Re Comment Moderation

I have decided to remove all anonymous comments on this weeks contentious issue. Not something I like to do and it may seem arbitrary but rather than act as judge and jury on how big, a bite, an anonymous contributor can take out of somebody, they oppose, I thought it would be the even handed thing to do.

Anonymous contributions will always be welcome except on issues which become personal.

Anonymity is a great thing for those who wish to express an honest opinion but if it makes you feel braver then examine your motives.

Email Received From Cllr Clive Hart Leader of Thanet Council Labour Group

I thought this text of an email sent to me by Cllr Clive Hart might add some balance to the concerns of Parish Councillor John Worrow.

Please note that I have enabled comment moderation, since it would appear there has been a concerted theme on some comments made earlier which I will remove should Mark Nottingham request, having already offered the same facility to John Worrow.

From my perspective this all seems a mountain of a molehill, it is the case as I understand that Mark Nottingham is not in a position to respond, until he receives official conformation that a Standards board complaint has been withdrawn.

It is also worth putting in context that some members of the conservative group, are apparently backing moves by council officers to curtail or constrain what councillors can and cannot say via the internet. Why they would wish to restrict or “bully”*, councillors in what they say is a matter of conjecture, but I have my theories.

*since that seems to be the buzz word this week

 

Tony

 

On your blog Cllr. Worrow has very selectively quoted just a very small part of an email I sent to him which I thought was a private matter.

 

However, as he has seen fit to quote from it, please feel free to print it in full for your readers.

 

Please be absolutely clear - I was certainly not commenting on any particular article or blog as Cllr. Worrow was not at all specific, I was simply responding to his earlier email of 12th July which I also paste below.

 

Regards

 

Clive

___________ 

 

14/07/2009

 

Cllr. Worrow

 

I respond to your email of 12th July, pasted at the end of this email.

 

Firstly, please be absolutely assured that in the Labour Group we will not tolerate bullying of any kind from anyone and I hope you will note that wherever and whenever necessary, Labour members have stood firm and fought strongly against such behaviour up to and at the very highest level within TDC.

 

I'm afraid I am not aware of the 'cyber bullying' to which you refer but the Labour Group has very strict checks and balances in place and every member is aware of their personal responsibility for their own blog sites. You will know as a politician yourself that we all have to accept some political knockabout and indeed in the run up to the last local and Parish elections I understand you spent a considerable amount of time attempting to work with other parties in an adverse way against your Conservative opponents in Birchington.

 

I do understand that some Conservative members at TDC may want to exert 'control' over internet blog sites but I can assure you, we in the Labour Group value freedom of speech.  I am also aware of statistics that clearly indicate there is a real issue with the number of Conservative members reporting other council members on standards issues.  If TDC MEMBERS decide these matters should be debated at full council, we in the Labour Group would be only too happy to do so - and robustly!

 

As for the tone of your email, I take exception to the arrogant manner in which you try to tell me what is, or is not, my moral responsibility in the first sentence, and I am offended by the sentence near the end written in red ink - you can expect what you like but I will do whatever is correct in any given circumstances after giving all matters, views and opinions my full consideration!

 

Cllr. Clive Hart - TDC Labour Group Leader.

____________________________________

 

Dear Cllrs Hart, Mc Castree and Ezekiel

 

As TDC group leaders, I am sure that each of you will acknowledge that you have a moral responsibility to ensure that your members do not engage in cyber bullying.

As local government representatives we all have a duty to set an example to young Internet users.

A number of  parish, town and district colleagues have expressed the view that new rules are needed relating to this subject; therefore I feel that it is necessary for TDC councillors to debate the anti-cyber bullying issue at full council, in particular the need to adopt new rules relating to councillors that run their own Internet blogs.

 Cyber bullying is insidious; bystanders can become accessories by passing on a humiliating message.

If a council member continues to engage in this destructive activity after being reported, I would expect the leader of the group concerned to take unilateral action against the member.

I look forward to hearing from you.

