read about KCC's 'pothole blitz' on BBC News website

Kent Of The Year Awards

This year I'll be running my brand new Kent of the Year Awards, culminating in December in a star-spangled festival of glamour and glitz at Ramsgate's very own sleb hotspot, the Granville Theatre and Cinem!

And the first nomination is already in! Step forward Sir Terry Farrell!

Internationally renowned architect Sir Tel has joined forces with Kent County Council's Ruddy-Faced Man, geographically challenged Tory leader Paul Carter, to produce this steaming pile of crap which was published today:

One of its chief 'highlights' is the expansion of Manston landing strip into a 'major regional airport' with its own railway station by 2030, whilst promising to transform the area between Margate, Canterbury and Folkestone into a 'cultural triangle'.

Now we all know that Paul Carter doesn't know his Ramsgate from his Margate when it comes to this part of his fiefdom. He thinks planes from Manston fly 'straight out to sea'. Here's the page where he drones on about the Kent Coast:

Notice anything? Yes, that's right. He gives it a 'Dover', ooh and a bit of 'Canterbury' and 'Folkestone', topped off with a splash of 'Herne Bay, Whitstable and Margate'. No mention of Ramsgate though. Except the photo illustrating the Kent Coast 'coming back to life' is of our Royal Harbour here in Ramsgate, the jewel in the crown that he wants to fly knackered old 747s over every five minutes. And yet he hasn't got the balls to attend a meeting of Ramsgate residents concerned about the airport.

It would be too easy, though, to nominate Carter for my Kent of the Year Awards. He makes a stupid Kent out of himself every time he opens his mouth. His report bangs on about the county being the 'UK's front door'. Well, I'd personally be more than happy, if he ever shows his face in this neck of the woods, to insert this cods in his, er, back door.

More surprising is that Sir Terry Farrell, who coincidentally specialises in airports and railway stations, has appended his name to this bollocks. After all, he is none other than the Patron of the Ramsgate Society. A worthy candidate, then, for 'Kent of the Year'!

Click here to read more on the Gazunder website
Click here for 21st Century Kent on KCC website
Click here for the Ramsgate Society website

KCC Chief In Secret Airport Talks

Hats off to today's yourfannitinnit for breaking the story of clandestine collusion between Kent County Council leader Paul Carter, our very own Sandy Beach and Manston boss Matt Clarke!

If you recall, the Tories' ruddy-faced man failed to tip up to a 150 strong meeting of the Kent International Airport Consultative Commitee (KIACC) in June last year (the day after he'd voted himself an 8% expenses increase) to discuss flight blights, citing other commitments. But now, thanks to a FOI application by regular ECR contributor Malcolm Kirkaldie, it transpires he did have time to chinwag on the phone with chief Tory duffer Beach, and the outgoing airport manager. At which point he presumably learnt that the mood of the meeting would be more 'Get Carter' than 'Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine'.

The snub led to a vote to report geographically challenged Carter, who thinks planes from Manston fly 'straight out to sea' and that it has 'one of the longest runways in Europe' (it's the 14th longest in the UK), to the Standards Committee.

Here's the full text of the FOI:

Thank you for your request for information.

Kent County Council's Leader, Mr Paul Carter, spoke with Sandy Ezekiel, Leader of Thanet District Council and Matt Clarke, Chief Executive of Kent International Airport prior to withdrawing from the KIACC meeting on Friday 26th June 2009. These were telephone conversations which took place in Mr Carter's car whilst travelling between meetings, and therefore there are no notes recorded from these conversations.

Mr Carter was also due to have a pre-meeting with a KCC officer from the Regeneration and Economy department prior to his attendance at KIACC. However, this pre-meeting did not take place in light of the fact that Mr Carter was no longer able to attend the meeting that this pre-meeting was intended to brief him for.

I have also attached a copy of the email sent to you by Paul Carter's PA on 30th September which included a statement issued by the Leader regarding his non-attendance.

I can confirm that Mr Geoff Wild, KCC's Director of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer has seen your request and has approved this response.

