Friday 3 July 2015

Pleasurama, Damaging Ramsgate Town Centre, what are the new UKIP administration up to and so on some correspondence

On Tuesday and as I hadn’t heard anything further after hearing that the customer feed back questions about Pleasurama would be dealt with early last week I sent the council the email below.

From: michaelchild@aol.com [mailto:michaelchild@aol.com]
Sent: 30 June 2015 13:06
To: Edwina Crowley; cllr-Chris Wells; casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk; TDC Customer Services; TDC FOI; Cllr-Helen Smith; Cllr-John Townend; Cllr-Suzanne Brimm; Cllr-Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing; Cllr-Lin Fairbrass
Subject: Re: Pleasurama update

Hi Edwina I think the 10 working days for the customer feedback response must be up about now, sorry to be a pain but a reply would be nice.

Best regards Michael

The reply I got said that there would be even more delays, email below.


-----Original Message-----
From: Edwina Crowley
To: 'michaelchild@aol.com' ; cllr-Chris Wells ; casework ; TDC Customer Services ; TDC FOI ; Cllr-Helen Smith ; Cllr-John Townend ; Cllr-Suzanne Brimm ; Cllr-Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing ; Cllr-Lin Fairbrass
Sent: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 11:32
Subject: RE: Pleasurama update

Dear Mr Childs

We are preparing a press release to be published so that we can keep members of the public fully informed of the current situation, this will give details of the project timeline, contact information,  an estimate of the business rates and council tax income that will be received once it is developed and confirm again the positive effect this development will have on the local economy.  This should be on our web site early next week and will give you more information.  In the meantime I answer your customer feedback questions below.

We will deal with all other requests through the FOI system which will be returned to you direct, although I note that you have received significant information before, so it will only be updates.

Regards
Edwina

To be honest my patience is running out on this one, so I bunged off the reply below, redacted, for legal reasons;

From: michaelchild
To: Edwina.Crowley ; cllr-Chris.Wells ; casework ; Customer.Services ; FOI ; Cllr-Helen.Smith ; Cllr-John.Townend ; Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm ; Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing ; Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass ; mstannard ; lgo
Sent: Thu, 2 Jul 2015 16:44
Subject: Re: Pleasurama update


Thank you Edwina, I look forward to reading the press release, latest doing the rounds on Facebook sic, we love Ramsgate – was friends of Ramsgate seafront, is. “The overage payment of £*** is being paid to TDC minus the cost of Cardy doing the work on the Cliff Face. As this point of payment the Freehold then changes hands and becomes Cardy's as simultaneously they will have bought out SFP. So SFP will not be a Company Registered at Companies House in the very near future..........or so we hope.”

Accurate rumour, something you have already published, something leaked from the council, I don’t know, you may wish to send mw any corrections so I can quash any unfounded rumours there.

On the foi front, I should like to stress here that the complete list of the documents (part of my request) is important to me, so I can draw a line at this point and not request documents that I have already got, it also makes it much easier for me to review documents I have been refused. I should like also to stress that I will not accept the refusal of information based on the grounds that I am asking for an opinion, which isn’t available under foi and should have been supplied as customer feedback.

Where this puts me in a difficult situation is that your opinions on the Pleasurama situation that you haven’t supplied within the 10 working days customer feedback best practice, has now been shifted to a 20 working days foi response, and in view of you previous email promising me you would deal with the customer feedback aspect in a timely manner, I am now asking for a further review of the customer feedback part of the request, as I will need this to take any issues up with the LGO.  
Best regards Michael 

Anyway there is load more email correspondence related to this I have pasted some of it below, and as it’s email the oldest is at the bottom.

From: michaelchild
To: michaelchild ; cllr-Chris.Wells
CC: Cllr-John.Townend ; Cllr-Helen.Smith ; Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm ; Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing ; Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass
Sent: Fri, 3 Jul 2015 14:22
Subject: King Street Refuse Collection

To TDC Cabinet Members, open letter for publication on the internet today, any replies of acknowledgments you care to make will also be published in full without any editing, unless you expressly say "Not For Publication" in the email subject field.  

OK guys, it seems you don't want to say anything about converting the ground floor of a shop in Ramsgate Town Centre to social housing, and as your administration seems to be saying that you won't comment on local issues, I can't actually tell if you are doing anything about it or intend to do anything about it. I guess my only course now it to put in a complaint to the council about it, which I will do.

One of the more peculiar actions of the previous Labour administrations was to move the domestic rubbish collection here in King Street Ramsgate, where I am trading, or at least trying to trade, from early on a Tuesday morning (6 or 7 am) to around about lunchtime on Friday, which is market day and theoretically the busiest trading day of the week.

Perhaps it was something I said to them and they hoped that this sort of action would cause me to go bankrupt and therefore stop writing them emails like this one and publishing their replies, if any, on the internet. Possibly they had so much running on Margate succeeding, that they thought anything they could do to damage Ramsgate town shopping centre, would divert people to Margate and help regeneration there. Perhaps they were just bonkers, what do you think?