 

Yours sincerely

Cllr John Worrow

Birchington Parish Council member 

POLICE AUTHORITIES ARE THEY ABUSING PUBLIC FUNDS

As you will realise a man of my calibre, is frequently looking for new opportunities and often glance, through the appointments section of the Sunday Times , sadly there is little on offer, to a man of my limited talents but my eye caught this ad a couple of Sundays back.

“Chief Exec £115K-£130K” the ad on behalf of the Association of Police Authorities, claims that “We give local people a voice in policing”, now you might be forgiven for thinking that your MP, local councillor or even your vote, would act as your voice clearly not, since the Quango, the Association of Police Authorities, seems to think it should be politicking and at your expense, the taxpayer.

The claim that the association of Police Authorities “give local people a voice” seems completely bogus if not fraudulent to me, since when did they actually have any dialogue with you or I, probably never!

As far as I’m concerned the Association should be following orders from the elected government, not creating its own policy.

A clear example of the tail wagging the dog, why don’t the police concentrate on crime and leave politics to the professionals.

This is one of those reasons I joined the Taxpayers Alliance.

John Worrow Postscript

I received an email from John Worrow who is pleased to say that he has “just heard from Thanet's Labour leader, Clive Hart and he has assured me that the Labour group will not tolerate bullying.”

He goes on to say “Cllr .Hart and I agree that freedom of speech is important; I personally believe that freedom of speech and bullying are not the same thing.”

John Worrow also asks the question IS FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND BULLYING THE SAME THING?

To save commenting later I would say no of course not, and also I’m not surprised that Cllr Clive Hart does not tolerate bullying since he happens to be a well mannered approachable sort of bloke.

At the end of the day I doubt Mark Nottingham, had any intent to offend, but that’s easy for me, as I’m not directly involved

Thousands of Wheelie Bins on the move to counter bad publicity

In a shock move, the council has decided to issue wheelie bins after reading Eastcliffs Blog and noticing a couple of photographs showing thousands of bins they’d forgotten about littering Ramsgate Harbour.

Thanet council are putting a brave face on things with Cllr. Shirley Tomlinson (Cabinet Member for Environmental Services) saying “This roll-out is part of the council’s ongoing work to try and get as many properties as possible on to the wheeled bin scheme and has been planned for some time.” Yeah rigtheo!

Planned for some time I’m sure but why haven’t they mentioned it previously, how come Sandy Ezekiel didn’t think to mention this a couple of weeks ago when he was advising us to go and buy our own bins, on his “one man crusade” Click here for Thisiskent story

New collections will be starting during September through to November.

Would this of happened, had not some council officer had his memory jogged by reading Eastcliff Richard Blog I think not. see his story click here

Hotel Inspector visits Margate's Walpole Bay Hotel

A rare event last nights Channel 5 show Hotel inspector, a reality makeover/business improvement programme which actually achieved, what it set out to do.

The advice given to the Walpole Bay Hotel by the expert hotel inspector, is for once followed up to a point (at least till the cameras stopped filming) and even more unusually for this type of show which focused on a family business, the family emerges with purpose and self respect.

Often these shows seem to trash the businesses and the families or owners, this seemed to steer clear of that cliché, I’m thinking in particular of that effing moron Gordon Whatisface who terms up in restaurants' ostensibly to save them but is such a drama queen, that the participants lose any interest they might have had.

Unfortunately few hotels still exist as independently run, outside the bland chains and a hotel with individual character and charm must be a real draw when set against those grim roadside Inns and Lodges.

Unlike the visit by the BBC’s “Apprentice” a few months ago this programme was without the usual cringe making moments and there seemed no negative comments about Margate. In fact I think everyone including Jane Bishop and her family emerged with their dignity intact. Well done!

Click here to see the show on Demand Five

Press Release From John Worrow

John Worrow asked if I could put up his side of the issue with Himself & Cllr Mark Nottingham in fairness I am happy to oblige.

 

 

Cllr Mark Nottingham is on the pay roll of a Labour Party Euro-MP from London, and as a professional political manager is clearly very familiar with the work undertaken by New Labour Spin Doctors.