Carter's happy to plug Chas 'n' Dave Margate International as an alternative to Boris Island, but when the proverbial looks like hitting the fan, and he's faced with the prospect of meeting the real people whose lives he wants to blight, he runs like a chicken with its bum on fire. Yet more proof, if you ask me, that he doesn't care much about Kent beyond his Maidstone manor!

Click here to read this week's yourfannitinnit
Get Carter! in ECR last June

Get Carter!

News that the ruddy-faced leader of Kent County Council couldn't even be bothered to turn up to Friday's airport meeting just goes to demonstrate the contempt and ignorance the Maidstone Tories have when it comes to our septic isle.

This is the man whose grasp of his county's geography is so good that his fondest quote is that planes from Chas 'n' Dave Margate International Airport 'fly straight out to sea'. The meeting had been specially arranged around his diary, and around 150 people attended, most of whom were relishing the opportunity to point out that there is a splendid Victorian seaside town of 40,000 right under the flightpath. And maybe question why he had voted himself an 8% increase in his expenses the day before. Admittedly there was the odd lunatic fringe member, like Ramsgate First's Gerry O'Donnell who seems to think a jumbo flying a few hundred feet every five minutes over his East Cliff kiosk would be good for business. Oh, and the Thanet Tories' Labour poodle, Mike Harrison, head of the Airport Working Group, who by his own admission is 'not the brightest person' (why do you think you got the job, Mike?). But they were heavily outnumbered.

Fortunately a motion was carried to report the Tory twonk to the Standards people. One man, Ron Blay, unfurled a banner saying 'No night flights, no training flights', and several people seemed to be having stand up rows with the airport's Kiwi boss Matt Clarke. Oh I do like a bunfight!

Carter the farter in yourfannitinnit
Sign the petition against night flights

Neglikent!

That ruddy-faced man who runs Kent County Council's physog is already pucer than a boiled beetroot, but it'll surely be glowing purpler than a porn star's knob-end when he reads today's report by the Audit Commission!

According to the government's spending watchdog, KCC is one of seven councils they regard as 'negligent' due to their touching trust in the Icelandic banking system, long after everyone said the entire kit and kaboodle was about to go nipples skyward. We already know the Tory duffers lost 50m of your taxpayers' spondulics when they sent their mum to Iceland to with a shopping trolley full of fivers last year, but what has really got the commission's goat is the £8.3m KCC deposited on 1 and 2 October, after the banks' credit ratings had been downgraded to 'adequate' (several notches below 'fill your boots').

Following a quick calculation on the back of his Rothmans packet, my accountant Cyril reckons £8.3m could have got you half a Turnip Centre, or an entire 'offshore' Turnip Centre, up to the point where the test pylon blows over and everyone goes 'We told you so'. Time for old Boil-in-the-Bag to resign, methinks!

KCC's boneless moneybox

Tories To Turn The Lights Out

Vive la difference! The team and I have now washed up in Quebec City... and I must say it's a place I could learn to like if I wasn't being accompanied by a knob of a director, a neurotic production co-ordinator, a dyslexic presenter and a camera crew whose brains appear to be primarily located in the trouser area. Hey-ho.

Still, a big, ECR 'mwah!' to everyone back on the Ile de Thanet for keeping me in touch via email. This latest missive from reader Carol seems to prove once again that the Ruddy-Faced Man in charge of Kent County Council has a limited knowledge of geography east of the Medway:

Hi ECR!

Hope you are enjoying your trip around Canada. I was watching the local BBC News at lunchtime when your favourite Tory politician Paul Carter was on talking about his plan to turn out the street lights at night around the county to save money.

As an example of where this ridiculous plan might be implemented he mentioned the Thanet Way which he said went from 'Whitstable to the airport at Manston'. Talk about a one track mind. Does he not realise there are 130,000 people living in Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs and only about 100 people connected to his hobby-horse airport?

I often have to come back from town at night and personally think this crackpot idea would be exceedingly dangerous.