Now one delight of housing people on the ground floor in a street where the takeaways are licensed until 4am, is that people regurgitate their kebabs and pizzas on your bedroom windows in the early hours of the morning, or if they are very high on whatever the have drunk or taken, they occasional put a brick through your window.

Strangely enough this results in the type of tenants that have difficulty getting accommodation elsewhere and in tern, difficult to believe I know, as the entrance to all of the apartments is on the ground floor, soon the tenants upstairs decide, that what the tenants downstairs leave in hall, means that they move out leaving the whole building full of people who can't get accommodation elsewhere.



Something endemic in tenants who have difficulty getting accommodation is that they don't bother to use their seagull proof rubbish sacks, photos attached, before and after the street cleaners who keep clearing it up (which means they can't clean up elsewhere in Ramsgate) the seagulls have a different approach to the black sack full of half eaten convenience food.    

I guess if you are familiar with Ramsgate you know the joke about nude buxom sculptures which adorn The Royal Victoria Pavilion. One night they come to life and rush round the back into the darkness for the fulfilment of their desirers, having stared - unable to move - at each other's fulsome and unadorned bodies since 1904. A few grunts and an irate squawk are heard coming from behind the Pav, followed by a voice saying. "OK, it's my turn. You hold the seagull down and I'll do it, on it."

Anyway as the UKIP shop is further up the road, you may have views on this one, perhaps one of the UKIP party members said something during the previous Labour administration that they didn’t like or didn’t agree with and this could be the reason.

So where are we going on this one guys, are you going to send out some sort of signal that you will look into the matter or even do something about it? Would it be better for me to bypass councillors altogether and use the two weeks for a reply, customer feedback system, where experience tells me that this will probably result in getting a response saying that it will be dealt with as an foi request which takes a month?

I do see that there is an inherent danger in discussing anything to do with seagulls, in case you say anything politically or environmentally incorrect, or I guess just damnright rude.                       
Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: michaelchild
To: cllr-Chris.Wells
CC: Cllr-John.Townend ; Cllr-Helen.Smith ; Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm ; Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing ; Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass
Sent: Wed, 1 Jul 2015 10:54
Subject: Re: Pleasurama update

Mornin Chris, I guess nothing would give me more pleasure than a strong silent council with a decisive and reasonable plan, where we had confidence that councillors had a real grip on local issues and were quietly improving the situation.

My take is that this doesn’t appear to be happening, that councillors in the successful councils around the uk are behaving like elected representatives and not paid officers, particularly in terms of using social media to communicate with the electorate.

So say looking on your facebook page, where I would expect to find information about the new administration, links to other councillor's social media and some idea of the direction the council is hoping to move in, what I actually find is pictures of your gardening activities.

The point with my blog is that it already has a considerable local readership and I have a very good history of deleting abusive, libellous and spam comments there, so the situation where you say something and the comment becomes abusive is overcome because I delete it and there is no. "You have deleted my comment because you disagreed with it" etc for you to deal with.

This makes it a useful tool for councillors in some instances, particularly as councillors can send me information and I can publish it, saying that the information came from a councillor, without naming that councillor, which can take the personal conflicts out of the situation.

When I say that I am concerned that the councillors have gone into hiding, this isn't because of you all going very quiet, so much as the council's actions and inactions since the change of administration.

The demolition of a shop in the town centre, I would say is an action that we can all see and send out a clear message.

With the airport, as you know I have long supported a regional passenger airport at Manston, however building and airfreight hub and aircraft scrap yard under the banner of saving the airport, is another matter altogether.

My take is that where the previous Labour administration really screwed up on this one, was not holding a public consultation, with the results weighted towards TDC taxpayers. Even something simple like, do you want; passenger airport - freight hub - scrapyard - housing - light industry, would give the council some sort of mandate, to at least do their best, to do what the electorate actually want. 

With Pleasurama, it's the unexplained inaction that I think is most damaging to the council. When you were in the Conservative cabinet the conservative administration issued a press release recommending a flood risk assessment be carried out. Now the foundations for the new development there are resting on the old sand beach held in place by the 1860 council owned sea defence (I have it in writing from the council's engineer that there is no maintenance record for the sea defence). Obviously as the councils owns the sea defence, you could get a reputable firm to do a flood risk assessment there, you were a KCC councillor, so you know about doing this well or badly, when the first Turner Centre model was washed away KCC called in the top firm in the country, HR Wallingford to produce a decent flood risk assessment, why not use them, doing so would immediately resolve half the Pleasurama safety issues.

Conversely if following a Labour administration you have discovered that they have blown the kitty, then publicly announce that you are endeavouring to transfer the sea defence to the Environment Agency, I guess they would at least offer an opinion on it as the have already strongly recommend the action be taken on this one see http://michaelsbookshop.com/ea/id2.htm

Yours is the first UKIP council in the country, there is really only one direction that councils can go in should they wish to be seen as good in today's environment - openness, communication, transparency are the watchwords.

It does occur to me that you could set up a leaders blog and I could help you with the settings for dealing with adverse comment, so you would have total control over it, obviously I would be happy to help with this in any way I can, always the main problem though is either finding something to post about every day, or a new picture, which isn't of your lunch or gardening to accompany it, oh and of course dealing with the comment.                               

Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: cllr-Chris Wells < cllr-Chris.Wells@THANET.GOV.UK>
To: michaelchild < michaelchild@aol.com>
CC: Cllr-John Townend < Cllr-John.Townend@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Helen Smith < Cllr-Helen.Smith@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Suzanne Brimm < Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing < Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Lin Fairbrass < Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass@THANET.GOV.UK>
Sent: Tue, 30 Jun 2015 23:24
Subject: Re: Pleasurama update

Dear Michael

You are right, the old ways of enmity and traded favours are indeed history. And that of course includes the access your good self had to information from Councillors who popped into your shop for a cup of tea, or wanted you to push a particular line in your blog.

You will hear answers when everyone else does, and not by other means.

Regards

Chris Wells

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jun 2015, at 18:48, " michaelchild@aol.com" < michaelchild@aol.com> wrote:

John, pardon me querying this, but I am just checking that your reply was intended for publication, as I pretty sure Pleasurama comes under your portfolio.

I will be frank here, when UKIP was first elected I thought that finally the old TDC history of enmities and favours had been broken.

I became slightly worried when you elected Chris Wells as leader, partly because he was a member of the Ezekiel cabinet, partly because he appears in The Gazette bankruptcy listing which I use in my business to check potential creditors https://www.thegazette.co.uk/notice/L-60774-1991026 and partly because of his poor attendance record. 

Anyway I held back on this issue to see how the council progressed, I guess my main measurement of this was to see how the shop opposite mine progressed, as before the election Trevor Shonk was saying that this particularly piece Orwellian Labour lunacy would be resolved by the new UKIP administration if they got into power.

I guess you know that under the Labour administration the council purchased the largest and only empty shop in an otherwise fully let shopping parade which includes Ramsgate’s highest ranking restaurant on Tripadvisor, and is opposite the newly opened microbrewery pub. It is very close to the main shopping car park and the only substantial town centre car park that most women will use, the multi-storey smells of urine and certainly none of the women in my family would use it.

We expected a farmers market, but the council gave themselves planning consent to turn all of it into social housing, including bedrooms on the ground floor, with windows facing onto the pavement, in a town centre street where the same council have licensed the takeaways until 4am.

It’s hard to say if the Labour council most disliked Ramsgate or the people they intend to house there, I asked both Liz and David Green to speak against it at the planning committee, but they refused so I assumed it was a done deal.

Now the demolition continues there a pace and I haven’t seen Trevor recently, so I don’t know if anything is going on.

On Friday I opened the paper and was initially please to see that Chris Wells had a column there, until I discovered that it was about KCC the council that he failed to get elected to.

We have now reached such a point of silence from the councillors that I am beginning to wonder what, if anything is going on, when the main local employer Discovery Park recently held a presentation, there didn’t seem to be any representation from councillors, and it seems that the main priority is to engage in buying the airport using the cpo process, so that an American company fronted by a solicitor who was struck off for misappropriating clients funds, can build an airfreight hub we can’t fly from.

I guess that I should thank you as the only cabinet member who responded to my email, but frankly it just doesn’t inspire confidence that that our new councillors have done anything more than gone into hiding in case one of them should say anything politically incorrect.              

Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: Cllr-John Townend < Cllr-John.Townend@THANET.GOV.UK>
To: michaelchild < michaelchild@aol.com>
CC: cllr-Chris Wells < cllr-Chris.Wells@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Helen Smith < Cllr-Helen.Smith@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Suzanne Brimm < Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing < Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Lin Fairbrass < Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass@THANET.GOV.UK>
Sent: Tue, 30 Jun 2015 16:52
Subject: Re: Pleasurama update

Michael

I am in receipt of your email and will follow this up with Edwina Crowley.

 Regards 

John Townend

Sent from my iPad

On 30 Jun 2015, at 13:46, " michaelchild@aol.com" < michaelchild@aol.com> wrote:

To all TDC cabinet members, I am just wondering what is going on here, in the past council emails for publication on my blog, which gets about 1,000 reads a day that were CCd to cabinet members always elicited numerous responses from cabinet members, some for publication and some marked as not for publication.

Obviously this is a reasonable request about a significant local issue that is the result of various failings by previous administrations, so I am wondering why I haven't heard anything from any of you

Could you at least kindly acknowledge the receipt of this email so I can be sure your email accounts are actually working?      

Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: michaelchild < michaelchild@aol.com>
To: Edwina.Crowley < Edwina.Crowley@THANET.GOV.UK>; cllr-Chris.Wells < cllr-Chris.Wells@THANET.GOV.UK>; casework < casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk>; Customer.Services < Customer.Services@THANET.GOV.UK>; FOI < FOI@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Helen.Smith < Cllr-Helen.Smith@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-John.Townend < Cllr-John.Townend@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm < Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing < Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass < Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass@THANET.GOV.UK>
Sent: Tue, 30 Jun 2015 13:06
Subject: Re: Pleasurama update

Hi Edwina I think the 10 working days for the customer feedback response must be up about now, sorry to be a pain but a reply would be nice.

Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: Edwina Crowley < Edwina.Crowley@THANET.GOV.UK>
To: ' michaelchild@aol.com' < michaelchild@aol.com>; cllr-Chris Wells < cllr-Chris.Wells@THANET.GOV.UK>; casework < casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk>; TDC Customer Services < Customer.Services@THANET.GOV.UK>; TDC FOI < FOI@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Helen Smith < Cllr-Helen.Smith@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-John Townend < Cllr-John.Townend@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Suzanne Brimm < Cllr-Suzanne.Brimm@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing < Cllr-Hunter.Stummer-Schmertzing@THANET.GOV.UK>; Cllr-Lin Fairbrass < Cllr-Lin.Fairbrass@THANET.GOV.UK>
Sent: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 14:05
Subject: RE: Pleasurama update

Dear Mr Childs,

We confirm receipt of your email.

This request will be considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and uploaded through our system to deal with this, we will provide a response through this system to you within the 20 day period.

Im caught up most of this week but will  respond on the other matters early next week.
Regards
Edwina

Edwina Crowley MRICS
Head of Economic Development and Asset Management
Thanet District Council
PO Box 9, Cecil Street
Margate
Kent   CT9 1XZ
Tel:  01843 577646
Mob:  07810 507140




From: michaelchild@aol.com [mailto:michaelchild@aol.com]
Sent: 17 June 2015 13:52
To: Edwina Crowley; cllr-Chris Wells; casework@ico.gsi.gov.uk; TDC Customer Services; TDC FOI; Cllr-Helen Smith; Cllr-John Townend; Cllr-Suzanne Brimm; Cllr-Hunter Stummer-Schmertzing; Cllr-Lin Fairbrass
Subject: Pleasurama update

Hi Edwina, please ensure I receive conformation of your receipt of this email today.
This email is a request for an update on the situation with the Pleasurama development in Ramsgate, as I don’t know what the current situation is apart from there having been no activity on the site, when I guess activity was expected, it will have to be a fairly general request.
Under foi legislation:
1 Could you please send me any documents relating to the Pleasurama development that have become available since you last email below?
2 As I don’t know what documents have been withheld from me and why and what documents would be available to me if I knew what to ask for, could you please send me a complete list of the Pleasurama Royal Sands documents that the council have on file?
As a customer feedback request:
1 Could you please explain to me the councils opinion as to where we stand with this project, especially: a Is it perceived as being on schedule, b Is it perceived as deliverable, c Is it perceived as economically and environmentally viable.
2 With reference to your statement in the email below, relating to ongoing cliff façade maintenance for the life of the development "and the access is considered satisfactory for maintenance purposes." Is this based on any concrete information e.g. survey or engineers report? I am particularly concerned here about the council's liability to maintain this structure for what is likely to a period of around 100 years i.e. the life of the development and whether the council would have some form of redress if it proved impossible or prohibitively expensive to maintain the cliff façade from the three metre gap below. As we know from the 2005 engineers report a tower crane can't be used from above.
3 With reference to your statement in the email below: "We are currently considering the recent report, and are planning other investigations but have not completed these yet which is why you have no information on them." Is there any progress and have there been other investigations?  
Best regards Michael

Websites

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/
-----Original Message-----
From: Edwina Crowley
To: 'Michael Child' ; iris.johnston ; cllr-Elizabeth Green
CC: TDC Customer Services ; cllr-David Green ; cllr-Simon Moores ; cllr-Richard Everitt ; cllr-Mike Harrison ; Paul Cook ; Ged Lucas ; Steven Boyle
Sent: Fri, 6 Feb 2015 16:45
Subject: RE: customer feedback request
Dear Mr Childs,

I understand I missed your call but understand that you are asking for a response in connection with your email below.

We have sent you all the reports we have in connection with the cliff wall.  We are currently considering the recent report, and are planning other investigations but have not completed these yet which is why you have no information on them.

I don’t have anything further to add at this stage, it is all work in progress and there really is nothing new to report.

Regards
Edwina

Edwina Crowley MRICS
Head of Economic Development and Asset Management
Thanet District Council
PO Box 9, Cecil Street
Margate
Kent   CT9 1XZ
Tel:  01843 577646
Mob:  07810 507140





From:   Michael Child [mailto:michaelchild@aol.com]
Sent: 26 January 2015 14:36
To: Edwina Crowley; iris.johnston@btinternet.com; cllr-Elizabeth Green
Cc: TDC Customer Services; cllr-David Green; cllr-Simon Moores; cllr-Richard Everitt; cllr-Mike Harrison; Paul Cook; Ged Lucas
Subject: Re: customer feedback request