 

I am a parish councillor, a community volunteer, and serve my village on an unpaid part time basis.

 

Recently the Vice Chairman of Birchington Parish Council, asked me to stand in for him at a public meeting of KIACC (Kent International Airport Consultative Committee) as he was unable to attend; the leader of KCC was also unable to attend.

 

At the meeting, the Chairman of KIACC proposed a motion to report KCC's leader to the county council's Standards Committee for being unable to attend the meeting. I voted against this, as I did not believe it to be a standards issue.

 

A number of Labour district councillors were in the public area and it appears reported back to Mark Nottingham, after which he span his own web report.

 

 As a Political manager for NEW LABOUR, Mark Nottingham is no doubt very good at spin, after all he is on the pay role of a London Euro-MP;

 as a voluntary parish councillor who voted the way I chose at a meeting, I wonder why I am singled out for attack? 

Is Cllr Nottingham afraid to attack the likes of the leader of KCC as he has a greater power to bite back?

 

A number of Liberal and Conservative MP's have been victims of professional SPIN DOCTORS who belittle and ridicule their victims.

 

Why won't Mark Nottingham pick on someone his own political size, why is he so afraid of a part time village councillor?

 

There will be no standards complaint; I cannot stomach further waste of public money on the politics of the playground. Bully on, Cllr Nottingham, the only person you are belittling is yourself.

 

John Worrow

Parish Councillor for the Village of Birchington

 

Freedom to Blog?

Those who read local Blogs, will be aware of some of the “players” in local politics, however most residents would be hard pressed to name the leader of the council (Cllr Ezekiel) and if you mentioned Cllr Mark Nottingham or Parish Cllr John Worrow and ask the average Thanitian who are they ? , a blank expression would, most likely be the reaction.

Myself I know that Mark Nottingham is a professional Labour politician and local councillor (TDC), I also know that I don’t always agree with him, Parish cllr John Worrow I have to say I’m fairly hazy on, although I vaguely recall he represented the “Grey Party?” and sometime after joined the Tories and currently serves on Birchington Parish council.

Now why should you give a toss, well it seems a little spat has developed between the two, apparently Parish cllr John Worrow is so incensed he has sent a communication to Cllrs Hart, Mc Castree and Ezekiel, refering to cyber bullying etc. I wont go into to many details myself other than to say that this line “Dressed in a very similar fashion to Roger Latchford, he appeared to some to be a "mini-me" of his mentor.” from Mark Nottingham’s blog (Click here) apparently this led Cllr John Worrow (a man of some stature and importance in the community ) to make a complaint to the Standards Board.

Now for the benefit of those who don’t know, the Standards Board (of England) is a creation of that great political thinker John Prescott, but basically it is supposed to improve on the ethically conduct of politicians, such as interpersonal skills or lack of them, myself however consider it as a waste of money, and more importantly often an insult to the freedom of speech.

Incidentally I was told by one wild eyed Tory, that the cost of the last investigation into Sandy Ezekiel and his colleague, was thirty grand plus for a firm of solicitors to examine the claim, not allowing for TDC’s officers adding their time, this same person, then told me that all bloggers were parasites, I would have reported this councillor to the standards board myself were it not for my own higher standards.

I’ve written often enough about the Standards Board and you can search earlier controversy in this blog, I just worry that some political parties just don’t like free speech, currently TDC are developing a “blogging policy” it will be interesting to see how far they’ll go to stifle debate, I for one am only to aware of just how far and how low, Conservatives local authorities will go to silence you.

To all politicians irrespective of who they are, who they think they are, there is only one response, to give them if there trying to stop you expressing yourself, BLOG OFF!

Anyway a copy of recent correspondence from Parrish Councillor John Worrow has been received by Bignews Margate earlier today and was apparently sent to Thanet’s political leaders and is displayed below, I think you will agree with me it shows a sense of maturity and proportion that is rarely seen in public life.

