TDC Sweeps Carpet Contract Under The Rug

Ever since our beloved council rolled out the brand new pink carpet at Duffer Towers a few weeks back, speculation has been mounting as to who got the plush £50K+ contract. One of my spies has now sent me the results of a Freedom of Information inquiry he made to Cecil Square, but the results are, I'm afraid, less than illuminating:

Thank you for your communication received on 19th November 2009 where you requested information about the contract to supply carpets.

I am writing to advise you that, following a search of our paper and electronic records, I have established that the information you requested is not held by Thanet District Council. However, by way of explanation I shall explain the procurement route taken. The Council undertook a formal procurement whereby suppliers were invited to tender for the office reburbishment contract, which included an element of carpetting within the specification. The intention being, that the award would be made to a main contractor for them to manage delivery of the entire content of contract.

The Council did not award a contract to supply carpets and therefore did not appoint to an individual carpet firm, but awarded the entire contract to a main contractor, which was DJ Ellis.

Hmm. Well call me old fashioned, but if I was putting such a large contract out to tender, I'd very much like to know who the subbies were!

Who Pressed Panama Steve's Button?

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

Puff The Margate Dragon

Reader Rachel from Ramsgate writes:

I was aghast to see the awful puff piece for Margate on BBC South East News last night. I presume one of the producers has just bought a little investment number there, or TDC press office finally managed to take somebody out to lunch, or both! The town's putative renaissance appeared to be based on three interviews - one with Eli who runs the Sugar Lounge, who seemed rather non-committal if you ask me, the property developer who renovated the Sea Bathing Hospital (they would say that wouldn't they) and someone from SEEDA (they would say that wouldn't they). Ken Wills' Westwood Chinese business park had also suddenly become part of Margate to give it the 'tiger economy' feel. No mention was made of any setbacks such as the recent closure of the Outfitters Gallery, or the Turner Contemporary fiasco, or the fact that Ramsgate, not Margate, has received all the positive property press in the past year or two.

The BBC played straight into the hands of TDC, whose draft plan places Margate at the top of the list for any creative or arts funding, and Ramsgate as a dormitory for a port and airport. Ramsgate used to have a vibrant arts scene, and still does to some extent, but this is being gradually and deliberately eroded as the plan from Margate takes effect. Latest rumour is that the Gallery IOTA people, who were forced to move out of their building in Ramsgate, have now been tempted over to Margate to regenerate the pier.

I'm not saying that Margate doesn't need some help, of course it does. Paigle did a magnificent job on the Sea Bathing Hospital, it should have been the Turner Centre, but that's in the past. And Eli deserves all the luck he can get. But none of this should be at the expense of Ramsgate. Our town is undergoing cultural cleansing in this mad dash to do something, anything, for Margate. I think a lot of people here are beginning to get extremely fed up with all the initiatives and funding that come out of North Thanet for North Thanet, and are beginning to wonder why they should bother paying their council tax if they're not going to see any benefit for it.

Update: You can watch the report again on the BBC South East website for a limited period here, click on the story entitled 'A New Vision For Thanet'. That's if you've got the right plug-in for the awful BBC player.

The Film Of The Blog

Well what do you know - I've BoobTubed myself!

The Brown Pimpernel

Toddling down to the corner shop earlier, I spied an elderly gentleman of military bearing who was berating one of our council's 'waste and recycling' operatives about the stinky rubbish that had been 'recycled' all over the pavements.

The operative was explaining that the seagulls were to blame for the fact that the street was awash with filth. 'They tear open the bin bags on bin day and it gets everywhere,' he said, as if there was nought could be done about it. At which point the elderly gentleman marched off muttering something about whether it was legal to shoot seagulls and/or council officers.

I continued on my errand, scanning the pavement rather more acutely than I've become accustomed to, and was shocked by the number of barkers' nests impeding my progress. I've been banging on about them for more than a year, but the problem has, if anything, got worse.

So I've decided direct action is called for. Taking my cue from that story yesterday about a fellow in Huddersfield who goes around at night spraying potholes with yellow paint, I'm straight off to B&Q to get myself a can of their finest. Only question is, what colour? Brown's clearly out. Pink maybe? I know - luminous green! That way they'll show up at night, too!

The Number Of The Beast

I see from the new tickerometer on my sidebar that 666 days have now passed since 'temporary' fencing was erected along our crumbling East Cliff.

Anyone of a nervous disposition would be well advised to keep away from the edge for the next 24 hours, in my humble opinion.