Hi Edwina
Thank you for the report you sent me.
I am sorry to say I am not entirely happy with your response and am therefore seeking a further review.
With respect to the flood risk, three factors have occurred since planning consent, one is that Ramsgate sands have become significantly denuded greatly reducing the protection to the 1860 sea defence fronting the site, the second being the change from pile bored foundations to the development to pad foundations on sand held in place by the sea defence and third the EA letterhttp://www.michaelsbookshop.com/ea/id2.htm
I does occur to me that I could make economic sense for the council to have an independent fra made of the area as it is the council and not the developer that liable for maintaining the sea defence. The company usually used by local authorities for this is http://www.hrwallingford.com/ they did the fra for Turner Contemporary.
When I spoke to you on the telephone you told me that there would be a seismic survey and I haven’t received the results of this from you.
You also said that this would be an independent survey, however what you sent me is a survey by East Kent Engineering Partnership, essentially the same council officers who signed off the main repair contract that has proved to have been faulty. [Coating badly applied, significant panel failure within a couple of months of the contract ending]
I also note that the report you have sent me seems to be saying by omission, inasmuch as it describes the condition of the foundations for the arched part of the façade, that the foundations for the portal part of the façade shown on the design drawings do not in fact exist in reality and this would appear to need underpinning.
There are several other significant and observable issues that the report has omitted covering, these include the surface of the cliff top above the brick and render part of the façade, the foundation of the centre balustrade the brick and render part of the façade which has been exposed and appears to be on made ground and in need of underpinning.
Can you please confirm the position regarding an independent structural engineers report on the condition of the cliff façade?   
My understanding is that Cardy Construction commissioned an independent report when they started work on the foundations back in 2009/10 and that this report resulted in site workers examining the façade for movement prior to starting work each day for signs of movement, can you please send me a copy of this report and any other reports on the cliff that I haven’t got?
All of the reports I have got are published here in a series of linked pages links at the top http://thanetonline.com/cliff/
Your point that the gap between the development of the cliff façade (4 metres) is sufficient to allow for maintained of the cliff façade for the life of the development is “considered satisfactory” requires further clarification.
Can you please send me the report stating how much space is need between the development and the cliff to allow for future maintenance of the cliff façade?
Obviously during the expected life of the development [80 to 100 years] parts of the façade will have to be removed and replaced and the cost of doing so is most likely to fall on the local authority. I assume that the viability and cost of these repairs are a matter of public interest.
Your point on the withholding information for legal reasons, can you please confirm that this would cover issues relating to the civil engineering of the site infrastructure and the structural integrity of the cliff façade? 


Regards Michael.
On 20/01/2015 07:47, Edwina Crowley wrote:
Dear Michael,

Thank you for this, we have only just received the final report back and it is attached for your information.  Our Engineers are reviewing and will be taking action as necessary.

The scheme has full planning permission to be built out, there is no legal requirement to do a flood risk assessment, and the access is considered satisfactory for maintenance purposes.

At present we are still undertaking a mediation process the details cannot be shared due to legal reasons, however please rest assured that we have informed the HSE of our negotiations and they will be kept informed and asked to visit should the legal’s complete satisfactorily.  We would also ensure a rigorous programme of works that would take into account access and egress limitations and work with the developer to ensure adequate flood risk protection.

I trust this answers your questions.
Regards
Edwina

Edwina Crowley MRICS
Head of Economic Development and Asset Management
Thanet District Council
PO Box 9, Cecil Street
Margate
Kent   CT9 1XZ
Tel:  01843 577646
Mob:  07810 507140




From:   michaelchild@aol.com [mailto:michaelchild@aol.com]
Sent: 19 January 2015 19:33
To: iris.johnston@btinternet.com; cllr-Elizabeth Green
Cc: TDC Customer Services; Edwina Crowley; cllr-David Green; cllr-Simon Moores; cllr-Richard Everitt; cllr-Mike Harrison; Paul Cook
Subject: Re: customer feedback request

Thanks Iris, I think the questions were simple, relevant and as most of the cost of maintaining the infrastructure surrounding the development is likely to fall to the council after is built need answering.   
Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: Iris johnston
To: cllr-Elizabeth Green
CC: michaelchild ; TDC Customer Services ; Edwina Crowley ; cllr-David Green ; cllr-Simon Moores ; cllr-Richard Everitt ; cllr-Mike Harrison ; Paul Cook
Sent: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:17
Subject: Re: customer feedback request
Thank you and sincere apologies Michael,


Liz thank you also for following up.

Please let me know why the delay.

Regards,

Iris



Sent from my iPad

On 19 Jan 2015, at 15:36, cllr-Elizabeth Green wrote:
Hi Michael
Thanks for your email and I can promise you I will look into this immediately and get back to you.
Kind regards
Liz

Sent from my iPad

On 19 Jan 2015, at 14:40, "michaelchild@aol.com" wrote:
Ok chaps my patience has run out on this one, as you can see the initial email on 15 th December 2014 was ccd to the information commissioners office who confirmed they had received it.

Frankly now it doesn’t matter if you are treating it as a foi request or the customer feedback request I originally asked for the time has run out. 

I am expecting confirmation of your receipt of this email and some sort of definite time scale as to when a reply will be forthcoming by return. 