That correspondence below and Marks Blog here

Dear Cllrs Hart, Mc Castree and Ezekiel

As TDC group leaders, I am sure that each of you will acknowledge that you have a moral responsibility to ensure that your members do not engage in cyber bullying.

As local government representatives we all have a duty to set an example to young Internet users.

A number of parish, town and district colleagues have expressed the view that new rules are needed relating to this subject; therefore I feel that it is necessary for TDC councillors to debate the anti-cyber bullying issue at full council, in particular the need to adopt new rules relating to councillors that run their own Internet blogs.

Cyber bullying is insidious; bystanders can become accessories by passing on a humiliating message.

If a council member continues to engage in this destructive activity after being reported, I would expect the leader of the group concerned to take unilateral action against the member.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely

Cllr John Worrow

Birchington Parish Council member

Cc: Cllr John Garland, vice chairman of Birchington Parish Council

Cc: Cllr. Roger Latchford, Birchington North ward councillor

Cc: Cllr. Margaret Sheldrick, Birchington South ward councillor

Cc: Mr. Harvey Patterson, Thanet District Council

Cc: Mrs Colette Colman, Birchington Parish Clerk

PS as some of my more astute readers will know, I am neither a supporter of Labour or Conservative parties.

Dumpton Park Village Green

I’d like to thank the residents of Dumpton Park Road for putting on a first rate event on their village green, part fete and part protest.

The protests stems from the way in which, the planning department of Thanet District Council, have handled matters concerning a parcel of land in Dumpton Park Road details of which are available on the excellent Thanet Strife site.

Notably in what appears the most outrageous lunacy yet from TDC has been the issue of council officers, applying for planning permission on land they don’t own(TDC), and then advising councillors they had better pass the application to prevent legal cost should the applicant (THEMSELVES) appeal against their own decision.

Effectively one presumes that the planning department are quite serious in suggesting that they would act against the democratic wishes of elected councillors.

This being the case I suggest that the Leader of the council Sandy Ezekiel, might just ask Richard Samuel, the chief executive to come and explain to him what the hell’s going on.

Again I’d like to thank the residents for arranging a thoroughly civilised event, in attendance were various ward councillors, Stephen Ladyman MP made a very reasonable speech.

I wish them luck with their attempt to have land in question given village green status.

What’s occurring this weekend

I see a stage has been set up on the parade opposite Margate harbour, not sure what its about? has the Margate town partnership web address but am none the wiser. Its not big sky, Thanet Pride or the quad bikes?

Still what I do know is that the big event this weekend will be the “Village Fete” in Dumpton this weekend.

“All that is necessary for evil to succeed is that good people do nothing.”

Edmund Burke

Thanet District Council is attempting to give itself planning permission for a 4-bedroom house upon land for which it holds no freehold title. Despite 18 months of evidenced, legal argument against it, the planning department pursues its course despite being forced to temporarily withdraw it at a full Council meeting on 23 April. For the full story so far, visit www.thanetstrife.blogspot.com and read ‘The Extraordinary Conduct of TDC in Dumpton Park Drive’ parts 1 – 4.

If you’ve ever said to yourself things like, “How do they get away with it? … What can you do? … Something should be done“ about whatever story of injustice you’ve read or heard, here’s a chance to help support people who decided to pay attention to Edmund Burke’s words.

Come and join us on Saturday 11^th July from 2.00pm.

Along with many thousands of pounds spent in legal advice against TDC, your neighbours have applied to KCC to have the ‘open land’ between 132 & 134 Dumpton Park Drive, Broadstairs given ‘Village Green’ status. This area, which TDC does not own, has been taken for granted as a pleasant green space and a community asset and focal point in this stretch of Dumpton Park Drive for over 40 years. TDC does not own it therefore it cannot sell it, why then is it attempting to grant planning permission to itself? We invite you to show solidarity with your neighbours and join them in free refreshments. Let’s show we’re a community rather than just the providers of cash for the Council to run itself to its own agenda. Dr Steve Ladyman MP for South Thanet will be making a speech and our Ward Councillors will be in attendance.

