Council Cancels Christmas

Further news of cost-cutting and blood-letting at our beloved council has reached the old Eascliff lugholes. Yes dear reader, even on a Bank Holiday Monday I must be a slave to your news lust and forgo plans to whip out my trusty old throbber and give it a thrashing!

My spies on Uranus report that Chief Executive Yosemite Samuel ushered grim-faced senior officers into a meeting last week to give them the gloomy news that large pruning shears are being sharpened and that even 'the topmost branch may go too'. Presumably if you add diminishing receipts from credit-crunched tenants and council taxpayers to the interest being paid on assets that are becoming increasingly worthless, it all adds up to a large pile of sod-all. Hence the need for drastic action.

So it looks as if the only turkey Thanet Council will be carving up this Christmas is itself! What worries me is that they can barely be classed as competent in the boom times, let alone with all these costly chickens coming home to roost!

Strange Cloud On The Horizon

Reader Marie, who's been spending a week on holiday here in the Millionaires' Playground, writes:

Did anyone else see the weird cloud formation that rolled over Ramsgate on Monday evening ahead of the storm we had? It looked like the condensation trail from an enormous rocket. Is there any explanation for it? I enclose a photo for your blog.

Well Marie, Ramsgate has seen its fair share of UFOs and other strange phenomena over the years. And as regular readers will know, a great deal of stale, hot air flows out of Uranus and drifts in a north-south direction over the island. My best guess, though, is that RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport has been allowing the space shuttle to do training circuits again, but if any readers have a better idea do let me know.

When Is A Library Not A Library?

When it's a 'one stop shop', of course!

There appears to be a fierce debate going on in the pages of this blog (see comments under Gazunder Goes Gaga below) about whether our beloved council plan to use Ramsgate Library, which is currently being rebuilt after the 2004 fire, as a 'one stop shop' for council services and the like. Such plans are already well advanced for Margate Library.

Observer, generally one of our better informed local bloggers, has opined that such rumours are mere gossip and tittle-tattle, but I beg to differ. The following extract is from TDC's very own Corporate Plan 2007-11. Under Theme 6: Modern Council - What we will do they clearly state their intention to embed council services at some point during 2009-11 in the new Ramsgate Library:

Still, they're only catering to the market, I suppose. I gather student demand in Oxford recently led to the opening of a late night booze and kebab outlet in the Bodleian!

Blue Act For Granville Theatre

Yet more evidence, if it was needed, that Ramsgate's trendy East Cliff is the place to be. Work on tarting up the exterior of our super-duper Granville Theatre-ma has finished, and although it still bears more than a passing resemblance to a public toilet block on steroids, the tasteful shade of light blue is a definite improvement on the previous tones of sh*te brown.

With the private sector doing its bit to beautify the area, what a shame our local council can't get off its lardy backside and return the compliment by fixing the two adjacent Victorian shelters which have been 'undergoing repair' since February.

June: Brown

August: Blue

It Came From Uranus!

Yikes! I was using the downstairs facilities here at the old cliff top mansion this morning, when there was an awful commotion at the catflap. When I investigated I discovered Bertie, my pedigree Burmese, proudly parading this object in his jaws!

I've taken it as a sign. The Uranians are trying to tell me something. A mysterious message on the reverse of the tag says: Warning - possible choking hazard. 'Nuf said.