The alternative is the adverse publicity, which I know you can do without and my taking up the request with the information commissioner which wastes both your time and mine. 
Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: TDC Customer Services
To: michaelchild
Sent: Thu, 8 Jan 2015 11:03
Subject: RE: customer feedback request
Good morning

Thank you for your email. I have passed the details through to Edwina Crowley for you today who will respond to you directly.

Kind regards



Customer Services
Thanet District Council
Telephone : 01843 577000
Fax: 01843 577593
www.thanet.gov.uk
email customer.services@thanet.gov.uk



From:   michaelchild@aol.com [mailto:michaelchild@aol.com]
Sent: 07 January 2015 14:39
To: TDC Customer Services
Subject: Fwd: customer feedback request


Best regards Michael

Websites

http://michaelsbookshop.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/

http://www.thanetonline.com/

-----Original Message-----
From: michaelchild
To: customer.services ; casework
Sent: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 11:37
Subject: customer feedback request
 I am writing to you for an update on the Pleasurama site, mainly as there is a certain amount of rumour circulating on the internet.

There are four main areas of interest relating to the civil engineering infrastructure of the project and updates on any of them would be useful at this time.

1 The cliff façade condition survey; is there any progress on this? And if there are any reports that are in the public domain can you please send them to me by email?

2 The flood risk and structural integrity of the sea defence, has any investigation been made into this? The latest information I have on this that the EA strongly recommended a flood risk assessment. Mike Humber emailed me telling me that the sea defence dated from 1860 and the council while being responsible for the maintenance of the sea defence hold no plans or maintenance record for it. This is particularly important now the construction method has been changed from bored piles to pad foundations sitting on sand held in place by the sea defence.

3 Cliff maintenance access, has any assessment been made to ascertain if there is enough space between the proposed development and the cliff façade to maintain the cliff façade for the life of the development? Important as the various surveys of the façade describe it as having a short serviceable life.

4 Road access, has any investigation been made into the psv and hgv access for the development? Mostly this relates to the Marina Road inclined viaduct, which as far as I can see from the plans is to be used for psv and hgv access for the development, once the development is built, despite KCC signing it as unsuitable for construction hgvs.    

Please note I have also sent the above directly to Edwina Crowley.  
Best regards Michael

Websites

http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/


http://www.thanetonline.com/

32 comments:

  1. Michael looking at the emails from Cllr Chris Wells it is patently obvious there is a great deal of antipathy towards you personally and this colours his responses.
    I assume Chris you are still reading Michaels blog so I will address this directly to you as my emails seem to be going unanswered. As Leader of the Council your demeanour does you a disservice as all voters should be treated equally with respect and sympathy.
    Where this relates to Pleasurama which started under Labour in 2002 and continued under the Tories which as you know was under Ezekiel and Latchford and then under Ezekiel and Bayford, as you were in the Cabinet you know this mess has been going on far too long.
    What Michael is trying to do is to elicit a response which is different from previous Cabinets under Tory and Labour however it is turning into groundhog day with the only UKIP Cabinet doing just what previous administrations do which is to revert to ignoring the electorate.

    Please change the way you do business and be open and honest with the electorate.

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  2. Barry I guess the issue here is that I have given all of the councillors a fairly hard time since I started posting about Pleasurama on the internet in 2004 http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/seafront and particularly since I started publishing councillors emails http://www.thanetonline.com/Pleasurama/

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  3. That you have but there is no excuse for rudeness. Most politicians seem to fall into 2 camps dependent on whether they are in opposition or in charge. Chris used to chat on many occasions but now he is in charge guess what.

    This is one reason I distrust politicians as honesty seems to only arrive when they are in opposition

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  4. I always endeavour to keep in mind that not being rude is a two way street.

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  5. Which might explain why you often receive abuse.

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  6. I see Mr Wells is too busy to post

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  7. Barry this is indeed strange, if you go to Google advance search and search the exact phrase Chris Wells and this domain http://thanetonline.blogspot.co.uk/ and its previous web address http://thanetonline.blogspot.com I think you will find he used to comment here a lot. I do hope he isn’t ailing or something.

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  8. I imagine that Chris Wells is conscious of the fact that he has of late given little attention to ThanetOnline; the attention you consider it deserves. I imagine Chris Wells is preoccupied with demanding Council work, such as preparing for the CPO and that sort of thing. You see Chris Wells cannot just have opinions, he also has decisions to make and a responsibilty to take. As opposed to the likes me who can just post away on any old thing as the mood takes me.

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  9. John, me to, having read some of his erudite comment, I find myself truly humbled by our leaders intellect, industriousness and fiscal achievement. I truly feel that the future of Thanet is finally in safe hands and I can slumber peacefully in my snorkel.

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  10. Michael, My apologies. It appears that I may have misled into thinking that I was criticising Chris Wells. I was not; far from it.

    At the risk of being blunt. Should Chris Wells find a need to explain his position on local blogs then I do not see why he should favour yours above any other.

    It is no great demand on their time for Government Ministers to keep up a constant stream of tweets and blogs. They have a Department of Officials to do it for them. I would imagine that a TDC Cabinet Member is not so fortunate. I would prefer they got on with the work rather than daily recounting their thoughts to the blogosphere.