We look forward to meeting you and enjoying our summer garden party.

If you require any further information, please contact 603368.

Front Page Disgrace see the inside story

I wonder if anyone else gets the irony, Page 1 Former PE master jailed for running a brothel, turn to the back pages and look under Adult Services and crikey! look what their advertising, “massage services” yes that’s right, complimentary medicine, if I’m not mistaken, somewhere to relieve those stresses and strains of modern life.

I know that some cynics would assume massage services meant something else like prostitution but then the Isle of Thanet Gazette, is ultimately part of the group that publishes the Daily Mail (DMGT), and I’m sure they wouldn’t be involved in the sex industry.

Britain is rife with hypocrisy, and this might well be case, as we all know, the sex trade exists but rather than regulate the industry, its criminalised, which in turn fosters other crime like drugs and people trafficking.

I understand that the couple involved in the running of this brothel, were caught as a result of the police investigating people trafficking, although the judge accepted that they were not involved with trafficking, underage girls, coercion or corruption.

Interestingly the Gazette fails to the mention running costs for the brothel which were £780 with £1,400 on advertising, KentOnline clearly are not as squeamish in their report, I suppose the Gazette have their reasons although I understand that advertising policy is separate from the editorial side of things.

Judge Adele Williams is quoted in the Gazette "You and your wife controlled these prostitutes. You placed advertisements in papers and rotas were organised.

"This was organised prostitution which is a criminal offence. I accept that there is no evidence of coercion or corruption and there were no illegal immigrants or underage girls, but you did this for money.

For the Gazettes story click here alternatively buy a copy and support local journalists.

Margate’s new car park

It appears that since Thanet council has done nothing to replace recently lost parking spaces in Margate (Rendezvous Site) that nature has now filled the void and the Market Place in the old town has now become a new car park.

Whilst this is handy for motorists it does seem to detract from a part of Margate which looks better when not cluttered with vans and cars.

Along with an uneven refuse collection service, parking is another one of those policy area’s which hardly bother the local council officers or councillors.

Margate high street businesses have over the years been starved of customers by a two pronged attack, by TDC, on the one hand, the multi story car park in Mill Lane is commandeered Monday to Friday by well paid council staff for free (necessary since many senior staff choose not to live in Thanet) this leaves only expensive short term on street parking patrolled by predatory council jobsworths.

EASTCLIFF’S LATE BREAKING NEWS

There is breaking news and breaking news, ECR who rarely visits this part of the web, has on Thanet’s other top Blog, Eastcliff Richard a “Breaking news feature”, unfortunately for him, its not as quite farm fresh, as he might think, since it refers to the extraordinary decision of KCC to extend the life of KENT TV.

The story was covered at some length (yawn!) on Bignews back on the Tuesday 30th June but its fair to say that the story ECR links to by Paul Francis serves up the facts in a more professional and agreeable form than is likely on these pages.

Tory Sleeze ?- Cameron in Communications error?

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, according to the Guardian was editor at a time, when staff on the paper, were involved in illegally intercepting phone messages of some 3,000 politicians and celebrities according to the Guardian Newspaper.

David Cameron has taken the brave if stupid move to confirm that Mr Coulson’s job as communications director is safe “Yes of course” says Cameron.

Of course its rare, that politicians think before speaking but perhaps one of Mr Cameron’s colleagues could have just pondered on this, what sort of Editor or even communications director, wouldn’t know what his staff were working on.

Surely as Editor of NOTW, you might expect Mr Coulson to ask colleagues “got anything for this weeks paper?”, you’d think a reply “I’m just going through phone intercepts of 3000 top knobs” might just ring a bell.

Cameron’s loyalty might well go down well with a few traditional gin swilling Tory boys but mainstream opinion wont be so generous.

Maybe Cameron has arrange for Mr Coulson to take a break or resign later in the day, and maybe he’ll be calling for an inquiry into more corruption in the Metropolitan Police.

