Council's Costly Postcode Cock-Up

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!

Now Island's Beaches Turn Blue

Hurrah! Ramsgate Main Sands has once again hoisted a Blue Flag in this year's prestigious and eponymous awards!

Margate Main Sands, Stone Bay and Westbrook Bay have regained their blue dusters after losing them last year, although Walpole Bay has lost out. This is almost certainly due to the number of superannuated, incontinent crones and pit bulls on string weeing in the water in those parts. Other winners are Bottomy Bay, Joss Bay, St Mildred's Bay, West Bay and Minnis Bay.

Viking Bay in Boredstares, which has only ever managed one Blue Flag (in 2006), has failed to make the grade yet again, as the frothy yuk there is about as wholesome as the liquid that must have seeped into Nick Clegg's undies when Dave told him he was going to be Deputy Prime Minister yesterday.

So here on the sophisticated south side, we have the south east's only south facing sandy beach, the finest restaurants and bars outside of London, and a marina that makes Cannes look shabby. What with that and the Blue Flag, I fully expect the cash registers to be tinkling with tourist tenners for the next four months. Which, er, is what I say every year!

Click here to download full list from Keep Britain Tidy

Don't Drink The Water

I see both former Irritating Bloke Billo Wright's and bibliobloke Michael Child are running the story the Isle of Thanet Gazunder passed up on today - the investigation of medical conditions possibly related to serious pollution incidents here on our septic isle.

Thanks to Irritating Bloke's tireless and sometimes tiresome efforts, we discovered last year that Cyclohexanone had been dripping into our aquifer over a period of years at the old Sericol site, and that there'd been serious leaks of noxious crud at Thor chemicals more recently. Not that anyone in authority saw fit to inform us, of course. Now IB has brought this to the attention of the Kent Health Protection Unit at Maidstone, who have assured him that they 'will be investigating this matter fully'. The question being whether there is a statistically higher chancing of carking it from diseases associated with the nasties in our water course than in areas whose water remains unsullied by a cocktail of organophosphates and mercury, with the occasional barker's nest thrown in for luck.

Quite why the Gazunderers, who were given the exclusive on this water story, haven't, er, splashed it across the front page is frankly beyond me. Oh well, maybe they're under orders not to panic the populace! In the meantime, here's the late, great lovely Tom Lehrer [He's not dead yet - Ed.] singing about pollution back in the days when Sericol first started leaking hundreds of tonnes of Cyclohexawhatsit into the Thanet soil:

Water Cock-Up

Say hello to cyclohexanone, the new, super-duper additive that could be in Thanet's water supply!

This six-carbon, cyclic molecule with a ketone functional group is a colourless, oily liquid with an odour reminiscent of oil of peppermint and acetone, and is used as an industrial solvent. Apparently local printing ink manufacturer Sericol, which is owned by Japanese giant Fujifilm, dropped a bit of an old bollock, along with seemingly vast quantities of this stuff, at its Pyson's Road factory twelve years ago. It appears the Environment Agency has now confirmed that the clean-up operation is still ongoing, and that they've so far recovered 470 tonnes of cyclohexowhatsit, and that the underground water supply has been damaged.

A quick flick through my National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Pocket Guide to Chemical Hazards tells me that cyclothingywhatsitdoodah targets the eyes, skin, respiratory system, central nervous system, liver, and kidneys. So, the full mixed grill then. Presumably our beloved council was charged with the controls on this site. As one commentator said recently: 'I wouldn't trust them to be able to control their own bowel movements'.

Full marks to campaigning biblio-bloke Michael Child for going public on this, based on some excellent research by, of all people, our very own Irritating Bloke, Rick!

Click here to read more on Thanet Online
Click here to read Environment Agency's FOI response re Sericol

This article has NOT been approved by the Politburo. Comrades are reminded that Sericol provides much-needed jobs in this area, as do other developments on the State's aquifer such as Kent International Airport and China Gateway. For the avoidance of doubt, the People's Central Committee for Health has reported no ill-effects from cyclohexanone and furthermore have carried out tests which suggest it may well be beneficial to health (e.g teeth whitening).

Money Down The Drain Was Well Spent

Well, it was for Margate and Broadstairs at least. According to the Marine Conservation Society's latest Good Beach Guide, the new Thanet doo-doo treatment plant built by Southern Water last year 'is benefiting beaches from Margate to Broadstairs'.

This bucks the general trend in the South East, which, according to the MCS, 'appears to be paying the price for the rate of new build in the region, with its high population density and extensive house building programmes'. It attributes this year's overall 10% drop in top-grade beaches to the unusually bad summer last year, with all the rain washing those germy borries off the streets and farmland directly into the ocean. Yurgh!

The MCS classified Margate Main Sands as 'recommended', the highest level, which it has achieved for two years on the trot. Viking Bay in Boredstares still only managed a 'basic pass' (the statutory minimum for water quality) for the second year in a row. Ramsgate Sands went from 'basic pass' to 'guideline' (good water quality standard only). Which seems to be a step up, so there may be a chance of getting our Blue Flag back this century!

Meanwhile I see today's Gazunder is reporting a 'huge surge of froth around the Thanet coastline', due to 'molecules of fat and proteins and sex cells from algae trying to breed becoming foamy when churned up with air bubbles'. Time to get out the rubber togs, methinks!

Click here for MCS story on BBC website
Click here for MCS Good Beach Guide
Click here for algae love custard story on Gazunder website

Water Blogged

Fellow Thanet blogger Bertie Biggles writes:

Richard, I have been trying to help Amy Murray out at Manston re (the proposed China) Gateway (30 squillion sq. ft. business park which will sit atop our water supply and could make Camelford look like a tea party should anything go awry). Have just set up a 'protest' site that will deal with all Gateway stuff in due course. As the Isle's premier site can you look at:

www.savethanetswatersupply.blogspot.com

and if poss direct people to it to make voices heard? Loved the Balkan flavour to your posts last week! Bertie.

Happy to oblige, Bertie old sport. If anyone else has a story they'd like publicised on 'the Isle's premier site', just email me - the link is in the top right hand corner, under that picture of a ruggedly handsome cove whose, um, name escapes me for the moment. Or, if you're feeling adventurous, you can always come and sit on my Facebook - you can find the link to that in the same place. Pip pip!

Under Pressure?

Amidst all the horror and anger following the arson attack on Dreamland's Scenic Railway a week ago, one small but seemingly important detail has been lost. According to Kent Fire and Rescue Service 'the biggest problem was that the water pressure around that area is very poor and it took a long time to get water onto the fire'.

If it hadn't been for the brave efforts of the boys in brown, who managed to put a fire break in the coaster, 'the whole thing would have gone'. Apparently insufficient water pressure was also a factor in the Ramsgate Library fire of 2004.

Now call me old fashioned but you would imagine that, for an island with such a smoky history, things like having enough water to put out fires would be something we'd have, er, on tap around here. There again, with the increasing number of developments being built due to our growing reputation as a property hotspot, perhaps it's inevitable that the best we can manage is a bunch of drips.

The Big Stink

Phwoo! Has anyone been down by the port recently? I tell you, there's a stink down there that's going to outlast religion.

Apparently the main sewer out of the Millionaires' Playground has been bunged up for weeks now, and Southern Water are having to ship all the, erm, waste matter out in road tankers every few hours while they carry out repairs.

Nonetheless, when I was down there last night there seemed to be plenty of holidaymakers partying on their boats in the marina. You could say they seemed undeterred.