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  11. Well it been two months now that the public entrusted UKIP to run TDC and in that time not a dicky bird from any of the cabinet. I remember the time when Chris Wells was only to please to comment across all of the local blogs with his own brand of what he though was fair comment. Many of the comment were just uncivil in nature. I remember him calling a local blogger a word which meant that the blogger was a contemptible, fawning person; a servile flatterer or toady. On this occasion the standards committee censored him.
    Maybe if Chris Wells is unable to tell the public of any progress on any of the issues that concern Thanet maybe he could tell us the outcome of the inquiry into cllr Braidwoods comments.

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  12. John I have tried to unscramble the first paragraph of your comment and can’t work out whether you think it was you that had been mislead or me.

    I guess by using google in the way I have suggested in my comment above you can confirm that Chris commented on most of the local blogs as and when they were active. It isn’t his lack of comment here that worries me so much as his lack of comment on social media everywhere that he used to comment.

    Dave, glad I am not the only one concerned about this.

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  13. At least the http://thanet.gov.uk/media/2601234/Draft-Statement-of-Accounts-14-15-30-June-2015.pdf for 2015 have appeared on the councils web site although the press release stating he public's rights to inspect and object has not yet appeared.
    There is a paragraph on the Royal sands stating that contract were exchanged in March but before completeing the council have to do some work starting in juy, with the contractor starting in October. I also not that the Thanet Ports have cost £3.9 to run in the last financial year, the Dreamland CPO compensation has still not been settled ( I cant unravel where the provision for this amount is) and Dreamland cost the council over £3 millions in contracts. Nothing about any cash spent on Manston reports or a provision to take a CPO forward.

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  14. Michael,

    You have gone into wriggle mode. I shall leave you with your concerns.

    Best of luck in raising your blog on the listings.

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  15. Dave I think port and harbour expenditure includes £2m for the live animal exports court case payout. Port Ramsgate seems to have lost £4m this figure doesn’t include Ramsgate Harbour which made a profit of £100k. as far as I can see they have about £700K in a special reserve for the Dreamland cpo.

    There will be a point in all of this when we can question the district auditor and the answers aren't protected by any sort of confidentiality clauses, I may use this to get some answers.

    Anyway I have bunged up a post with the basic info in your comment, thanks for posting it.

    John your statement "I may have misled into thinking that I was criticising Chris Wells" does beg the question; misled who? Without the answer I don’t have anything to wriggle with. I think you may have thought I was trying to be difficult, when I was just asking you to sort out your typo, so I could reply to you.

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  16. And to think that the council took expert legal advice when trying to ban live exports and still landed tax payers with this huge sum. I hope if they take up the PCW suggestion that they could have employed additional advice when pursuing a CPO partner is money well spent.
    Looking at CPO procedures it occurred to me that a CPO for an airport could only try and purchase that part of the former Manston site that is needed to run an airport. And has you have said before, its not just the land owners that can object. Its all 15,000 Ramsgate residents that would be affected by noise and pollution.

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  17. I think the advert placed by the pro-airport campaigners in the Extra, was thoroughly misleading. It says that the prospects for a CPO with no cost to the taxpayer are now very good. The prospects for a CPO are no different than they were a week, a month a year ago. Nothing has changed. The legal position remains that a CPO has little chance of succeeding. As for the claim about 'no cost to the taxpayer' we have to look at how much has been spent already. Conservative estimates of the officer time spent on this over the last year, suggest that the council has spent well over £500,000 of taxpayers' money to date, none of which is going to be coming back from Riveroak. And, as I'm typing this, there is no contract in place between TDC and Riveroak. Riveroak has not lodged funds in an escrow account. So how can anybody truthfully claim that the prospects for the taxpayer are good; we've already had to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds and we aren't going to be getting any of that money back.

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  18. The legal position remains that a CPO has every chance of succeeding. River Oak are good to their word.

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  19. You better explain why you think this John and maybe with your wisdom you can tell us how long a CPO would take and just how much of the former Manston Airport land would be needed by Riveroak to run a non passenger operation. The first stage in a CPO would be for Riveroak to make a formal offer to the current owners with guaranteed funds otherwise a CPO would be laughed out of court.

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  20. Morning Dave, You say that I had 'better' explain. Your curious remark has the tone of a threat, now surely that cannot be. Your reference to my wisdom is flattering, or are you just being rude, I suspect the latter. Whatever the case may be, my wisdom informs me that the circumstances of my position on Manston Airport are not subject to your approval. Therefore I need explain nothing.

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  21. As an ex civil servant your word is your bond hence the words have no meaning as the CPO is no further forward today.

    Are you privy to the boardroom of Riveroak and would you like to explain just why you believe Riveroak's word. Seeing as so far they have said nothing of importance and its hard to see just which part of Riveroak is putting pen to paper with their alleged business plan. Is it DeNardo or Freudmann who speaks for RO?