Well Carol, I think I'd have to agree with you there. But after January's serious accident on the A299, which appeared to have been caused by KCC failing to grit the road, do you honestly imagine the Tories in Maidstone give a tuppenny stuff about anyone in the tip of Kent?

Posted from Quebec via iPhone

One In The Eye For KCC

Cripes! I see my old chum Lord Gnome has published a piece about Kent TV's rather ham-fisted attempts at silencing Tony Flaig of Bignews Margate fame! The article, in the 'Rotten Boroughs' section of this week's Private Eye, begins:

FOCKING KENT

KENT county council’s bold experiment in being the first local authority to run its own internet TV station has not been universally welcomed in the Garden of England. Or universally watched, for that matter.

One man of Kent who thought he had a democratic right to criticise the use to which his council tax was put got a shock when he did so. Bob Geldof’s production company Ten Alps, which makes Kent TV, threatened him with m’learned friends for having the temerity to say he didn’t think it was up to much.

Margate blogger Tony Flaig had been a regular critic of KTV. Not only did he describe the £1.6m spent on the channel - launched in September 2007 by Nigel Dacre, brother of the Daily Mail’s Paul - as 'Kent’s most contentious waste of money' but he also claimed that it devoted too much time to interviews with members of the ruling Tory party.

Although Mr Flaig wasn’t glued to KTV, they were paying close attention to his blog. He received a pompous letter from Jo Phillips, 'director of communications' for Ten Alps, claiming he had made 'inappropriate, unlawful and damaging defamatory allegations about Kent TV and the people who work there'. Ms Phillips, who has since left the company, concluded: 'Please therefore ensure that your blog does not publish any further defamatory statements about Kent TV. I trust you will not do so, but if you do, you should note that Ten Alps reserves the right, if appropriate to protect the reputations of our staff, to initiate legal proceedings without further reference to you.'

The letter had the desired effect. Since receiving it last year Mr Flaig, a railway tracklayer, has desisted from criticising KTV for fear of a writ. 'What next?' he asks the Eye. 'Will Tarmac sue me if I say Kent’s roads are crap?' He has been unable to establish whether council leader Paul Carter endorsed Ten Alps’s threatening letter. Last week he received an opaque missive from Geoff Wild, Kent CC’s director of law & governance, containing the line: 'If you continue to choose to exercise your right to free speech in the manner that you do - as is your right - you must expect to take whatever consequences the law provides…' Very reassuring.

Kent resident Geldof - he lives in a modest priory near Faversham - countered criticisms of KTV by appearing on it before Christmas. With his customary exactitude, Saint Bob explained: 'It’s the old establishment versus the new kids on the block. This spurious beating up of Kent TV on the notion that it’s political is rubbish, it’s a commercial attack. It’s a great service - it’s precisely what should happen with this amazing thing.'

Oh, do fock off, Bob!

Oops, silly me. I seem to have reprinted the entire article there. I'd better scarper before Lord Gnome's m'learneds come after me for copyright infringement!

Bignews Goes Ballistic!

Cripes! Tony Flaig, keeper of Margate's premier blog, has written to every KCC councillor following a shocking lack of response from Tory leader Ruddy-Faced Man to his complaint about a KCC contractor's ham-fisted attempt to shut him up!

Tony, aka Sausage Man, recently called a halt to his Bignews Margate blog in protest at the resounding silence from R-FM concerning a legally threatening letter from Sir Bob Geldoff's Kent TV. So far our lovely county council has spent around £2m of our money on Kent TV, and our Tone, quite rightly in my opinion, feels he has a democratic right to criticise the channel's output. But apparently not according to Ten Alps, the Bob-backed company which makes it.

Anyway, here's the text of Tony's council-wide email:

Dear councillor,

I am a local blogger, I write about local issues predominantly concerning Kent and generally more specifically Thanet.

I frequently write about policy issues concerning Kent Council. Naturally Kent council's high profile project Kent TV is one of those issues I considered worth referring to, since broadcast media would appear to many people a departure from the normal services taxpayers expect from their local authority.