Not something heard everyday “I’ll be back” @Turner Contemporary Project Space

“I’ll be back” or similar words were exchanged with staff from one satisfied visitor to the current exhibition “Turner Contemporary Open 2009” just prior to that statement, I was thinking the same myself.

For me this particular exhibition has been, the best so far, clearly representing as it does, some talented locals, I get the impression, that their is a certain amount of distain for local talent, since unlike previous exhibitions it doesn’t apparently warrant any PR puff from the in house Press Department, probably working under strict guidelines from the arts councils.

The superabundant or as I prefer super redundant earlier exhibition inspired no less than six “press kits”, possibly as it was so brain numbingly awful, one enterprising “artist” having acquired a job lot of bathroom scales, albeit from IKEA, I think, laid these out in geometric pattern in some artistic expression, that was beyond me and I suspect any rational person.

Art is obviously subject to personal foibles, experience, conditioning, education. Its rare to see so many linger at the project space and for once its well worth a visit.

It would be nice to see this “open” become a regular feature of the Turner Contemporary, since big money contemporary art as found in say the Tate Modern, is for me mainly crap, a view, I think shared by most outside of the “art world”.

Do your self a favour and go along and take a gander, after all, this is work of either locals or artist trained in Kent and since one way or another you’ll be paying for this (Turner Contemporary), you might as well get your moneys worth. Enjoy!

Who runs Kent Council?

I was going to ask who wears the trousers but that seemed flippant, anyhow I do often ponder who actually controls Kent County council, and since I'm no expert I just wonder what role that politicians actually play, in governing our county.

I'll give you an example, Paul Francis political editor for KM group, reports on the decision to extend Kent TV's contract for a further six months, citing that the decision, was agreed by chief executive Peter Gilroy, although Cllr Roger Gough KCC's cabinet member for corporate service appears to want, to at least, think about the situation "....any decision to let the contract beyond March 2010 will follow on from a review."

Still the board of Kent TV seem to feel a new contract for Kent TV is a done deal, this from the last published minutes "The contract has been extended to March 2010 to ensure that a review can happen before the re-tender process starts in September 2009."

Peter Gilroy might just wish to check, as I recall that when Kent TV was first mooted, Paul Carter the elected leader of KCC was himself much connected with the original decision to go ahead, as far as I can tell at the moment, it would appear that the Tory leadership, have little stomach for the sometime controversial Kent TV, particularly given the negative press, it managed to create for itself.

To see how committed Conservatives were to Kent TV, I looked at the recent Tory manifesto, which had no reference to Kent TV and certainly no proposal to extend the thing.

High hopes like this from a briefing document presented to KCC Cabinet April 2007 seem as optimistic as the day they were written “Income generation (see paragraph 4) may not meet expectations initially.This is low risk as we have already received significant interest insponsorship and the company providing Kent TV will have a role in generating income.” just a pity the sponsorship never materialised!

You can read the whole Kent TV briefing document from 2007 and see how naive it might have been.

PS has anyone seen any solid evidence of savings bought about by Kent TV?

Transeuropa Shipping Lines* No Comment – Eurovoyager operation of watertight doors “ineffective”

An inquiry into a serious accident resulting in a crush injury to a crew member aboard the Eurovoyager, operating between Ostend and Ramsgate has revealed serious safety worries involving operation of the ships watertight safety doors.

On November 3^rd last year, a crew member was trapped when one of the ships watertight doors closed crushing him, he was found unconscious, by another member of crew some four minutes after.

During the investigation, the UK's Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) , discovered that ship had sailed on several occasions with watertight doors, left in the open position, as evidenced by the ships Voyage Data Recorder therefore making them “ineffective” (according to MAIB’s report)

The BBC's report claims the company TransEuropa Shipping Lines will not be commenting, which seems to be a bit short sighted on the old PR front.

Given some terrible occurrences to ships in the past, you might think a quick statement to acknowledge earlier shortcomings and a promise that you'll do what is necessary in the future would be a minimum response.

Anyway take a gander at the MIAB report by clicking here

*TSL is a sister company to TransEuropa Ferries N.V.