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  22. Barry James,

    Over the past few days you have displayed an obsession with my having once been a Civil Servant. Is this because you believe my previous employment offers you a lever with which to prise apart my argument. Very odd. At risk of being pedantic I was not strictly speaking a civil servant. Rather I was a member HM Diplomatic Service. There is difference. I even have a document from the Queen in which among other things she describes me, “as trusty and well beloved”. There you are Barry, some more ammunition for you. Don't say I never think of you.

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  23. Bless my sole so John thinks that a document showing him in a glowing light is worth mentioning on Michael's blog. The country is full of folk with glowing reference, gongs, knighthood and lordships from the Queen, many of who are, have been or should be in prison.
    But it does not solve the problem of whether a Manston CPO will be granted.
    First RiverOak have to make a viable bid for the land with secured funds otherwise the case will be laugh out of court. First they have to convince their investors to cough up on what could be a long drawn out affair. I guess if they win the CPO and the price is too rich they can just walk away leaving the first UKIP led council with egg on its face.

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  24. Dave, Are you truly so obtuse that you cannot recognise when someone is making fun of you. You take take yourself too seriously. I'm bored now. But before I go,are you suggesting that I am among those whom you declare have been or should be in prison?

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  25. Dave,

    Let's get something straight. It was Barry who introduced the subject of my employment. I did not do so. To be fair to Barry he concluded that I was a man of my word. He was probably taking the mick but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Not so you. On the basis of my employment you concluded that I have either been in prison or deserved to be. On the basis of this risible stance why should I give your opinion on Manston, or indeed anything else, serious consideration. Now tell me you were joking.

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  26. "My word is my bond" hence the many layered conversation that reveals nothing of the participant. I have met politicians that promise much until the vote is cast then ignore the voters. I presume those in the diplomatic service are much the same as they must hide their distain in an effort to be diplomatic.

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  27. Barry,

    In my experience showing HMG's disdain can sometimes advance your purpose. Though it should be done in such away as to build a ladder for the opposition to climb down. You will have noticed that I am no longer harnessed by such constraints. I am at liberty to say that the likes of LTP are vacuous bores [see his silly post above].

    Barry,

    The DS is not at all like the Ferror Rocher ads. It can be a bit rough at times. Being a specific target for terrorist attacks and violent crime does tend to diminish any glamour. Going up country to the aid of British Nationals who are in fear of their lives, with just cause, is no cocktail party.

    Overseas the conditioned hours are 24 hours a day 7 days a week, no overtime payments. Rather like HM Forces in this respect, including guns. One Sunday afternoon a British expat turned up at our flat. He explained that he would soon be in trouble with the police. He had just shot and killed two intruders. They had been sent to kill him by a his girlfriend's ex-lover. Similarly on another occasion I spent most of the night at the local nick assisting a British expat who had taken a few shots with a rifle at his wife's fleeing lover.

    When you first join the DS you're told that many important even famous people will want to talk to you, and that you should not run away with the idea that this is because of your own scintillating personality. They only want to talk to you because of what you represent. I kept this in mind. During my 30 years I met hundreds of interesting people from all walks of life, some famous and some not. I learned so much from just keeping quiet and listening to them. Just one example in Africa. I'd had a row with my wife and I felt down. I was walking past the shop of an elderly African that I knew and he asked me why I looked so miserable. I explained. He told me that I'd got it all wrong, wives were not difficult. He took me into the back of his shop and we sat down. He talked to me in a quiet voice. I cannot recall what he said, but I do know that he cheered me up, made me feel good. I could write at length about people that I met around the world, especially in India. However, you will be relieved to hear that I won't. Though I will name drop Ted Heath and Time Rice. Then of course before '89 there was the ubiquitous KGB officer, with fluent English and powerful charm who often sought you out and wanted to be your friend. All because of what you represent. Great fun.

    But most of all, Barry, the DS was fun both at work and play. There was always laughter. I feel fortunate and privileged to have been a part of it.

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  28. ‘pologies John LTP is a blog spammer of out of context comments – that I don’t have either the time or the inclination to check the accuracy of – containing links that invariably lead to sites plastered with advertising. LTP claimed to be Richard Card, which may or may not be the case, as Richard Card had his own blog and commented under his real name, which gave his comments some credibility, I can only say, make of that what you will. Whoever it is I would say if they had some degree of confidence in the accuracy of the comments they leave, they would publish the information on their own blog.

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  29. It's OK Michael. I know of LTP/Richard Card and am aware of his background and the reason why he does what he does. He is a pest in that he can get nasty. Though at times he may irritate me he does not have the ability to offend me bearing in mind that I hold his opinion worthless.

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  30. Thanks for your understanding John, I usually spam his comments from my mobile without reading them, I think the intensive drawing and roller skating over the weekend meant I didn’t have my eye properly on the ball, where the internet is concerned.

    Limping around in my bookshop today, with plenty of time between customers for social media.

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  31. Michael, I've heard that some women find a limp in a man sexy in a sinister sort of way. If you're interested I know a chap who can flog you a shoulder parrot.

    I used to skate at the old Dreamland Roller Rink in my youth. But I have long since given it up. Many years later I had a go at ice skating on the canal in Ottawa. It was not a success. The ice won.

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Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.