At the end of June last year, I received a letter from a Kent County council contractor taking exception to comments I had made about Kent TV, the first line of their letter being 'I am responding to the comments posted on your blog regarding Kent TV'. This letter appeared to carry an implied threat that should I make further comments, they might well sue me.

At the time, I contacted the company concerned, asking the author of the letter whether there were any statements etc. that they wished me to withdraw, and at no point was I asked withdraw any statements.

Also at around the same time I contacted both Paul Carter, and then Peter Gilroy (KCC's £230,000 a year chief executive - Ed.) concerning this matter. Both subsequently wrote to me, apparently both supporting the contractor's rights, but neither appeared to acknowledge my right to express a valid opinion on the wisdom of a public authority wasting taxpayers' money on a questionable enterprise.

At no time do I feel that I have criticised the professionalism or competence of any contractor, although I have certainly questioned the output of Kent TV and its purpose.

I would like Kent Council to make a clear statement to the effect that Kent residents are entitled to make reasonable comments as they see fit about political issues in line with those rights guaranteed under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. If Kent Council don't make a clear commitment to residents' rights to free speech, then what's next? Contractors to other departments sending out letters, when say a resident complains about Kent Highways? Maybe suppliers of cones, tarmac or even advertising might send letters offering legal action?

I have currently suspended posts to my blog site, until such time as Paul Carter responds to the email I sent him on the 13th of January 2009. All I want is a clear statement from KCC making it clear they support free speech even if its critical.

Regards Tony Flaig
Bignews Margate

Manston Pickle

Yipes! I see Infartil, the owners of RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport, are reporting a loss at their European airport business for the six months to 30 September 2008. In their half yearly report the Kiwi group says:

Infartil Airports Europe recorded an earnings loss of $6 million for the half. This reflected the loss of major freight services at Glasgow and Kent. While the suddenness of the reduction of services meant that the airports have incurred adjustment costs (including bad debts) it is likely that the full year outcome will be consistent with the first half trend.

Meanwhile that ruddy-faced man who runs Kent County Council was on the Beeb's Politics Show yesterday lunchtime crapping on about RAFLKRMIA being the 'jewel in the crown' of south east airports, and waxing lyrical about '6 million passenger movements' and how 'accessible' it is. Yes, very accessible for a few thousand Majorca-loving Dickensians and Margatonians, who don't have to put up with the incessant 'training' flights, but a bit of a pain in the jacksie for the 40,000 Ramsgatonians who happen to live beneath knackered old jumbos overflying their cliff top mansions every eight minutes (cue cries of 'nimby', 'it's been there since 1836', and 'if you don't like it move!')

Strangely, for a fellow who runs Kent County Council, R-FM seems to have a limited knowledge of the county's geography. Does he not realise that at least 270 degrees of RAFLKRMIA's catchment area is very 'accessible' to fish, seagulls, and, er, that's about it? Or maybe I'm not giving him enough credit. By batting for Manston, and batting off 'Boris Island', perhaps he's ensuring his little neck of the West Kent woods remains unblighted!

Click here to read Infartil interim results
Click here to watch R-FM crapping on about Manston (c. 41 mins in)
Click here for details of CPRE's Thanet: A New Way Forward

KCC Claws Back Shortfall With Sponsorship

Cripes! Following the loss of 50 million smackers when their assets got frozen in Iceland recently, I hear that Kent County Council are set to repair their finances by allowing commercial sponsorship of venues and place names across the county! Here are some of the changes you can look forward to:

Sandwich becomes KFC Zinger Sandwich
Deal becomes Big Mac Meal Deal
Walmer becomes Getting Much Walmer, Courtesy Of British Energy and EDF
Dover becomes P Andover
Herne Bay becomes Herne Bay Windows (Double Glazing) Ltd
Wye becomes Wyevale
Folkestone becomes Folkestoned, Courtesy Of Exotic Indoor Herbal Cultivators (Ramsgate) Ltd

Locally, we can expect to see the following:

Margate Winter Gardens becomes Margate Windows Gardens
Cliftonville Lido becomes Cliftonville Ludo
Pierremont Park becomes Perriermont Park
Palm Bay becomes Palmolive Bay
Broadstairs becomes Broad Stannah Stairlift
Thanet becomes Thanet - Home Of Chinese Globalisation

(That last one's too ridiculous for words - Ed.)

