The picture above taken today (click on it to enlarge) shows our one and only new beach hut in use, the council officer sitting in it is being paid out of our council tax to stop people from jumping from the fish quay into the harbour.What is wrong with this?
Firstly as you can clearly see in the picture someone is jumping into the harbour, from the fish quay, behind the hut.
Secondly they have put one young female council officer on her own in the beach hut, with no authority to enforce anyone from doing anything they want, the youf don’t seem to like being told not to do what they want to do, at the moment their reaction is limited giving her verbal abuse. My own opinion is that the person in most danger here is the council officer.
Thirdly the beach hut is facing away from the fish quay, so she can’t even see what is going on properly.
The proper solution here is to encourage our youf in this healthy activity by putting up a proper diving board supervised by a lifeguard and offer them proper training in the sport.
Now I come back to the problem of what to do when the council has evidently done something completely crazy, this young women is from one of the European countries Poland of Hungary I would guess from her accent, she is sitting in this hut in the middle of Ramsgate periodically having verbal abuse shouted at her, obscenities, threats and racial abuse.
This isn’t like the Thanet Pride thing yesterday, where accusing the council of homophobia appears to have the desired result i.e. getting the event publicised on the councils homepage. I say this as I also asked them to publicise Ramsgate Carnival in the same way and as they didn’t I can only assume that it was because I couldn’t accuse them of political incorrectness.
I am afraid that this one is one of those insane actions by our council that really annoys me, my take on it is that the council at some high officer or cabinet level has identified that there could be some council liability here if someone is injured jumping in the harbour.
I don’t think there is any sense of the council wishing to protect local people or the wouldn’t have put this officer in an invidious position, much more a case of that they have given someone and impossible job to cover their own backs.
Oh and a few pictures from the camera these are yesterday afternoon http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Julylaptop3/id5.htm these this morning before the fun fair had opened http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Julylaptop3/id6.htm and these this afternoon http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/Julylaptop3/id8.htm
Commenting as an outsider, the activities of your Council appear to have an almost surrealistic aspect to them.
ReplyDeletein line with paying the director of the turner centre £80K per year for 10 years before it opens, it all sums tdc up very well.
ReplyDeleteA bit like build a new shopping centre and then spend millions on a new link road taking people away from thanet or by passing it completely. tdc must be the ultimate enemy within, by the time they have finished there will be nothing for thanetians born and bred.
Should be enough to prove that if anyone gets hurt, it was their fault in as much that they ignored advice about the dangers.
ReplyDeleteI was taught that people in the water in a working harbour is a bad idea, but this advice was given by people I respected and knew what they were talking about. This looks like a missed opportunity not to have asked if there any organisations who could have combined advice and also the chance to promote their association. I am thinking about the lifeboat, yacht club or sports clubs who might be able to set up sporting activities on the beaches (east & west)
You've missed the most important element of this ludicrous stunt Michael, it's ticked another box and tick boxes are what careers are built on in TDC. If you get enough of them you can hide a whole career and associated pension behind them!
ReplyDeleteAbout the picture:
ReplyDeleteThe words 'local government' and 'incompetence' are and always have been synonymous.
The old adage used to to that if you pay peanuts you get monkeys. Evidence suggests that we now pay them a lot more than peanuts regrettably with no improvement in competence.
It would nice if tdc invested some of the millions they have collared from the wind farms in doing something for the local young people, maybe a diving raft moored off the main beach would be a good idea.
ReplyDeleteAbout the life raft: No can do, elf n safety you see.
ReplyDeleteThere used to be one, long ago.
Perhaps a swimming pool wouldn't be a bad idea.
ReplyDeleteOh No thats been cancelled.!
Margate gets £17.5million for Turner Contemporary.
Ramsgate gets £175 garden shed.
Seems fair? keep paying your council tax.? Margate will be marvellous????
Pat M, I think modern art is certainly an influence on local government here.
ReplyDeleteIt works like this I think, they want £100 to remove another parking space, they discuss this for hours and the put it to a further meeting as they all know what a parking space is and what it does they all have something to say about it.
They are asked to provide £1m to fund a modern art project that involves digging a series of holes in the beach, none of them understands modern art and so the don’t wish to appear stupid and pass it immediately.
10.15 I think the point here is that the money being spent isn’t stopping them going in the water and if a local group wants to tech them to dive properly the fish quay is about the only safeish place in Ramsgate.
5.50 I don’t think diving from a raft is a practical solution here, it would have to be too far out to get sufficient depth.
John I think there was only a swim out to and jump off raft, not one with a raised diving board on it, please correct me if I am wrong.
Readit, in the course of my correspondence with various members and officers, I am coming to the conclusion that they are blissfully unaware that this could be a problem, or that Ramsgate people perceive that they are getting a raw deal.
Has the swimming pool been cancelled?
Sorry, Michael on re-visiting the source of my information it should say "postponed" not "cancelled".
ReplyDeleteQuote from Cllr Bayford's interview with the Gazette
"One thing that will not now happen in the next financial year is the building of a new Ramsgate swimming pool. Mr Bayford pledged the project, would happen, but not by March".
But top ten important schemes like painting Margate lighthouse will proceed
Many more gems on Manston and Asset disposal can be read here
http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/news/Leader-reflects-60-days-power/article-2420182-detail/article.html
You are correct, Michael. It was just a jump off raft.
ReplyDeleteI expect that TDC erected the hut facing the wrong way by mistake; and now they are unable to correct their error for fear of losing face.
John the lady's not for turning.
ReplyDelete