This article has NOT been approved by the Politburo.

No Mumms Going To Iceland

Cripes! I see Iceland's going tits up! Not the frozen food store formerly known as Bejam, but the country near the North Pole! Fortunately none of the Eastcliff millions are invested there, otherwise I'd be straight round my old showbiz chum Bjork's, getting her to empty the krona out of her piggy bank.

What is worrying, however, is that Kent County Council has placed 50 million of your hard-earned council tax sponds in banks over there, according to the BBC News website. Nice one geysers! (Geddit?!!!?!)

Thanet Thunder In The Thunderer

Crikey! I see our glorious leader Sandy Beach has written a joint letter in today's Times (that's The Times, not the Thanet Times) with that ruddy-faced man from Kent County Council!

It follows a row over seaside regeneration that's been rumbling on in the Thunderer's letters pages ever since Weston-super-Mud's pier burnt down last month. On Tuesday Ramsgate DFL Steve Higgins had a scathing letter published complaining of a 'total disregard for the town’s heritage by its rulers, Thanet District Council', which even attracted a comment from Plain Simon, viz:

As a local councillor and Margate Charter Trustee, I can assure readers that every effort is being made to preserve local heritage and local history. The council can encourage development and new projects but it can't dictate what should take place on what is often privately owned property.

Not unless the council's 'privately owned' too, eh Simon? Now Sandy and the R-FM have waded in with their size 12s and the paper has, er, ironically illustrated their missive with a photo of long-gone Dreamland's long-gone Looping Star:

Sir, Contrary to Steve Higgins’s letter, there is a lot going on to improve Kent’s coastal towns — you only need to look at Whitstable as a successful example. Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs have received heritage lottery funds to restore Victorian buildings to their former glory and Pugin’s Grange on the cliff top at Ramsgate has been renovated recently. We will soon be starting work on the building for Turner Contemporary, designed by the Stirling Prize-winner David Chipperfield etc etc blah blah yackety schmack blah

(As an added bonus, there's a letter on the same page from a Mr Anthony Hodges of Broadstairs who's counted the number of red traffic lights he's encountered recently. And you wonder why they call it Boredstares.)

Anyhoo, this got me wondering how many of our super-duper attractions we've lost on the island since our beloved council came into being on 1 April (I kid you not) 1974. Let's make a definitive list, eh? Just click on the comments link below to add your two pennorth!

Councillor Puts Us In The Picture

Following yesterday's kerfuffle over a Kent County Councillor who purloined my pic without permission, I've received the following email from the gent concerned:

Richard - I arrived in my office this morning to a flurry of emails pointing out that the photo on my 'KCC in the Community' blog posting was the image from your blogsite.

Please accept my profuse apologies - the image has clearly been lifted from your site. In my rush to put up a posting, I asked my office to find me a 'Margate' image - perhaps I didn’t make it clear enough that this should have been a KCC image!

I have immediately taken the image off the posting, and replaced it with a KCC image showing the architect's impression of the new Turner Centre. Nowhere near as attractive as your image admittedly, but it will have to do until I can get down to Margate and take my own pictures.

Apologies once again. As a more practical gesture, I have added your blog address to my blogroll on my Wordpress site - http://kevinlynes.wordpress.com/.

Regards,

Kevin Lynes
KCC County Councillor for Tunbridge Wells East
Cabinet Member for Kent Adult Social Services

Apologies accepted, Kevin! As a general rule, I have no real objection to people purloining my piccies (unlike some other silly bloggers) as long as they give me a nod when they do. Our local caff-crushing car-crushing councillor Dave Green has had the courtesy to do that in the past, as has local rag yourfannitinnit. What's more telling about Kevin's email, though, is the fact that his office were charged with finding a nice snap of Margate, and instantly came up with mine. I mean, I'm flattered that they're fans, but really, haven't KCC got any of their own?!

Councillor Caught Up In Copyright Claim

by Isle of Thanet Gazunder Crime Reporter Dud Fivers

Kent County Councillor and cabinet member Kevin Lynes has been accused of copyright theft by one of the isle's most popular bloggers. Celebrity millionaire Richard Eastcliff, who runs Thanet's Eastcliff Richard website, was shocked to see one of his photos appear without permission or a credit on the Conservative councillor's blog recently.

'I clicked on a link from Tony Flaig's Bignews Margate site to Kevin Lynes' blog and there was my photo of Droit House, which I took on 12 May this year. I was devastated as I'd put a lot of time and effort into twiddling my f-stop to capture the right mood for that particular shot. The photo on his site even has the same file name as mine - 'droit+house'. You'd think a KCC cabinet member would know better than to blag other people's copyrighted material off the internet.'

Mr Lyne, who represents Pembury, Sherwood and St James in West Kent, had been on a KCC cabinet fact-finding tour to Margate earlier this week, their first visit to the East Kent resort since 1926, and used the photo to illustrate his article. A furious Mr Eastcliff added: 'You'd think the Tories would be all in favour of law and order. Couldn't the cheapskate have bought a camera and taken his own photos?'

Mr Eastcliff, 29, said he would now be consulting with his media lawyers.

Can you spot the difference?

Eastcliff Richard blog 12 May

Councillor Lynes' blog 15 July

Update: Cllr Lynes has now apologised for his, er, error. Click here to read his email.

More Rubbish From Kent County Council

Tooling around the grubby East Cliff back streets earlier today, I came across a veritable blizzard of crap on the pavement. No, not the usual barkers' nests, but vouchers for a 'free skills check' from an organisation called Skills Plus, an initiative funded by Kent County Council. As if there wasn't enough trouble with fly tipping in the area already, without KCC adding to it by, er, flyer tipping!

The leaflets were advertising the Skills Plus Centre in Ashford (manager Jude Farrell tel: 01233 208619/623945 should anyone wish to pick up the dog and complain). Oh well, you never know, they might have come to Thanet with high hopes and bales of free skills check vouchers only to take one look at the local inhabitants, drop their bundle and scarper!

Kent TV Ends At Canterbury

Given all the recent hoo-ha about some massive increase in the viewing figures for Kent TV, the £1.6m internet TV station run by our Tory county council, I thought I'd sneak another peek. However, at the risk of yet again incurring the wrath of Jo Phillips, Kent TV's PR person, I have to say the channel never fails to disappoint.

It's not just because it take ages to download the video you've selected. Or because, once you've finally downloaded it, it invariable looks and sounds like something a depressed gerbil on mogadons would find under-stimulating. Nor, for that matter, because the whole thing could have been set up on BoobTube for nothing. No. What really gets my proverbial is the way the station's definition of 'Kent' seems to stop at the Wantsum.

Try clicking on their Visit Kent section, for example. Here we sit on a (mostly) beautiful island that has recently been praised for the quality of its bathing waters, and only yesterday was awarded more Blue Flag beaches than anywhere else in the country. Last week Visit Kent, KCC's tourism arm, themselves declared Thanet to be the second most popular tourist destination in the county, after Canterbury. Things you'd imagine might be worthy of note on a TV station that was being funded by your hard-earned sponds. Yet out of around 60 films I found only two about Thanet. And one of those was a dreary report on the Dreamland fire - hardly anything to shout about tourism-wise.

So although there may be slightly more than one man and his dog watching Kent TV these days, you have to say that, as far as Thanet viewers are concerned, it surely won't be long before the dog runs off with the remote and buries it in the back garden.